Dreams Take Flight

Keynote by Alan Weston

In 2023, the Hiller Aviation Museum welcomes Dr. Alan Weston, CEO of LTA Research.  A longtime contributor to research projects funded by the Department of Defense, NASA, and the United States Air Force, Dr. Weston today leads LTA Research in a bid to re-invent rigid dirigible airships for use in humanitarian relief missions.  First developed on a large scale by Ferdinand von Zeppelin at the dawn of the 20th century, these airships used enormous cells containing hydrogen or helium to generate lift and could be over 800′ long, comparable in size to an ocean liner.  Graf Zeppelin 2, the last of the German rigid dirigibles, made its final flight in August 1939 – just before the onset of World War II.

Under Dr. Weston’s leadership, LTA has used the cavernous space of Hangar 2 at historic Moffett Field to fabricate Pathfinder 1, the first rigid dirigible built since the 1930s.  At over 400′ long, this testbed is twice the length of blimps and semi-rigid Zeppelin airships used in recent years for sightseeing flights and marketing missions.  Propelled by distributed electric motors able to recharge using solar panels, Pathfinder 1 will pave the way for production airships more than twice as large and capable of carrying large cargoes quickly into areas with minimal working transport infrastructure.

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