The zeppelin, used for commercial passenger transport and military operations until the beginning of World War II, is back, this time over Bay Area skies. Airship Ventures Inc., a California company, plans to offer aerial tours of the San Francisco Bay Area in a newly built zeppelin.

The zeppelin arrived in the Bay Area on Saturday, passing over the Golden Gate Bridge en route to its new home at Moffett Field, about 40 miles south of San Francisco. It was built in Hamburg, Germany and transported by container ship to Beaumont, Texas, before cross-country flight to California.

Fifteen feet longer than a Boeing 747, the 246-foot-long Zeppelin NT (New Technology) will fly with 12 passengers onboard starting Friday offering views of Napa and Sonoma wine country, the Big Sur coastline, San Francisco and other parts of the Bay Area. Tickets start at $495 per person for a one-hour ride.

“It's a way to see the world in a way that you haven't experienced it before. In a zeppelin, you're flying low and slow. You're going at a leisurely pace. You're seeing things that you wouldn't see from the road,” said Brian Hall, a software entrepreneur who started the company last year with his wife, Alexandra.

The company’s plans however don’t end here, as it has already ordered two more zeppelins intended to offer tours on the East Coast, most likely from New York and Florida, starting in 2010.

Zeppelins were invented by Ferdinand von Zeppelin of Germany in the late 19th century. By 1937, the zeppelin’s golden era ended when the LZ-129 Hindenburg caught fire and burst into flames in Lakehurst, New Jersey. Thirty-five of 97 people on board were killed then. The modern version is kept aloft by nonflammable helium.

Currently, there are only two other zeppelins in the world, in Germany and Japan.