Posted on 10/05/2005 10:10:36 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
AKRON, Ohio - Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. said it will build a new version of a bullet-shaped blimp by spring to replace one that crashed in June during a violent storm in Florida.
The 192-foot-long replacement blimp — still unnamed — will use parts salvaged from the crashed airship, including the gondola that holds the pilot and passengers.
It also will have a new neoprene-plastic envelope, which is the massive fabric structure that fills with helium to provide lift. Officials at Akron-based Goodyear declined to reveal the new blimp's cost.
Goodyear executives had been silent until Tuesday night about whether they would salvage the silver, blue and gold Stars & Stripes, or build a new blimp. The company has two other blimps — the Suffield, Ohio-based Spirit of Goodyear and the Carson, Calif.-based Sprit of America — in its North American Fleet. The widely recognized corporate icon is used to provide coverage of sports events and for charitable fund-raisers.
"Goodyear will once again have three airships flying over America," said Jon Rich, president of the company's North American Tire division.
The National Transportation Safety Board ruled last month that poor planning and decisions by the pilot caused the Stars & Stripes blimp to crash. Neither the pilot nor his passenger were injured.
There was a stuck Civic and I missed it? :-)
You do realize:
1) the Hindenburg used hydrogen for lift, the Goodyear blimps use non-flammable helium
2) there is a widely accepted theory (though challenged by some) that the real problem on the Hindenburg was the "doping" chemicals used to coat the skin - it's basically the same material used in the solid rockets on the Shuttle - they were flying with a skin made out of ROCKET FUEL!!!!!
3) 66 out of 97 on board SURVIVED - not too shabby for something "everyone" thinks is too dangerous to fly
Blimp
This term for a non-rigid airship is of uncertain origin. We do know that it was coined during the First World War, but who coined it and why the rather enigmatic term blimp was chosen may never be known.
The OED2 says it is of uncertain origin. That dictionary gives three explanations. The first explanation is that it derives from a Royal Navy airship classification system. Under this system there were two types of airships, Type-A, Rigid (i.e., dirigibles with metal frames), and Type-B, Limp. Blimp is simply a clipped form of B-Limp. Credit for the coinage goes either to the aviator Horace Shortt, according to a 1918 citation, or to a Lieutenant A.D. Cunningham according to a 1951 citation.
The OED2 further confuses the matter by saying that the term may be onomatopoeic. According to this story, officers would check the inflation of balloons by flicking their fingers against the gas bags. If the bag responded with the sound blimp, the bag was inflated to the proper pressure. For what it's worth, the British Airship Association plumps for this onomatopoeic explanation, and says it was Cunningham, not Shortt, who coined the term in 1916. Their sources date to 1974, not as far back as the OED2's.
And, as if there were not enough confusion, the OED2 cites a 1924 article by J.R.R. Tolkien (remember he was a distinguished Oxford linguist who only wrote fantasy stories in his spare time) who speculates that the word is a combination of blister and lump.
Most sources plump for the "Type B, Limp" explanation. Presumably because the documentation is earlier.
Do not confuse the British coinage of Blimp, meaning an ultra-nationalistic person, with the aircraft. This usage is after a cartoon character, Colonel Blimp, invented by David Low (1891-1963) in the 1930s.
"It may have just been my age, but it appeared much larger than those you see now."
I don't know how old you are, but I'm turning 50 and I can remember occasional blimps when I was a kid. Not the advertising kind (GoodYear, Fuji, etc..), but plain old large silver blimps. My parents told me they were used to carry stuff (cargo, etc..).
This would have been in the early 60s.
Anybody know when they finally stopped flying them as useful aircraft?
I've seen the old GoodYear blimp too - w/ the electic light sign that would flash Go Go GoodYear.
I live between Cleveland adn Akron, so we see the newer ones pretty frequently when there's a Brown's or Indians game.
You're right. The new ones are much smaller.
Excellent!
My family and I were passengers in the Goodyear Blimp in the late 70s. They frequently passed over my home as well. The blimps were just as small as the ones flying now.
The ride is like being at sea. The blimp ascends and descends, all the while moving forward. It's really a great memory.
My family and I were passengers in the Goodyear Blimp in the late 70s. They frequently passed over my home as well. The blimps were just as small as the ones flying now.
The ride is like being at sea. The blimp ascends and descends, all the while moving forward. It's really a great memory.
Good band, stupid radio announcer comment.
Commercial airship aviation had a grand total of 38 (count-em, 38) fatalities, 37 on the Hindenberg, 1 on the ground killed by the Hindenberg. In terms of deaths per passenger-mile it was way safer than jet air travel, and yet we don't get "Oh the humanity of it!" when airliners go down killing over 200 passengers at a shot.
And, the deaths occurred only because the US sensibly refused to sell the Nazis helium in an incident which may have been sabotage.
Fuel usage for airships grows linearly with mass, while for aircraft using Bernoulli's principle for lift it grows cubically. With composite materials, modern alloys and fabrics we could make better airships than the Germans did in the 1910's through 1940's, for actual use not advertising, and probably should.
Hopefully that sucker gets more mileage than a set of Goodyear tars at Rockingham.
That's one of the new generation military blimps, isn't it.
Eglin AFB and Pensacola NAS are both in the general area. Many years later, I did see a Blimp moored in Pensacola at the Navy base. I even took some photo's but don't recall whatever happened to them.
Thanks for the heads up.
I wish they'd build a Zeppelin!
I would love to fly
slowly, quietly
around the world on an craft
that has balconies!
ROTFLMAO
Muttly love blimp.
Want new blimp too.
More blimps good.
We race.
Slowly.
"the craft will stay in the air for many months per flight."
Looooong race.
Muttly bring along his applications, so there will be important things to do.
Bring a lot of Bombay Gin too.
Hey, rules is rules.
Applications are like that.
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