Saturday, December 3, 2016

Two women pilots for Zeppelin craft

I've been researching women balloonists. From 1890 to 1900, at least one woman balloonist (they'd work at fairs and would go up in balloons only to perform on a trapeze underneath the balloon and then jump by parachute 2,000 feet to the ground.)

From there I segued to doing a bit of research on dirigibles (so called because "dirigible" is French for "direction," and being able to direct a dirigible via engine and steering apparatus is what differentiates a hot air or hydrogen balloon from a dirigible).

As of 2012 when this article was written, there were two female Zeppelin pilots in the world, one in the United States and one in Germany:

From General Aviation News, June 14, 2012 by : America’s first female Zeppelin pilot takes off
Andrea Deyling has joined Airship Ventures in the San Francisco Bay area as an airship pilot, becoming America’s first female Zeppelin pilot. A licensed LTA pilot, Deyling has been training on the Zeppelin Eureka since November 2011 and officially earned her Zeppelin qualification this month.  
In climbing into the left seat of the world’s largest passenger airship, Deyling becomes the 22nd pilot qualified to fly the Zeppelin NT. There is only one other female pilot in this elite group, Katharine Board, who had previously piloted Eureka and now pilots a Zeppelin NT in Germany.
Sadly, as I just learned when I checked out Airship Ventures website,  the company ceased operations six months later.

They have a legacy site: Airship Ventures.





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