Goodyear Blimp

The Goodyear Blimp is any one of a fleet of airships operated by the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, used mainly for advertising and capturing aerial views of live sporting events on television. The term blimp itself is defined as a non-rigid airship – without any internal structure, the pressure of lifting gas contained within the airship envelope maintains the vessel's shape.

Since the launch of the Pilgrim in 1925, Goodyear has generally owned and operated non-rigid airships in its global public relations fleet. However, Goodyear is currently in the process of replacing its three U.S. non-rigid airships (blimps) with three new semi-rigid airships, each of which will have a rigid internal frame. Although technically incorrect, Goodyear plans to use "blimp" in reference to these new semi-rigid models.Wingfoot One, the first such model in Goodyear's U.S. fleet, was christened on August 23, 2014, near the company's world headquarters in Akron, Ohio.

There are currently three airships in Goodyear's U.S. fleet – one blimp (non-rigid airship) and two semi-rigid airships:

Columbia was based in Carson, California and America in Spring, north of Houston, Texas from 1969–1991. Goodyear relocated America to Akron for cost cutting measures. The Houston blimps wintered in Houston and spent the summer traveling North America.

All three craft 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 blimps operating in other parts of the world. These airships are built and operated by Van Wagner of Orlando, Florida, In May 2011 Goodyear announced it will be replacing its fleet of blimps with three semi-rigid airships built by Luftschiffbau Zeppelin.

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