Zeppelin NT and keytech PLM - First Flight successfully completed
Construction of the fourth Zeppelin NT airship having recently been completed, the ship was handed over to the flight test department to begin the testing phase. The hangar doors opened and the airship left the 360 foot long hangar for the first time since the start of airframe assembly in March 2007.
With that No. 4 is the first project that was completely PLM or better is still managed by keytech. Of course after the first flight, keytech’s job continues. Further test flights will follow, Improvements will flow into the product. Additional licensing procedures will be necessary before the first passengers circle over the Golden Gate Bridge.
With the workflow in keytech PLM all these procedures are safe and processes were heavily accelerated. Every department is able to access all current data, documents and status information’s. Based on that, everyone can influence the process immediately. Of course, only if it is allowed by keytech PLM.
keytech PLM meet all these high claims of quality, not only internally, but also those of the responsible Authorities (i.e. “Luftfahrtbundesamt LBA” in Germany)
Robert Gritzbach, Zeppelin VP of engineering, commented: “After the prototype being the third ship in our series production, we were able to incorporate a number of design improvements – reducing weight while increasing lift and achieving a near doubling of airframe lifetime – that make this our finest ship to date!” A proud and long awaited moment for all involved, it is a special moment when a new airship exits the hangar for the first time.
In May of this year, Airship Ventures had announced successful completion of an $8 million Series Preferred Stock financing, which has allowed the company to finalize preparations for commencement of operations in the US this fall.
Additional optimizations line up also in keytech PLM. For example, the spare parts catalogue of No. 4 will be provided almost automatically based on data, documents and structures of keytech PLM. And it is not the smallest structure to handle. No.4 will have round about 44.000 Single parts structured in more than 4000 Assemblies.
ABOUT ZEPPELIN LUFTSCHIFFTECHNIK GMBH & CO. KG
Zeppelin Luftschifftechnik GmbH & Co. KG, headquartered in historic
Friedrichshafen, Germany, develops, manufactures and markets the Zeppelin NT, a modern lighter than air multi-purpose airship. Zeppelin NT airships are currently operating in Japan and Germany. In partnership with Deutsche Zeppelin-Reederei GmbH, a wholly owned subsidiary of Zeppelin Luftschifftechnik, a Zeppelin NT 07 has flown commercial air tours, advertising, and scientific missions throughout Europe since 1997.
ABOUT AIRSHIP VENTURES, INC.
Airship Ventures Inc., founded 2007 in California, is a privately owned corporation formed with the objective of bringing Zeppelin NT airships to the USA for “flightseeing” tours, media and science mission operations. Initially based with one ship in California, the company intends to eventually have a number of airships operating throughout the USA.
ABOUT KEYTECH SOFTWARE GMBH
Based on more than 15 years of product and project experience in the area of technical data management, the company of keytech was founded in 1993 and is today recognized as one of the leading providers of product lifecycle management systems.