Zeppelin

Most Expensive Bottle of Beer Fetches Over $16,000 At Auction

A bottle of beer rescued from the crash of the Hindenburg recently sold at auction for over $16,000 according to This is Wiltshire in the UK. This is significantly above the estimate placed on the bottle of $4,000 - $8,000. The airship crashed on May 6, 1937 over Lakehurst, New Jersey where the bottle and other memorabilia was found by fire Chief Leroy Smith at the scene of the disaster.

Apparently the fire chief found a total of six scorched bottles and a pitcher at the scene. He buried his treasures and then came back afterward to dig them up and hand them out as souvenirs to his colleagues. No one knows where the other bottles are located except for one, which chief Smith gave to the Lowenbrau brewery in 1977, where it remains today. He kept one bottle and the pitcher, which bears the logo of the Deutsche Zeppelin Reedrei airline that operated the Hindenburg. Both pieces are scorched and were sold with letters of provenance and an account of how the items were acquired.

Auctioneer Andrew Aldridge of the British auction house Henry Aldridge and Sons has been quoted as saying "It is the most valuable bottle of beer ever sold." Even though one can still see the contents of the Lowenbrau bottle, the remnants of the beer would be undrinkable. The auction house specializes in relics of disaster and has been the largest auctioneer of memorabilia from the Titanic.

Tags: beer, Henry Aldridge and Sons, HenryAldridgeAndSons, Hindenburg, Hindenburg beer, HindenburgBeer, Lowenbrau, Zeppelin

Maybach Revives Zeppelin Nameplate with Super-luxe Limo

by Noah Joseph (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Luxury Cars & Autos

In 1997, Mercedes-Benz entered the top echelon of the luxury market by reviving the long dormant Maybach brand. In the dozen years that have followed, Maybach hasn't quite matched the success of arch-rival BMW's Rolls-Royce division or the Volkswagen Group's Bentley asset, so at the upcoming Geneva Auto Salon, Maybach will reach into its history and pull another defunct luxury nameplate in the hope of attracting more customers.

Called the Zeppelin, the top-of-the-line Maybach trim level is based on the existing 57 S and 62 S models and upgrades on them with a series of extra special luxury touches. Exterior differentiations are kept to a minimum – largely restricted to darker wheels and tail-lamps – while inside the luxuriously appointed cabin, the Zeppelin gets special beige leather upholstery with contrasting black stitching, piano lacquer black trim, silver champagne flutes and a unique acrylic fragrance dispenser. The super-luxe Zeppelin will sell for €406,000 (about $525,000) in 57-decimeter length and €473,200 ($612,000) for the 62-decimeter model, and will be limited to 100 models...if they can manage to sell that many.

Gallery: Maybach Zeppelin

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Tags: geneva, geneva auto salon, geneva motor show, GenevaAutoSalon, GenevaMotorShow, maybach, maybach 57 zeppelin, maybach 62 zeppelin, maybach geneva, maybach zeppelin, Maybach57Zeppelin, Maybach62Zeppelin, MaybachGeneva, MaybachZeppelin, mercedes-benz, zeppelin

Tour The Bay Area In A Zeppelin

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Wings

Way back in 2004, Neiman Marcus offered a personal airship for sale from German company Zeppelin Luftschifftechnik GmbH. Now just one of the three zeppelins in the world is available for sightseeing trips. A zeppelin has an internal framework covered with a canvas filled with the lifting gas while a blimp gets its shape from the lifting gas itself. The Airship Ventures Zeppelin is, at 246-foot-long the largest airship in the world. It will have a permanent home in California's Bay Area where it will offer quiet cruises at 35 to 40 mph for $500 a ticket. Each journey will carry just 12 passengers. While this may not be the best time to launch such a pricey venture, the investors are hopeful that the area's many tourists will be interested in getting this unique experience of the California landscape.

[via Gadling]

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Tags: airship ventures, AirshipVentures, bay area, BayArea, flight, san francisco, SanFrancisco, zeppelin

De Beers Grounds Their Diamond-Hunting Airship

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Jewelry

Two years ago I wrote about the start of De Beers attempts to use a zeppelin to detect diamonds in Botswana. The experiment is now at an end. The airship has been permanently grounded by De Beers after heavy winds shook the ship from its mooring near the Jwaneng mine injuring its crew. The zeppelin was too badly damaged to be put back to work and De Beers has decided to use other methods of diamond exploration.

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Tags: airship, botswana, de beers, DeBeers, zeppelin