Goodyear Commemorates 100 Years Of Its Airships
by
Larry E. Nazimek
The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company is celebrating 100 years of its airships. Their airships will be visiting over 100 cities in the U. S. and Europe, so more people will be seeing it than ever before.
Their airships are commonly referred to as “blimps,” but the ones they currently operate are semi-rigid airships. A blimp is like a giant helium filled balloon, so if one were to be deflated, it would simply be a pile of rubber, just like a balloon when the air is let out. Today’s airships are rigid, having an internal frame containing two large bags of helium, so if they were to be deflated, the airship would still stand.
It all began on June 3, 1925, with the launch of the Pilgrim, serving as a public relations device raising brand awareness and name recognition. Back in 1925, TV did not exist, so the public was not getting bombarded by commercials, so this type of advertising was particularly useful. Since then, Goodyear’s airships have been to numerous cities and high-interest events. They have also helped in raising funds for various charities and even helped the our military in the Second World War.
Although the Pilgrim was launched in 1925, Goodyear had been experimenting with lighter-than-air craft since as early as 1910. Paul Licthfield, their first CEO, was an aviation enthusiast who created Goodyear’s Aeronautics Dept. in 1910 in order to expand the company’s rubber offerings beyond tires. This led to the development of balloons and blimp envelopes, and eventually contracts with the Navy to build entire airships. With that expertise in blimps, Goodyear decided to have a commercially owned, branded blimp to market the company.
From 1942 to 1944 Goodyear built over 150 blimps for the Navy. They flew patrol over warships on the seas with no reported loss of ships when a blimp was there.
Many people have seen the blimps at night with the changing light displays. That all began in 1930 when their Blimp Defender became the first airship in the world to carry a lighted sign.
As Mark Stewart, CEO and President of Goodyear, put it, “The Goodyear Blimp is an enduring symbol of both nostalgia and innovation for fans around the world. With its century-long history and unique ability to instill a sense of wonder in those who experience it – whether from on the ground or in the air, the blimp gives Goodyear a way to connect with the public in a way no other tire company can match."
Goodyear has built over 325 airships, with the majority being produced for the Navy and Army. There have only been 31 officially designated Goodyear Blimps.
Today’s airships operate out of Suffield (suburb of Akron), OH; Pompano Beach, FL; and Carson City, CA. In the past, they each had various names, but today, they are named Wingfoot 1, 2, and 3. Nearly all of Goodyear’s airships have been built at their facility on Wingfoot Lake in Suffield, OH. There is also a Goodyear-branded airship in Europe, based in Essen, Germany, operated by Deutsche ZeppelinReederei GmbH. They are all Zeppelin NT airships (model LZ N07-101), designed by Zeppelin Luftschifftechnik GmbH to Goodyear’s specifications.
They are 246 ft. long, 57.5 ft. high, with a maximum width of 65 ft. They have an engine on each side and one at the tail tip. They pivot in order to provide directional thrust. They weigh 19,700 lbs., but with 300,000 cu. ft. of helium, they are lighter than air. They can fly up to 10,000 ft., but typically cruise at 1,000-1,500 ft. AGL at speeds up to 63 knots. Pilots control them with a side-stick fly-by-wire control. They can fly IFR with no problem, but won’t fly in conditions, such as icing, that would add weight to the airship.
For this commemorative tour, instead of their present-day paint scheme of yellow letters and logo over a large dark blue stripe, outlined by yellow, they simply have blue letters and logo with no other background, in order to replicate the paint scheme of the Pilgrim.
Goodyear gets its helium from several sources, and it purifies it every 6 to 8 weeks, since helium is a finite resource.
I got to fly on Wingfoot 1 when it was in the Chicago area, flying out of the DuPage Airport, for the Lollapalooza music festival.
Goodyear’s pilots come from a variety of backgrounds. For example, the pilots on this flight were Jerry Hissem and Joe Erbs. Hissem came from a general aviation background, while Erbs, a retired Air Force Major, flew the RC-135, E-3 AWACS, MC-12, T-1 Jayhawk, and some corporate. Some others have come from the airlines.
Goodyear presently has 10 full-time pilots. They start out with a minimum of a commercial license, followed by approx. 250 hours of training, taking a year, to earn an additional Lighter-Than-Air Airship rating. For the next year, they will fly with a senior pilot. All training and check rides are done in house.
The airships travel over 100 days per year, where trips range from 3 days to 3 weeks. This requires a crew of 20 whenever it is on the road. The ground crew launches the airship and travels ahead to recover it.
The windows of the gondola are slanted 17 deg. instead of being vertical, in order in order to aid passengers in looking down. This includes the bathroom in the back, or as they refer to it, “a loo with a view.”
When they fly over a sporting event, the camera is on a turret that is attached to the front bottom of the gondola, and the operator and his equipment are inside. When the previous blimps covered events, a special panel with a camera mount would replace the door.
After landing, if there will be another flight with different passengers, one passenger disembarks and another gets on, and this is repeated until the swap is complete. If all passenger leaving were to exit at one time, the airship would rise, so every effort is made to maintain a constant weight.
Goodyear rarely gives rides to the public, although this is sometimes done for fundraisers. If you ever get a chance to ride, don’t pass it up. It’s an experience you will never forget.