Tuesday, Sept. 1 — This blimp was seen flying over the Bay this morning. It doesn’t say “Goodyear” or have any kind of advertising on it. At the Post, we’re trying to find out more about it. If you know anything, email us at [email protected] or call (650) 328-7700.
Moffett Field in Mountain View served as a major operational hub for U.S. Navy airships during World War II.
Lighter-than-air aviation returned to the Bay in late 2025. Backed by Google co-founder Sergey Brin, Silicon Valley startup LTA Research began test flights of the Pathfinder 1 over Moffett Field and the Bay.
Update, Wednesday, Sept. 2 — Like it had flown out of an old photograph, a 406-foot-long white zeppelin has been spotted flying around the area over the last week.
Post readers have spotted the airship over the last week, spotting it while biking on the Bay Trail and driving on the Dumbarton Bridge.
The ship is a Pathfinder 1, a dirigible that is in the air thanks to a startup backed by Google co-founder billionaire Sergey Brin.
Company LTA Research, based at Moffett Field in Mountain View, has been performing tests, with flight tracker website FlightAware catalouging flights by the zeppelin since last Tuesday. The airship was out for its longest flight yesterday, for about five hours.
Examples of what LTA is testing with the airship include handling, ground operations, structural performance, propulsion and thrust and onboard systems, according to a statement the company issued on Aug. 20. An LTA airship was spotted in San Francisco in November, the Chronicle reported..
Ultimately, LTA plans to build a larger, 650-foot airship to be used for humanitarian aid and sustainable travel, but is testing out the smaller edition for now, according to the company’s website.
Brin in 2017 planned to use a system of internal gas bladders to control its buoyancy, allowing his airship to drop off supplies anywhere in the world, according to sources at the time.
In 2015, a subsidiary of Google, Planetary Ventures LLC, took over Moffett Field’s Hangars Two and Three, a flight operations building, two runways and a private golf course, in addition to the historic Hangar One.
It’s the Himdenberg. Oh, the humanity!
I don’t know either, but snapped a photo of it from the trails near the Palo Alto Airport on Aug. 26 at 1 PM. It was over the bay, toward the E. side.
I contacted Xi Jinping on TicToc and he confirmed the airship is his and it’s just doing a little sightseeing.
If it was Xi Junping’s blimp, don’t you think Winnie the Pooh would be painted on the side?
It’s been around for several years now. Based out of Hanger 2 at Moffett Field.
ltaresearch.com pathfinder out of Moffett
It’s a Zeppelin with a semi-rigid internal structure, not a blimp with no internal structure.