The Goodyear Blimp is any one of a fleet of airships (or dirigibles) operated by the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, used mainly for advertising purposes and capturing aerial views of live sporting events for television. The term blimp itself is defined as a —without any internal structure, the pressure of lifting gas within the airship envelope maintains the vessel's shape. From the launch of the Pilgrim in 1925 to the retiring of the Spirit of Innovation in 2017, Goodyear generally owned and operated non-rigid airships in its global public relations fleet. In 2014, Goodyear began to replace its three U.S. non-rigid airships (blimps) with three new semi-rigid airships, each of which have a rigid internal frame. Although technically incorrect, Goodyear continues to use "blimp" in reference to these new semi-rigid airships. Wingfoot One, the first such model in Goodyear's U.S. fleet, was christened on August 23, 2014, at the Wingfoot Lake Airship Hangar, near the company's headquarters in Akron, Ohio.

Airship fleet

In May 2011, Goodyear announced it was replacing its fleet of non-rigid airships with three semi-rigid airships built by Luftschiffbau Zeppelin. Goodyear's U.S. fleet consists of three semi-rigid airships (model LZ N07-101): The new airships are 246 ft long, 52 ft longer than Goodyear's old model, the GZ-20. The Zeppelin NT model is also slimmer, has a top speed of 70 mph (versus 50 mph for the blimp), and has a passenger gondola that seats 12 (compared to seven in the blimp). The gondola also contains a restroom. Both craft are outfitted with LED sign technology Goodyear calls "Eaglevision". This allows the aircraft to display bright, multi-colored, animated words and images. Goodyear has also leased blimps operating in other parts of the world. These airships were built and operated by The Lightship Group of Orlando, Florida. In 2012, The Lightship Group was acquired (along with the American Blimp Corporation) by Van Wagner Communications LLC, and operated as the Van Wagner Airship Group until November 17, 2017, when it was purchased by Airsign Inc. They currently operate an airship for Goodyear in China.

Lifting agent

The Goodyear blimps are inflated with helium, a non-renewable resource. The helium is maintained under low pressure, so small punctures do not pose serious consequences for the blimp. One inspection element of the blimps is to look into the envelope for pinpoints of light which are indicative of small holes. Prior to the Zeppelin NT, the Goodyear blimps were non-rigid (meaning their shape is not maintained by a rigid internal structure) dirigibles (directable/steerable airships). Inside their exterior envelope, the blimps are fitted with air-filled ballonets. As the blimp ascends or descends, the internal ballonets expand or contract to compensate for density changes and to maintain uniform pressure in the envelope. The latest Goodyear airship, the Zeppelin NT, is a departure from this convention, as it is a semi-rigid airship that makes use of a truss inside the envelope to provide some of its strength.

Models

"GZ" stands for Goodyear–Zeppelin, stemming from the partnership Goodyear had with the German company when both were building airships together. However, these models came many years after this partnership had dissolved during the start of World War II. The GZ-1 was the USS Akron (ZRS-4), the U.S. Navy's fourth rigid airship used for several tests including as a flying "aircraft carrier".

Historical navy classes

Dimensions

According to the Goodyear website, the now retired GZ 19 and 19A blimps were 150 and 157 ft long respectively, and the GZ-20/20A blimps were 192 ft long, 59.5 ft tall, and 50 ft wide. For comparison, the largest airships ever built, the Zeppelin company's Hindenburg, LZ-129, and the Graf Zeppelin II, LZ-130, were both 804 ft long and 135 ft in diameter. That is, over four times as long and over twice as wide as the current Goodyear blimps. The largest blimp ever made by Goodyear was the U.S. Navy's ZPG-3, at 403 ft in length.

Names

Since 1928, Goodyear had traditionally named its blimps after the U.S. winners of the America's Cup yacht race. This naming method is attributed to then-Goodyear CEO P. W. Litchfield, who viewed the airships as "aerial yachts". Although that practice deviated with the introduction of the Spirit of Akron in 1987, the tradition ended with the Florida-based Stars & Stripes in 2005. In 2006, Goodyear began having the public participate in the naming of their airships; they dubbed this the "Name the Blimp" contest. Spirit of Innovation was the first airship to be named by the public. **The America's Cup winners' names: ** Puritan, Reliance, Defender, Volunteer, Resolute, Vigilant, Mayflower, Ranger, Rainbow, Enterprise, Columbia, America, Stars & Stripes. **Non-cup winners' names: ** Pilgrim, Neponset, Spirit of Akron, Spirit of Goodyear, Eagle, Spirit of America, Spirit of Innovation, Wingfoot One, Wingfoot Two. Foreign based blimps have been operated by The Lightship Group since the 1990s: Europa, Spirit of Europe, Spirit of the South Pacific, Spirit of the Americas, Spirit of Safety, Ventura, Ling Hang Zhe (Navigator).

Passenger policy

The only passengers that Goodyear will allow on the blimps are corporate guests of the company and members of the press; it has been Goodyear's long-standing policy that no public rides are offered. However, for over 50 years, it had to offer limited public rides at its Miami, Florida, winter base on Watson Island as part of its land-lease deal with the city in order to operate from the island. That practice ended in 1979 when the base was moved to Opa-locka, Florida. During the period in which Goodyear supplied tires for IndyCar, it was a tradition that the pole position winner at the Indianapolis 500 would get a ride in the blimp in the days leading up to the race. During the period in which Goodyear was a corporate sponsor of the All American Soap Box Derby, the winners of the World Championship races held each July in Akron, Ohio were awarded a ride in the blimp. Typically these rides were given on the day following the annual race, but if weather prohibited the blimp from flying on that day, the champions were given an award letter from Goodyear. This letter was basically a lifetime ticket for one blimp ride to be taken whenever arrangements could be made between all parties involved. The European Goodyear blimp is operated by Deutsche Zeppelin-Reederei, a commercial passenger flight operator, and the Goodyear Zeppelin NT is regularly used for public flights around Germany outside of sport seasons.

Night signs

For years, Goodyear has fitted its blimps with a night sign. From neon tubes, to incandescent lamps to LEDs, these signs have helped the company advertise its products and also deliver public service messages from various organizations such as local governments.

Accidents

Popular culture

Philip K. Dick's 1977 novel, A Scanner Darkly, contains a reference to the Goodyear Blimp ("... it'd float up over the Greater L.A. downtown area like the Goodyear blimp..."). In 1983, the city of Redondo Beach, California, near the blimp base airport in Carson, California, adopted resolution number 6252 recognizing the Goodyear Airship Columbia (since retired) as the "Official Bird of Redondo Beach". On a 2001 episode of That 70's Show, Leo recalls seeing what he thought was a UFO at a football game, which displayed a message that he interpreted as a prediction of a "good year." The blimp appears in Cars. The blimp is mentioned in the song "It Was A Good Day" by Ice Cube. In January 2019, the College Football Hall of Fame inducted the Goodyear Blimp as its first-ever nonhuman inductee. The Aldrich Blimp in Thomas Harris' 1975 novel Black Sunday is based on the Goodyear Blimp flying over Super Bowl. It is the intended target of a terror plot.

General and cited references