Google co-founder Sergey Brin is secretly building the world’s largest airship at a cost of up to $150 million to serve both as the ultimate luxury yacht and rapid transit for remote natural disasters.
Breitbart News reported that with Americans gathered across the nation to honor our veterans and a new Cold War ramping up again, NASA Ames Research Center announced that it was leasing the 1,000 acre Moffett Airfield in Silicon Valley to Google for the next 60 years, on November 11, 2014.
Google’s Planetary Ventures LLC press release stated the company would contribute $1.16 billion to improve the usability of the facility’s two 9,197-foot-long runways and repurpose its three 800 feet long airship hangars to serve as development laboratories for Internet-carrying balloons, robots, rovers and other cutting-edge-tech initiatives.
But sources told the Guardian this week that Brin is building the largest aircraft in the world. Expected to be over 600-foot long, it is being constructed in the same Hangar Two that housed the 800 feet long by 90 feett wide helium-inflated United States Navy Macon (ZRS-5) in the 1930s.
The monstrous balloon was described as a flying aircraft carrier, because carried F9C-2 Curtiss Sparrowhawk biplanes that could be launched and recovered in flight. The Macron crashed and sank in the ocean off Big Sur in 1935.
The sources told the Guardian that the $100-150 million luxury air yacht will provide the ultimate intercontinental transportation for Brin’s friends and family. As the rumors of the project began to filter out, Brin emailed, “Sorry, I don’t have anything to say about this topic right now.” But his publicist reassured the Guardian that the yacht would be made available for social justice missions, such as delivering food and emergency supplies.
But Breitbart News wonders if the project may also serve as a prototype in the race to develop hybrid dirigibles that can disruptively transport personnel and equipment for military and commercial purposes into remote areas regardless of the season or the available road, rail, or airport infrastructure.
Lockheed Martin’s Hybrid Enterprises for 20 years has been developing modern airship technology and has been flying its P-791 demonstrator for the last 10 years. The company completed all required FAA certification planning steps to launch a new class of aircraft to support mining, mobile medical care, oil and gas production, remote logistics, patrol, and surveillance. Lockheed-Martin in March 2016 announced a letter of intent with Straightline Aviation for 12 larger LMH1 airships, valued at $480 million.
It is also expected that within the next three decades, the modern cruise ship will be a noiseless airship. A YouTube video by designer Eric Almas envisions huge airships with transparent tops that will let people sunbathe and swim during flight and then land anywhere in the oceans.