A
Goodyear
Blimp
is any one of a fleet of blimps
operated by Goodyear Tire and Rubber
Company for advertising purposes and
for use as a television camera
platform for aerial views of
sporting events. Goodyear began
producing airship envelopes in 1911
and introduced its own blimp,
The
Pilgrim,
in 1925.
Today there are three blimps
in the fleet in the USA:
-
N1A Wingfoot One
-
N2A Wingfoot Two
-
N3A Wingfoot Three
The new airships are 246
feet long, 52 feet longer
than Goodyear's old model,
the GZ-20.
The Zeppelin NT model is
also slimmer, has a top
speed of 70 miles per hour
(versus 50 for the blimp),
and has a passenger gondola
that seats 12 (compared to
seven in the blimp). The
gondola also contains a
restroom. They are outfitted
with LED sign
technology Goodyear calls "Eaglevision."
This allows the aircraft to
display bright,
multi-colored, animated
words and images.
Goodyear also has had 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.
The three modern types of
Goodyear blimps, since the
1960s, are:
GZ-19,
GZ-20
and
GZ-22.
The GZ stands for
Goodyear-Zeppelin, stemming
from the partnership
Goodyear had with the German
company when both were
building airships together.
However these three classes
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".
-
GZ-19:
Introduced in 1963 and
discontinued in 1978
after the loss of
Mayflower
(N38A) in a tornado. The design for
this class resembles the
U.S. Navy's L class
blimp.
-
GZ-20:
This class was
introduced in 1969,
with America (N10A)
and Columbia (N3A)
being the first two.
The Europa (N2A)
followed in 1972 and was
based in Italy, the
first Goodyear blimp
operated outside of the
United States. These
blimps are slightly
longer than the GZ-19.
Beginning in 2014,
Goodyear began retiring
the GZ-20 and replacing
them with the Zeppelin
NT.
On February 23, 2014, Spirit
of Goodyear was
retired in Pompano Beach
after the 2014 Daytona
500. On August 10, 2015,
the California-based GZ-20,
the Spirit
of America,
was decommissioned. The Spirit
of Innovation,
took over California
operations in September
2015 until its
retirement in March 2017
as the last remaining GZ-20.
In fall of 2017,
Wingfoot Two will be
relocated to California.
-
GZ-22:
The only airship in this
class was the
Spirit of Akron
(N4A). Originally built
in 1987 to show the U.S.
Department of Defense
that airships were still
militarily viable, it
was the largest and most
technically advanced
ship Goodyear ever had
in its public relations
fleet, featuring
fly-by-wire technology.
However,
Spirit
was lost in 1999 and the
company has not built
one since, most likely
because of the large
expense to build and
operate one due to its
size and advanced
technology.
-
Zeppelin NT (LZ N07-101):
In
May 2011, Goodyear
announced that it would
be replacing its aging
fleet of GZ-20 blimps (non-rigid
airships) with Zeppelin
NT airships.
Construction began in
2012 on the first of
three new semi-rigid
airships;
completed in March
2014, Wingfoot
One was
christened on August 23,
2014, by Good
Morning America anchor Robin
Roberts. Wingfoot
Two,
the name of Goodyear's
second semi-rigid
airship, was unveiled in
April 2016. The
third finished the fleet
in 2018. Shaesta Waiz,
the youngest woman to
fly solo around the
world, christened
Wingfoot Three during an
August 30 ceremony in
Akron, with the
traditional smashing of
a bottle of champagne
across the bow.
"Wingfoot Three will
serve as a beacon for me
to continue my work
inspiring and
celebrating aviation
with others," said Waiz.
She joined a list of
other famous Goodyear
airship christeners,
including Amelia Earhart
and astronaut Sally
Ride.
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