This is what Air Ship Ventures has achieved literally:

Airship Ventures, a privately held corporation formed to bring Zeppelin NT airship operations to the USA, today announced that it had closed its Series A Preferred Stock financing on Monday with investments from six individuals. Terms of the financing were not disclosed.

Brian Hall, President of Airship Ventures, commented "Achieving this significant milestone allows us complete our acquisition of the Zeppelin NT and to finalize preparations for commencing airship operations in the fall."

I remember Cargolifter from the last bubble. The company raised 100+ million with teh promise to build airships that could be used us ultra heavy lifters for construction projects (like pipelines). However the company had to shut down before the first commercial launch was ever done.

Airship Ventures seems more modest and 'down to earth' (well, I hope that means no bad luck here). Moffett Field is just 5 minutes away from our offices so we'll certainly give you a live review if we can afford the flights.

Also interesting to be noted - Moffett Field has a long history as an airship base back into teh 1930's. Read this. Many major airships from around the world came here.