Dr. Pete Worden, NASA Ames Research Director and Don Hartsell, WAL Commissioner Kenneth Laubsch, Boeing Program Manager SkyHook; John Melton, Senior Engineer NASA Ames Research Center; Dr. Ananthakrishna Sarma, Senior Research Scientist Center for Atmospheric Physics SAIC

Brian Hall, President Airship Ventures

NASA Space Act Partnership to Provide Green Aviation Technology Validation for Lighter-than-Air Craft

August 13-17, 2009

MOFFETT FIELD, CALIFORNIA - In a series of meetings at NASA Ames Research Center, representatives for NASA and the World Air League agreed to create a Space Act Agreement partnership. The purpose of the partnership is to:

• Update the technical manuals and field test Underway Replenishment capabilities to support Lighter than Air (LTA) transoceanic crossings.
  
• Design operational procedures for protecting the environment.
  
• Establish standardized procedures for universal LTA vehicular usage.
  
• Test meteorological modeling to maximize fuel efficiencies for long-duration LTA transits.
  
• Establish the environmental projections for future LTA commerce.

The initial participants in the developing the program will be NASA Ames Research Center, Science Applications International Corporation, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and the World Air League.

Adding to the trip to visit NASA, it provided an opportunity to experience the luxury of flying on the Eureka in tourism operations over Monterey Bay. Based in the historic airship hangers at Moffett Field, Eureka is the newest Zeppelin NT and is the pride and flagship of Airship Ventures.

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