Goodyear Blimp
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Goodyear Blimp is the collective name for a fleet of blimps operated by Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company for advertising purposes and for use as a television camera platform for sporting events. Goodyear began producing airship envelopes in 1911 and introduced its own blimp, "The Pilgrim," in 1925.
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[edit] The fleet
Today there are four blimps in the fleet:
- The Spirit of Goodyear, based in Akron, Ohio
- The Spirit of America, based in Carson, California
- Spirit of Innovation, based in Pompano Beach, Florida
- Spirit of Innovation replaced Stars & Stripes, a blimp which crashed in June 2005.
- Ventura, based in São Paulo, Brazil
All four crafts are outfitted with LED sign technology Goodyear calls "Eaglevision." This allows the aircraft to display bright, multi-colored, animated words and images.
Fujifilm and MetLife also operate well-known blimps.
[edit] Lifting agent
The blimps are filled with helium. The helium is maintained under low pressure, so small punctures do not pose serious consequences for the blimp. In fact, one inspection element of the blimps is to look into the envelope for pinpoints of light which are indicative of small holes. The blimps have infrequently been hit by small-arms fire from the ground. These incidents have not resulted in any serious consequences to the blimp or its crew.
The blimps are equipped with internal bladders in the envelope, and as the blimp ascends or descends these bladders expand or contract to compensate for density changes and to maintain uniform pressure in the envelope.
[edit] Dimensions
According to the Goodyear website, the four active blimps are 192 feet (58 metres) long, 59.5 feet (18 metres) tall, 50 feet (15 metres) wide.
For comparison, the largest airships ever built, the Zeppelin company's Hindenburg, LZ-129, and the Graf Zeppelin II, LZ-130, were 804 feet (245 metres) long and 135 feet (41 metres) in diameter. That is, over four times as long and over twice as wide as the current Goodyear blimps. The largest blimp ever made was the U.S. Navy's ZPG-3, at 403 feet (121 metres) in length.
Blimps are dirigible (directible/steerable) airships. That terminology is seldom used in connection with blimps, being associated more with the great rigid airships of the past.
[edit] References
"The Goodyear Blimp," Quintessences: the Quality of Having It (New York: Black Dog and Leventhal Publishers, 1983) pp 44-45.
