Frequently
Asked Questions
How can I
get a ride on the Goodyear Blimp?
How many
Goodyear blimps are there?
Are there
any other airships in the world?
Did the
U.S. military ever use blimps?
What are
the blimp's dimensions?
How much
does the blimp weigh?
Why are
the Blimps so safe?
Exactly
what happened to the Hindenberg?
What
happens if the ship shuts off power to both engines?
What is
the story behind the "ghost blimp"?
What is
the blimp made of?
How
often does helium have to be added?
If the ship
doesn't let off helium, how does it come down?
Could the
ship somehow get loose from its mast and float away?
How is
the ship anchored when it's on the ground?
What are
those two ropes at the nose?
What are
those little round bags for?
Why does
the crew chief hold up that butterfly net when the blimp lands?
Does
Goodyear build its own blimps?
How many
lights are there on the sides?
How
does the night sign work?
What
type of engines do the blimps have?
How fast
and how far can the blimp go?
What
avionics do the ships carry?
What is a
blimp worth? Are they for sale?
How many
crewmen and pilots are there for each ship?
How do
the pilots learn to fly blimps?
How do the
other crewmen get their jobs?
What does
it cost Goodyear to operate a blimp for one year?
What
does Goodyear get in return for such an outlay?
Will
Goodyear build big airships again?
How big
were the Zeppelins compared to the Goodyear blimps?
What is
it like to ride in the Goodyear blimp?
What is it
like to fly the blimp?
Do
people get airsick in the blimp?
How high
does the blimp usually fly?
Is the
blimp safe?
How does the
television camera in the blimp work?
What
events do the blimps cover for TV?
Rides on the Goodyear blimps are available at
the invitation of the company only. Most of the lucky riders are
Goodyear customers, winners of local charity auctions, local
dignitaries, or members of the press.
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There are three: the Spirit of Akron, based in
Akron, Ohio; the Stars & Stripes based in Pompano Beach,
Florida; and the Eagle based near Los Angeles. Goodyear is
looking at using a hot-air type blimp in Mexico this year for
public relations use. Goodyear has operated as many as eight at a
time since its first commercial ship, the Pilgrim, flew in 1925.
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There are several other blimps in the world.
Most are smaller than the Goodyear blimps and are active in
Europe and North America.
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The Navy used blimps for antisubmarine patrol
duty in world War II, and as radar picket ships in the fifties,
but it decommissioned the last of its lighter-than-air fleet in
1962.
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The Goodyear blimps come in two sizes; the
longer GZ-22 (Spirit of Akron) is 205.5 feet long, 58 feet in
diameter, and 60.2 feet high, with a volume of 247,800 cubic feet
and a gross weight of 15,000 lbs. The GZ-20A size blimps (Stars
& Stripes / Eagle) are 192 feet long, 55 feet in diameter,
and 59.5 feet high, with 202,700 cubic feet of helium and a gross
weight of 12,840 lbs.
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Without any lifting gas, the empty ship (GZ-20)
weighs about 12,840 pounds. Inflated with helium it weighs only
100-200 pounds, depending on the amount of fuel, payload and
ballast aboard.
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Unlike the great German Zeppelins of fifty years
ago, the Goodyear blimps are filled with helium, an inert gas.
Although Hydrogen is a better lifting gas, lighter and more
plentiful than helium, it is terribly flammable, even explosive.
Helium is found in the earth, mixed with other natural gases. The
most significant deposits yet discovered are in northern Texas,
Kansas and Colorado.
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While the huge German Zeppelin was making a
landing at Lakehurst, New Jersey, on May 6, 1937, a fire started
in the tail and within seconds the ship's six million cubic feet
of hydrogen were ablaze. The airship was totally destroyed and
thirty-six passengers and crewmen were killed. The fire might
have been touched off by static electricity, or it might been an
act of anti-Nazi sabotage. The truth will probably never be
known.
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The pilot could fIy the ship as he would a
free balloon, gradually valving off helium to let the blimp down.
lf just one engine should is shut off, the blimp can easily fIy
and maintain ballonet pressure on the other one.
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Early in World War II, the Navy blimp L-8 left
Moffet Field in California on a routine anti-submarine patrol
flight over the Pacific. Two Naval officers, Lieutenant Cody and
Ensign Adams, were aboard When L-8 had been out for about an
hour, Cody radioed that they had spotted an oil slick and were
investigating. Then nothing This message was the last ever heard
from the two men. Later that same day, the blimp was spotted
nudged against a cliff on a beach south of San Francisco. As
rescuers approached, the ship dislodged itself and drifted
inland. It floated down in Daly City, made a perfect landing on
its one wheel, and came to a stop in an intersection. No one was
aboard the L-8, and no one has even been able to account for the
disappearance of Cody and Adams. The throttles were at idle,
everything was working normally, there was fuel in the tanks and
the cabin door was open. Some local volunteer firemen slashed the
envelope, completely destroying it, in the mistaken belief that
the crew might be trapped inside. Only the car was saved. This
car, designated C-64, was refurbished after the war and is now
stored in Akron, Ohio.
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The Goodyear blimps are
fabricated by Goodyear & Lockheed Martin. They are made of
polyester fabric coated with neoprene rubber. They look shiny and
metallic from a distance, but they are actually soft and
flexible.
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The ships lose very little helium in normal
operations, although the gas does have to be purified about twice
a year by a Goodyear designed purifying machine. As the envelopes
age and have a tendency to allow gas diffusion. The crew might
have to add 10,000 cubic feet of gas per month. They buy the gas
along the tour and add it as needed since none is carried along.
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Inside the envelope are two air chambers called
ballonets, one forward and one aft. They can be pumped up with
air from the outside or allowed to deflate as the helium expands
and contracts. Since air is heavier than helium, inflating or
deflating the ballonets will add or subtract weight from the nose
or tail, thus trimming the ship. Using the pilot controlled,
powered movable control surfaces called ruddervators on the
Spirit of Akron and Rudder and elevators on the Eagle and the
Stars and Stripes, the ship can fly up or down in the ocean of
air and maintain its proper envelope pressure without having to
drop ballast or valve off helium. The two hanging scoops behind
the propellers are air intakes for the ballonets; the props force
air into them when the pilot opens them up. When the ship is on
the ground and the engines are off, auxiliary electric blowers
automatically maintain the proper pressure in the ballonets.
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The latching mechanism is designed to anchor
the blimp in extremely strong winds, and failure is very
unlikely. Should the ship somehow break its mooring, it would
auto-deflate to contain the damage to the ship and prevent it
from floating away.
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At the very tip of the blimp's nose is a
steel ball much like an automobile trailer hitch. This ball locks
onto a cup at the top of the portable mooring mast, which is
taken along and set up wherever the ship is operating. The blimp
is anchored to the earth only at this one point, so it is always
free to rotate 360 degrees around the mast as the wind changes.
This arrangement has held the blimp in hurricane-force winds on
more than one occasion. The blimp will always point itself into
the wind, like a weather vane.
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The nose lines are used to hold the ship's
nose into the wind while it is being handled on the ground. The
ship has so much sail area that it will become a little
unmanageable if it is allowed to get off-wind, so two groups of
three crewmen grab each line as the ship lands, run to the sides,
and hold the ship into the wind at the direction of the crew
chief. The ropes are allowed to hang down when the ship is
flying, since there is no particular reason to tie them off.
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They are ballast bags, each filled with
twenty-five pounds of lead shot. They are put in or taken out
from a little compartment at the rear of the car to give a final
trim before take-off. The crew chief and the pilot calculate the
weight of fuel and payload (including passengers). then add or
subtract shot bags as desired. Pilots usually like to take off
about ''four bags down", or 100 pounds heavy.
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That's a little portable wind sock, and it gives
the pilot a final check on the wind direction as he makes his
approach. The airship always lands directly into the wind.
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Yes, with help from Lockheed Martin. The
envelopes and other components are fabricated by Goodyear &
Lockheed Martin, and final erection takes place at the airship
hangar in Akron, Ohio. It takes twenty-five men twelve weeks to
put everything together. Each ship has to be rebuilt with a new
envelope every ten to fifteen years. The gondolas, many of which
date back to World War II and before, are refurbished and put
back in the air.
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There are 7,560 on the three Goodyear Airships.
The lights are custom made high brightness LED (light emitting
diode) Light modules.
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Goodyear
calls it the Super
Skytacular, and basically it's a computer driven, electronic
system which reads data and then sends out millions of commands
to turn the lights on and off with different colors at the proper
instant creating text and animations brilliant enough to be seen
up to one mile away.
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There are different power packages on the two
types of blimps. The GZ-20's carry two fuel injected Continental
I0-360's, producing 210 horsepower each. An altered version of
this engine is used on the Pitts Special acrobatic airplane. The
propellers are pusher Hartzells, constant-speed and reversible.
They are custom-made for the Goodyear blimps. The GZ-22 carries
two Allison 250-B17C turbo-prop engines supplying 420 horsepower
each. They carry Hartzell ducted 3-bladed 70 inch propellers.
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The usual cruising speed is thirty-five miles
per hour in a zero wind condition; all-out top speed is
fifty-three miles per hour on the GZ20 and 65 mph on the GZ22. As
to cruising range: the ship can carry enough fuel to fly for
twenty- four hours, although it rarely does so. When traveling
cross-country the blimps fly wherever they go, and the crews try
for an eight-hour day, or about 300 air miles.
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All Goodyear blimps are FAA-certified for IFR
(Instrument Flight Rules) flying, day or night. They carry two
King 360-channel navcom radios, the usual light plane
instruments, digital radar for keeping an eye on thunderstorms,
transponder for radar identification, and a couple of instruments
peculiar to blimps: manometers for watching envelope pressure and
a helium temperature gauge. All Goodyear Airships carry GPS
navigation receivers for precise navigation.
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Since Goodyear builds them one at a time, it is
very difficult to put a price tag on a Goodyear blimp. They're
probably worth over $5.0 million each. The blimps serve the
Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co as their worldwide Aerial
Ambassador and Corporate Icon. Goodyear makes them only for use
by their own public relations department.
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The usual complement is seventeen crewmen
(riggers, engine mechanics, ground handlers, and electronic
technicians), five pilots, and a public relations manager.
Crewmen also share driving chores in the bus and truck and they
take turns standing watch over the ship which is never, ever,
left alone.
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Goodyear trains its own pilots. All Goodyear LTA
pilots are also certified as instructors, and they share teaching
duties when a new student is assigned to one of the operations.
Goodyear only takes applications from fixed-wing pilots who
already have commercial instrument, and multi-engine ratings. A
college education is also a big bonus for an applicant.
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Experienced blimp people are hard to find. In the case
of mechanics, since the blimps use regular light plane engines
and turbines, Goodyear hires qualified airframe and powerplant
mechanics. The crew of the Goodyear Blimps consist of
professional mechanics, electrical and electronics technicians
and specialized crewmen that all have a variety of skills.
Because the blimps can spend between six and eight months a year
on the road a love of travel is a must.
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The
annual budget is over one
million dollars per year per ship, including payroll, equipment
depreciation, travel expenses and maintenance.
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The end result is corporate-name recognition
and goodwill. Independent research has demonstrated that people
are excited by seeing the blimp and are able to remember exactly
when and where they saw it. Over sixty million Americans get a
first-hand look at the three U.S. blimps every year, and millions
more see the airships on television. The Goodyear blimps may be
the best-known corporation symbol in the United States.
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Goodyear has no plans in the immediate future to
expand its airship operations to include experiments with larger
airships.
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The Hindenberg was the largest, and it was 804
feet long, more than four times the length of the larger Goodyear
GZ-22. Its gas volume was over six million cubic feet, and it had
242 tons of gross lift, enough to carry itself plus seventy
passengers, a crew of sixty, diesel fuel for a transatlantic
flight, luggage, some cargo and mail, and twenty tons of water
ballast that could be dropped in the event of an emergency
descent. It was faster, too, cruising at about eighty miles per
hour.
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It is the flight of dreams, smooth, slow and
close to the ground. The cabin windows can be opened on a nice
day, and passengers (the ship carries only six) can lean out and
wave to people on the ground. You can see the ground in far
greater detail than from a plane, and a given point stays in view
for much longer, since the ship moves at only thirty-five miles
per hour.
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The blimp has a life of its own in the air.
Its movements are slow and ponderous, and yet it reacts very
intimately to air currents and thermals. It can take several
seconds for the ship to respond to the pilot's commands, and as a
result, blimp pilots soon develop a feel that helps them
counteract the blimp's inclination to aimless meanderings. The
control surfaces are as big as barn doors and except for the
GZ22, they are not power-assisted. On a turbulent day, the pilot
might find himself half standing in the seat as he lays both feet
onto one big rudder pedal to force the ship into a turn. For the
most part the blimp is a relaxing joy to fly. The slow cruise
speed is a special treat for a pilot used to fixed-wing flight,
since he can gaze out and observe the passing landscape in much
finer detail.
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It's
less likely than in almost
any other aircraft. On a long flight in turbulence it is possible
to get seasick, however, since the blimp will pitch and roll much
like a boat. Fortunately, the envelope absorbs the bumpiness on
normal flights, and the ride is usually as smooth as can be.
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Most flights, whether with passengers or
cross-country, are at 1,000-1,500 feet. Goodyear likes to keep
the ship close to the ground so that people can see it more
easily. It has a maximum altitude, depending on the variables of
the atmosphere, of about 5.000 feet. Beyond that height the air
gets thinner and the helium expands, causing automatic safety
valves to open.
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Goodyear has flown passengers in its blimps for
over fifty years without interruption (except for World War II),
with no serious injuries. It's probably the safest form of air
travel ever devised.
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Goodyear has its own specially designed TV
equipment for use in the blimps. The equipment is kept with the
crew for installation just prior to a given event. The camera is
a small Wescam, mounted in a vibration-free gimbal mount. The
lens is an enormous Fujinon 44:1 zoom. The camera's image is
transmitted to the ground by microwave, where a microwave dish
antenna and receiver pick it up and feed it to the network. The
blimp signal can be put on the air live or taped for replay.
Goodyear pilots fly the blimp and the company supplies the TV
equipment and technicians to the networks.
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It varies from year to year, but the list is
impressive. Some of the more well-known events it has given
audiences air views of include The Indianapolis 500; the Kentucky
Derby; several Super Bowls and World Series games; the Rose Bowl
and Parade; the America's Cup yacht races; the U.S. Open &
PGA for Golf; and the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta.
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