AT THE MOORING MAST:
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.
Yeah...good thing you hold that in your memory, since you took the pics to show and tell...and lost them. Or was that me? Ahhh. Memories. ;)
Around five or six years ago the Goodyear Blimp was here in Nebraska. We have a Goodyear plant here and I believe the blimp was being used to give employees and their families rides.
One dark evening a friend and I were driving on a county road and unbenknownst to us the blimp was in the sky above us. We got quite the stir when they lit up the display. I'll never forget it. It was the closest I will ever come to seeing an alien spacehip.
Oh sh*t, they are going to try to clone another drunk fat teddie.
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