back to article Apprentice contestant to offer Zeppelin trips above London

Those seeking to relive the experience of World War I zeppelin crews mounting early bombing raids against London will soon be able to do so, according to reports. Tourist airship flights over the capital are scheduled to begin in June, using vessels manufactured by the company which built the original zeppelins. The Times …

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  1. Nick

    I Am... Your Boss

    "I am - your boss"

    "You're nothing to me"

  2. micheal
    Joke

    But best remember

    to insure the nursing home inhabitants first, imagine some senile old fart in regression start's taking shots at them? thinking they're back in the blitz

  3. Chris Williams
    IT Angle

    Zeppelin trips above London?

    You could make it more exciting by aiming massive spotlights at them and buzzing them with Sopwith Camels.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Joke

    Can't resist... Monty Python reference...

    It's not a balloon! D'you hear?... It's not a balloon ... It's an airship ... an airship ... d'you hear?

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Weather

    I guess that the zepplin will not fly during wet and windy days.

    So it looks like it will only fly for about 5 days out of the year :)

  6. James
    Alert

    Building sites?

    Quote "They will be able to take in all the sites as it goes over the River Thames."

    I assume these are the building sites for the Olympics - can't wait !!

  7. Grant
    Dead Vulture

    Already over Tokyo

    Zeppelins have been flying over Tokyo since last fall. I am guessing the vulture fact checker for this story went through one of the engines and ended up as my icon.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    Does this mean...

    ...that having been fired, the person will now be highered?

    Yes, I know. Coat ---> door...

  9. David Haworth

    @Weather

    > I guess that the zepplin will not fly during wet and windy days.

    I don't see why not? zeppelins can fly a lot faster than most people give them credit for and the zeppelin NT tops out at about 80mph, preferring to cuise at about 45-50 I would think. It would have to be fairly windy in london to make the airship completely unsafe, though they'll have a fair margin of error there. still, in winds up to 20-30mph they'd probably be okay. and 30mph winds are fairly strong...

    dave

  10. dav

    What would happen if

    the Zeppelins get hijacked and flown into the Gherkin?

  11. Ian Ferguson
    Thumb Down

    Not original looking

    Having had a look at the company's website, they're essentially just blimps. There are plenty of other companies that fly sight-seeing blimps. They don't look anything like the WWII-era scary things.

    Obviously these will do well because they have the Zeppelin brand name, but it would be far cooler if they were modelled after the original Zeppelins.

    As a matter of interest - did the original Zeppelins really mount bombing raids? I would have thought they'd just be used on spying trips; think about how heavy bombs would be.

  12. andy gibson
    Coat

    Zeppelin NT

    We should be ok, so long as they're not replaced by Zeppelin Vistas, which will be so bloated they won't take off.

    Mine's the one with inbuilt parachute.

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    @Ian Ferguson

    The airships of the time were capable of carrying much more weight than any plane ever made to date. The US even experimented with using airships as aircraft carriers.

  14. Dave Bell

    Zeppelins over London

    http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Lighter_than_air/zeppelin/LTA8.htm

    Yes, they dropped bombs.

  15. tim

    @ dav

    made cheese and bacon roll come out my nose

  16. Someone

    Ouch

    Zeppelin... Fired... Hindenburg... Lewis’s most cutting joke to date?

  17. Doug
    Paris Hilton

    Bombing raids

    @Ian Ferguson - they definitely were used for bombing raids. Not a massive payload but enough to scare the living daylights out of the poor buggers on the ground. Real blow to morale too.

    Presumably you would get a good view of the Dome? Easy target to hit...<evil_laugh> and there's 10 downing street....and no.11....wait...there's all of Whitehall....</evil_laugh>

    Paris, cos the Zeppelin has a higher IQ.

  18. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    Sorry

    'Semi-rigid'

    Fnar Fnar

  19. Paul

    Why Zeppelin?

    Until about 5 years ago I used to live in Biggleswade and would regularly see 'Zeppelins' flying about. They were made by a company based in the old R101 hanger at Cardington.

    Are they still in business? If so, why are Zeppelins being imported?

  20. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Aerial death from the EU

    "As a matter of interest - did the original Zeppelins really mount bombing raids? "

    Oh yes

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeppelin#During_World_War_I

    my $coat->get('it');

  21. Chris Williams
    Boffin

    @Ian Ferguson

    Ian,

    Yes, Zeppelins did mount bombing raids: they made several appearances over London and made some significant raids on maritime centres on the East Coast of England during the First World War.

  22. Solomon Grundy

    @Ian Ferguson

    Yes the original zeppelins mounted bombing raids - quite successfully too.

    As far as weight you've got to remember that the original zeppelins were absolutely super huge - far bigger than the wee blimps of today. With a skeleton crew instead of passengers they could carry an impressive payload of munitions.

  23. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    Hate to be pedantic....

    @ Michael - But best remember

    The blitz was world war 2, zeppelins were used during world war 1.

    http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/02/04/uktv_history/

  24. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    @Ian Ferguson

    Yup, Zeppelins were used to bomb the UK, France and Belgium between 1915 and 1918.

    They were a huge propaganda success - the thought of Germans attacking the enemy capital was wildly popular in Germany and produced near panic in the UK. But the raids were little more than a nuisance in terms of the damage they did - about 500 people were killed in Britain by Zeppelins throughout the war.

    The biggest problem for the Germans was their navigation, they rarely found their intended targets and even when the did, precision bombing was impossible. The Zeppelins were soon outclassed by improved planes with incendiary bullets, forcing them to fly even higher which made them even less useful.

    Perhaps surprisingly, by the end of the war bomb loads were in the tonnes - far higher than the aircraft of the time. But the cost of the Zeppelins and their fragility made them obsolete as the Germans, including the Zeppelin company, developed long-range multi-engined bomber planes.

    Zeppelins did do a bit of reconnaissance for the German fleet and for the army over the Western front, but incredibly no one seems to have thought of using them in association with U-boats to find Allied convoys and direct attacks.

  25. Lester Wade
    Paris Hilton

    .... not you too!

    @Ian Ferguson

    quote - They don't look anything like the WWII-era scary things.

    Thats because they were used in World War 1;

    http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/02/04/uktv_history/

  26. Richard

    Not the first attempt...

    A few years ago another company was doing this over London (using a British-built blimp, as I recall) but the service only ran for a year or two (sort of fizzled out rather than went with a bang?).

  27. David Paul Morgan
    Coat

    Are they environmentally friendly?

    As they are neutral or lighter than air, would modern Zeppelins be suitable for trans-atlantic cruising with a better passenger/fuel ratio than a jet plane or a cruise ship? Could run them on peanut diesel or hydrogen!?

    Mine's the one with the 'oh the humanity' slogan on the back

  28. Graham Marsden
    Alien

    I hope that...

    ... they're not going to call the company Cybus Industries.

    Next thing you know they'll be introducing a metal exo-skeleton "upgrade" for the human body...!

  29. alyn
    Paris Hilton

    You missed the obvious reference

    Paris - because she looks like the dead heat in a Zeppelin race!!

  30. Nicholas Wright
    Coat

    Helium?

    Why helium? Surely they just need to save all that hot air from the boardroom....

  31. alyn
    Joke

    Or methane

    Put sauerkraut on the menu and the passengers can generate enough methane

  32. Johnny FireBlade
    Joke

    @ dav

    "What would happen if the Zeppelins get hijacked and flown into the Gherkin?"

    Lots of city workers with high pitched voices?

  33. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    @dav

    "What would happen if the Zeppelins get hijacked and flown into the Gherkin?"

    we get a slightly more tasteful skyline

  34. Hugh Fiske
    Paris Hilton

    @alyn

    Paris is more like a dead heat in a peanut race. Kelly Brook on the other hand..

  35. JCL

    @dav

    Going that slowly and being only semi-rigid I suspect they might bounce off :)

  36. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    @Mike Richards

    "But... their fragility made them obsolete..."

    Quite true, when a grappling hook lowered from a Camel flying along the Zeppelin's spine was enough to bring it down...

  37. Andy Barber
    IT Angle

    Zeppelin raid spoilt my Breakfast

    I was having a Breakfast down a side street in Croydon, when a copper (a Policeman) came in & told us an unexploded Zeppelin bomb had been found next door & told us all to get out NOW. I got no re-fund! This was about 1980.

    IT angle? I worked (still do!) for BT (OK ,it was Post Office Telecom's then.)

  38. Allan Dyer
    Black Helicopters

    @Ian Ferguson

    "did the original Zeppelins really mount bombing raids?"

    Yes, my dad recalled seeing one over Portsmouth in WWI, nicely illuminated with searchlights. Being 2 or 3 at the time, he found the unusual nighttime excursion and the sight of the shiny cigar thing in the sky as the family fled in terror great fun.

    @Chris Williams

    "made some significant raids on maritime centres on the East Coast of England during the First World War."

    and also the South Coast.

  39. Dr Patrick J R Harkin
    Joke

    People worry because of the Hindenberg

    but these craft will contain helium, not hydrogen, so when they crash they won't burst into flames. Instead, they'll spill helium, meaning the passengers will be be able to call for help from any passing bats.

    Or do a Bee Gees "It's a tragedy" tribute on the way down.

    I've used the "Joke" icon because I'm not being totally serious here. I hope you realise theat.

  40. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    @Johnny Fireblade

    Thanks, I just snorted out my cola cos of picturing that...

    Also, lets hope these last till Red Alert 3 is released- we might see promotional Kirovs hovering over London!

    Eejit or not on The Apprentice, I am so going to go book tickets on this thing!

  41. Fluffykins Silver badge

    @dav

    That would cause, oh, millions of pounds worth of improvement.

  42. Daniel B.

    Kirov Airships

    If they're doing Zeppelins, I'd expect them to do the other classic: Kirov Airships. I may have not lived the Zeppelin era, but those would bring fear when flying towards my base!

    Mine's the one with the Chronoshift Commando badge.

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