Google co-founder Sergey Brin’s secretive project to build a massive electric airship is rapidly expanding, as his Lighter Than Air research firm preparesFirst large test flight later this year.
▲ Pathfinder 1 airship
Currently, Brin is hiring hundreds of aeronautical engineers in Silicon Valley and at a location in Akron, Ohio, known for its Goodyear blimps, to build blimps for humanitarian missions to remote areas or disaster areas.
LTA was founded in 2014, while Brin resigned as an executive at Google parent Alphabet in 2019. LTA is headquartered at Moffett Airport in the San Francisco Bay Area, a facility owned by NASA and a short drive from Google’s headquarters. NASA began leasing the facility to LTA in 2015.
LTA hopes to use “zero emission“Fly to reinvent airships for the 21st century. The company’s first full-size airship is”Pathfinder 1(Pathfinder 1), which is 120 meters long and is scheduled to begin test flights in Silicon Valley this year. Meanwhile, LTA is also developing a larger airship at the Akron dock: Pathfinder 3. It will be 185 meters long and will be available by next year. When complete, it will eventually be able to carry 96 tons and have a range of up to 10,000 miles (16,000 kilometers). In the coming months, LTA’s recruitment drive in Akron will double the company’s workforce to More than 400 people.
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