Goodyear Blimp
Monday, 25th June 2007 by James Turnbull
Since 1925, the Goodyear Blimp has been an integral part of American sports culture, probably more famous than the tyre company whose logo is along the side.
Goodyear have built more than 300 blimps over the years and today there are three which officially share the "Goodyear blimp" name.
The "Spirit of America" has been California's blimp since 2002 and has a full-time crew of 18, which covers pilots, engineers, cameramen, etc.
The 'Spirit of Innovation', seen here flying over its hometown of Pompano Beach, Florida, was named last year in a web-based public poll (and that was the best they could come up with?).
The third of the fleet, 'Spirit of Goodyear' sadly can't be seen on Google Earth as yet. However, worldwide there's at least another 3 blimps with the Goodyear emblem.
In Brazil, flying over the city of Sao Paulo, is 'Spirit of the Americas'.
And roaming around Europe somewhere are two blimps, both called "Spirit of Europe". Here's one of them, parked in a English airbase.
On a slightly related note, can you guess which company produces the most tyres annually. Goodyear? Michelin? Pirelli? All wrong: the correct answer is LEGO, who produce 306 million tiny tyres each year 😀
More Goodyear blimp info on the Official Website, Wikipedia and MyAirship.com
Thanks: JosieNorden and Virtual Globetrotting.
Wahey! James’ favourite fun fact
Only a matter of time before he slipped that one in!
Speaking of which, do you know who the world’s largest manufacturer of cameras is…? Nokia.
😀
I’ll say the LEGO bit surprised me, that’s going to be a nice piece of trivia to stash away for later 🙂
Wow, the largest producer with the smallest tyres 🙂
Can you give sources for the LEGO fact?
When in Akron, the Spirit of Goodyear stays here at Wingfoot Lake. It’s here a couple of times a year for refit and crew training. One of the best parts of living in Akron (home of the Goodyear world headquarters) is frequent blimp sightings. Sometimes they’ll bring in the North American blimps and they play blimp tag over the city. Good times.
I had the great good pleasure to get to fly on a blimp very similar to these a few years back. It was a blast. Cruising along at about 30 MPH just a couple of thousand feet off the ground, windows wide open so you could hang your arms and head out!! The only way to fly. I just wish that the aviation industry could get it in gear and really and truly FINALLY bring back the age of lighter than air travel. The market is there. The technology has improved a hundred fold. What is taking them so long!??!? Am I going to have to do it myself??
@Holgi: I first learned this fact from a BBC TV program which was presented by Top gear’s James May.
This site dates the fact to 2000.
The Goodyear blimp America was formerly based in Spring, Texas (just northwest of Houston) until about 1992. You can see the foundation of the blimp hanger here
tyres??? is that anything like tires?
The blimp in the uk is not an (Military) airbase, it’s derby airfield. Where (Normally) light aircraft use it’s grass runways. The whole airfiled was “Moved” about 15 years ago from a site about 4 miles east of it’s current location to make way for an enormous toyota car factory.
Why is the “Spirt of the Americas” in Brazil? Don’t those people know America is in the USA?
Brad….ya might wanna check on a map sometime. Brazil is located in South America. “America” doesn’t automatically mean USA. There is North America, Central America and South America. Technically, anyone from ANY country on those land masses could be considered an “American”.
@nova: From here: Tyre / Tire: Wheel rubber part. Canada as U.S. Tire is the older spelling, but both were used in the 15th and 16th centuries (for a metal tire); tire became the settled spelling in the 17th century but tyre was revived in the UK in the 19th century for pneumatic tyres, possibly because it was used in some patent documents,[83] though many continued to use tire for the iron variety. The Times newspaper was still using tire as late as 1905.
This is so cool, I’m blogging about the Goodyear blimp right now and will publish the post later, check out http://airshipworld.blogspot.com later today for the post about the Goodyear Blimp.
Regards, Andreas G.