A big, silent, white airship hovered over the San Francisco cityscape, causing a lot of people on social media to wonder and be shocked on Tuesday morning, . People in the area filmed the huge plane, which was said to be visible not just above San Francisco but far across the Bay in Oakland and on the west end of Alameda.
Lighter Than Air (LTA) Research created and built the mystery aircraft, which was identified as Pathfinder 1, a prototype rigid airship. CĆ©sar ConcepciĆ³n Salza, a content creator, posted a video on Instagram that showed the big white object gently coming out from behind a tall building. This made him ask, “What is this in the San Francisco sky today?”
Pathfinder 1’s Mission: Zero Emissions The Future
Pathfinder 1 is not like a normal airship at all. It is a very advanced, experimental airplane that Google co-founder Sergey Brin has paid for. He has put a lot of money into LTA Research. The company’s main goal is to “launch the next generation of zero-emission airships” to change how people and goods travel. The airship is meant to be a cleaner and more environmentally friendly way to move people and things.
Important information regarding the Pathfinder 1:
Size: It is about 124 meters (400 feet) long, which makes it one of the biggest planes in the world by volume.
Design: It is a rigid airship, which means that it keeps its shape with a fixed internal structure constructed of materials such welded titanium and carbon fiber, rather than just the pressure of the lifting gas (like a blimp). It is the first rigid airship to fly since the German Zeppelins of the 1930s.
Power: It has twelve electric motors that move it and a high-tech fly-by-wire system that controls it.
Purpose: LTA Research is said to have flown over San Francisco as part of a research on how to use airships for cargo and transportation.
Moffett Federal Airfield in Mountain View is where the airship lives. The official LTA Research website says that Pathfinder 1’s first free flight outside of Moffett airspace took place in May. This was a big step forward in the development of lighter-than-air technology. Its latest flight over the city shows that there is a desire to test the craft in more real-world situations.