LOS ANGELES (KNX) - It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s… a semi-rigid airship?
If you live in the L.A. area, you’ve almost definitely seen a Goodyear blimp flying overhead (we know Ice Cube has). But it turns out, the iconic Goodyear aircraft aren’t actually blimps.
Technically, the term “blimp” refers to a “non-rigid airship” with no internal structural framework. Goodyear’s current models, which have a carbon fiber and aluminum framework, are actually semi-rigid airships.
“We still call it the Goodyear blimp, because ‘Goodyear semi-rigid airship’ doesn’t really roll off the tongue,” said William Bayliss, chief pilot of Goodyear’s Wingfoot Three.
Blimps, airships — whatever you call them, Mike Simpson was lucky enough to take a ride on one for this episode of “I’ve Got Questions.” Goodyear has an airship base in Carson, the home port for one of the tire company’s three active blimps in the United States.
That’s right — they may seem ever-present, but there are only three Goodyear blimps in the entire country, plus one flying around Europe.
According to Bayliss, there are only about six or seven regularly active blimps in the entire world right now.
“We’re the only ones active in North America, so [there are] three here,” he said. “There’s two actively flying in Europe, and there may be one or two more in Asia and Australia.”
At 250 feet long and almost 60 feet tall, the Wingfoot Three is filled with 200 birthday balloons worth of helium. It can only reach a top speed of about 73 miles per hour.
So what is it actually like to fly in a blimp? And how do airship pilots react when you mention the H word? For those answers, listen to the full episode of “I’ve Got Questions” in the audio above, and subscribe on Audacy, Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Amazon Music, and Spotify.
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