Dan's Papers - April 10, 2009 - Zep to the Hamptons

With the current economic downturn, even the rich are finding they need to cut costs on their day-to-day expenses. Last year's 50-minute helicopter charter between 34th Street and the Hamptons could cost as much as $4,500 per charter if you were the only passenger. This year, with the price of gas down, it might be $3,900. It's still a lot.

What if you could take the same trip for half the price, without all the noise on board, with much more comfort and still get there in the same 50 minutes?

I propose Hampton Zeppelin. This is not a joke.

Turns out that in 1957, after the founder of the German Zeppelin, Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin, passed, it was found that he left much of his considerable fortune to endow the promotion and development of zeppelins. They are still making experimental zeppelins in Germany. And last year, one of these factories got government approval from the equivalent of the German FAA to commercially sell the newly designed model Zeppelin NT, which is 250-feet long, 60-feet tall, powered by four nearly silent Rolls Royce propeller engines that sit at the end of stalks on each side of the gas enclosure and, by computer control, swivel rudders to fight the wind and keep the zep stable. Model NT is capable of carrying 12 passengers in the height of luxury in a teak and leather passenger compartment beneath the helium filled fuselage. It is capable of going 125 miles an hour, 10 mph more going downwind, 10 mph less going into it. And it can descend vertically to the ground the same way that a British Harrier Jet can. The passengers then walk down a four-step gangway to a red carpet and a ride home.

One NT is in Japan, where a company is already floating tourists around over Tokyo. Another has been sold to a British company called Airship Ventures which next month will begin to offer one hour floats over London for the equivalent of $400. And they are currently making plans to offer a similar experience for the San Francisco Bay area by the end of next year.

It's not rocket science to imagine how this might work for travel out to the Hamptons either this summer or next.

There have been, since the 1950s, three places in the Hamptons where helicopters can land or take off. They are on the runways at the East Hampton Airport and the Gabreski Airport in Westhampton, and at a small circular helicopter pad in Southampton on Meadow Lane, very near to the end of that peninsula on the north side.

In Manhattan, choppers take off from the Wall Street helicopter pad and the 34th Street helicopter and seaplane pad on the East River. A zeppelin could be based at either of these, though I would agree that when searching for a Manhattan location there might be objections from neighbors who fear it might block their view. The zep is as large as a 25-story building on its side. On the other hand, with fees paid to the City, with the support of the helicopter companies that might see this as a welcome addition to their chopper businesses, with the implications about lack of noise, environmental considerations (helium, which is non-flammable, gets put into the fuselage exactly once and then stays there indefinitely), with the ability for the zep to negotiate easily to the ground, with the cachet of having a zep in the city and with the opportunities for quiet eco-friendly travel to the Hamptons in less than an hour, I suspect it could be worked out.

If successful, it might reduce or even end a long running battle between the helicopter owners and the residents of Long Island and the Hamptons regarding helicopter traffic noise. The towns have tried to pass laws to have them take a longer route over Long Island Sound, and fly over 2,500 feet before having to come down to land. But the chopper owners correctly claim it would cost more gas and time to do that.

And the towns have found that local town laws take a back seat to FAA laws, and the FAA, though not unsympathetic to town concerns, has not been amenable to these requests and has not followed up with any more binding laws.

(During this controversy, the mayor of Glen Cove famously said, "If a chopper pilot could save five minutes by flying through your front door and out your back door, he would do that." It was a bit of an exaggeration, but you get the idea.)

The zeppelin would fix that problem. And it would be a gentler and more elegant way to fly.

I even know how the zep service could be promoted. The luxury car company Maybach this week announced a new model called the Maybach Zeppelin. It is named that to put people in mind of its German heritage and of the luxurious travel in zeppelins back in the 1930s before the Hindenberg Disaster in New Jersey ended that form of travel with a bang. (The ill-fated Hindenberg had been filled with hydrogen for the flight from Berlin to New York. Helium, which is not flammable, was in short supply. So hydrogen, which can explode violently, was used in its place.)

The promotion I have in mind would be a great Manhattan to East Hampton zeppelin race, to be held each Memorial Day weekend to promote both services.

The new Maybach Zeppelin goes from zero to 60 in 5.3 seconds, packs 632 horsepower, has a top speed of 171 miles an hour - it could go faster, but they have a governor on it to prevent it from doing so for safety reasons - and costs $610,000. It also has a cockpit perfume-spraying device whereby you press a button and your favorite fragrance is puffed into the air of the passenger compartment. Buy one and they give you a puff bottle worth $5,000.

Both the Maybach and the zep leave Manhattan at the same time. Whoever gets to the East Hampton Airport first wins.

The zep would float along silently, at a stately, but brisk, pace, about 1,000 feet above Long Island. Those below would love watching it going by above. Those above would love sightseeing what is below. And inside the luxury compartment, everybody would have a great time, enjoy crudites and champagne, which would be almost guaranteed not to spill, read a book, work on a laptop or listen to an iPod, and get to the East Hampton airport while the Maybach was still struggling with a traffic jam at Exit 61 on the LIE.

Hooray for zepping to the Hamptons. And no, I don't think it would be a good promotion to race it with a helicopter, even if it loses.