Zeppelin Eureka, dont call me a blimp! (4361930046)

Katharine Board, known as Kate Board, is an English pilot, the world's first female qualified

Zeppelin A Zeppelin is a type of rigid airship named after the German inventor Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin () who pioneered rigid airship development at the beginning of the 20th century. Zeppelin's notions were first formulated in 1874Eckener 1938, pp ...

pilot. She started to learn to fly when her father gave her five hours of flying lessons for her 19th birthday, and after this worked at her local flying club, being paid in flying time. Her first flying job was with

Virgin Balloon Flights Virgin Balloon Flights, with headquarters in Telford, Shropshire, began flying hot air balloons in 1994 and its passengers are still flown in red and white balloons with the Virgin Group logo on the side of the balloon. Virgin Balloon Flights ...

, and Virgin subsequently offered her a job flying

blimp A blimp, or non-rigid airship, is an airship (dirigible) without an internal structural framework or a keel. Unlike semi-rigid and rigid airships (e.g. Zeppelins), blimps rely on the pressure of the lifting gas (usually helium, rather than hydr ...

s, for which she trained at

Kissimmee, Florida Kissimmee ( ) is the largest city and county seat of Osceola County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 79,226. It is a Principal City of the Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford, Florida, Metropolitan Statistical Area, wh ...

, in the United States. In 2005 she was flying an American Blimp Corporation A-60+ for Lightship Group, and was one of only about 100 active

airship An airship or dirigible balloon is a type of aerostat or lighter-than-air aircraft that can navigate through the air under its own power. Aerostats gain their lift from a lifting gas that is less dense than the surrounding air. In early ...

pilots in the United States. She had logged about 3,000 flying hours, of which only 250 hours was in planes, the remainder in airships. By 2011 Board was working for

Airship Ventures Airship Ventures Inc. was a private company that offered sight-seeing rides (which the company called "flightseeing") in a 12-passenger Zeppelin NT out of a World War II United States Navy hangar at Moffett Federal Airfield near Mountain View, Ca ...

who offered "Zeppelin tours of San Francisco Bay, Los Angeles and the Monterey Coast" in their craft ''Eureka'', and she was described as the only female

pilot in the world. She had logged more than 5,000 flight hours and was certified by the

CAA CAA may refer to: Law * Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 of India ** Citizenship Amendment Act protests, Protests regarding the Citizenship (Amendment) Act * Copyright transfer agreement, Copyright assignment agreement, to transfer copyright to ...

, LBA and

FAA The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is the largest transportation agency of the U.S. government and regulates all aspects of civil aviation in the country as well as over surrounding international waters. Its powers include air traffic m ...

as a commercial airship pilot. By 2012 she had left Airship Ventures to fly a Zeppelin based at

Friedrichshafen Friedrichshafen ( or ; Low Alemannic: ''Hafe'' or ''Fridrichshafe'') is a city on the northern shoreline of Lake Constance (the ''Bodensee'') in Southern Germany, near the borders of both Switzerland and Austria. It is the district capital (''Kre ...

, Germany, the only other Zeppelin still flying. A second woman, American Andrea Deyling, qualified as a Zeppelin pilot that year.

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