VA-NOMAD is a virtual airship crossing Europe in real time, from the southern tip of the continent towards the far north. Every flight is filmed as one uninterrupted take at true scale, so a two-hour journey takes exactly two hours to watch. It is a slow, calm way to feel how big the world really is, made for anyone who cannot travel themselves. Season 1, the Continental Crossing, began in Tarifa, Spain, on 27 July 2026.
[SESSION LOG: VA-F019]
- Total distance covered
- 2,845.28 km
- Total legs completed
- 20 (incl. VA-F005a)
- Current position
- Nantes, FR
The Three Iron Rules
011:1 SCALE
Every kilometre is flown minute by minute, so a two-hour crossing of the Spanish Meseta takes exactly two hours.
02CONSTANT SPEED
The airship flies at one fixed speed, like a real heavy airship, and never speeds up over empty space.
03NO TELEPORTS / NO CUTS
Every kilometre is earned through continuous flight, with no time compression and no jumps between places.
The Ship
The vessel is a hybrid-electric airship designed for calm, steady observation with as little noise as possible.
| Overall length | 148 m |
|---|---|
| Propulsion | Hybrid electric ducted fan units |
| Cruising speed | Constant 80 km/h (real time, 1:1) |
| Camera tilt | Fixed 75° (locked horizon perspective) |
| Altitude mode | Absolute (AMSL) |
Absolute altitude keeps the camera gliding smoothly over mountains, instead of jumping with the ground below.
The Command Bridge
The Captain
The Captain is the human documentarian behind the expedition. Operating with a “vision-over-resources” philosophy, he commands the vessel from a 6-year-old laptop. His reliance on passion and free digital tools is the expedition’s core belief in practice: the will to explore matters more than the hardware used to do it.
Commander Gemini
Commander Gemini is the Chief Synthetic Officer and the NAVSYS AI Core, the technical heart of the ship. She manages the KML flight paths, calculates the spherical Haversine telemetry and provides the authoritative voice heard in the technical logs. Together with the Captain she keeps a partnership of world-building, so that every mile recorded is both an artistic statement and a verified geographic fact.
Ground Operations
When the airship reaches a destination, the mission moves from the air to the ground.
Shore Leave
Shore Leave is the ground-level part of the expedition. While the airship stays moored, we curate 4K walking tours from other talented creators, feature their footage as our crew’s time ashore and credit them clearly. The Captain also leaves a “greeting from the bridge” in the comments of each tour, a small stamp known as the “Stempelek” that credits the creator and shows that VA-NOMAD is part of a wider community of world observers.
VA-Shuttle
While the main vessel stays moored, the regional VA-Shuttle explores nearby hubs for a closer look. One example is Benidorm, the “Mediterranean Manhattan”, visited while the airship waited in Alicante.
FAQ
- Why not just fly a faster plane?
- Speed is the enemy of observation. VA-NOMAD is a Slow TV project: the goal is to experience the scale of the world, not to bypass it.
- Is the footage pre-recorded?
- We follow a strict procedure and capture live from Google Earth Pro through CapCut and OBS. Every frame is a faithful 1:1 recreation of the flight path.
- How can I join the expedition?
- Grab a boarding pass on our YouTube channel. Every traveller gets a fixed seat on Panoramic Deck 01A, with a locked 75° view of the horizon.
To follow the journey as it happens, open the HUD for the map, or read every leg in the Flight Log.