Inside the Goodyear Blimp: Everything You Wanted to Know

We're in Ohio and this is the Goodyear blimp, but we're not flying it today because it's too windy. This may be one of the most iconic flying machines in history, and it still turns heads, these days also generating thousands of social media posts wherever it goes. This is the Goodyear blimp, and did you know it's actually not a blimp but a semi-rigid airship? Find out what on earth that means and everything else you ever wanted to know about this plump marvel as we go up close and personal with the blimp and then fan out all over the place trying to actually fly it. You can imagine that an airship like that has really strict wind limitations. Luckily for us, we can time travel into the future. I think we can go fly it maybe in some different places even. Let's go fly. All right, let's do it. It's a couple weeks after we were in Akron, Ohio with Goodyear, and I'm back in New York, and this is the Goodyear blimp. Again, we're going to go for a ride for real this time. It's the day we're going to get to finally fly the Goodyear blimp. There are some threatening thunderstorms, but we're hopefully going to fly slow enough to avoid those getting into Chicago, so come along with us while we actually fly the Goodyear blimp. Wait a second, guys. I feel like we need to jump back to Ohio and learn a little bit more about the blimp before we get that flying payoff. I promise it's coming, so stick with us. Also, I haven't figured out where I'm going to fly it yet, and I need some time for that. First of all, let's establish whether this thing really is technically a blimp or not and what that means. It's always a blimp. Everybody calls it a blimp, we're Goodyear, so it's a blimp. We're always going to say blimp. That's how we're recognized? The Goodyear blimp. Exactly. We're never going to change that. Most people, they see it, they say, how's the Goodyear blimp? This is a semi-rigid. We have a frame inside, which makes it really nice, really versatile. It allows us to remote mount the engines, a lot quieter, a lot better to fly, and it allows us, we have a frame inside, so it provides an extra level of safety and security that you may not have with a pressure ship. Then the fully rigid airships that were built, those were huge. Those things were massive and they were all constructed and they had cells inside that had helium or whatever inside of them. The Hindenburg had hydrogen, right? But the other airships that we built had helium inside of them. It's also useful to know that this blimp is technically a Zeppelin NT airship, and it's manufactured in partnership with a company whose name I can't pronounce, but I'll put it on the screen, over in Friedrichshafen, Germany. Major components are manufactured in Germany and then sent to Ohio to be assembled by a team here, and the companies work together on technology sharing to continue to develop the airship. Just as the actual structure and components have advanced over the years, so too has the cockpit, which is now highly advanced and allows for a much reduced pilot workload compared to older versions of the Goodyear blimp. Training takes about six months to a year to learn how to fly it. Love it. I wouldn't trade it for anything. I love it. I wouldn't trade it for anything, yeah. It just doesn't fly like any other thing you've flown, so that's why it's the uniqueness of it. Going out on a fair weather day is different from moving it from Akron, Ohio to Los Angeles, California. I mean, you're talking aerostatics, you're talking weather, you're talking wind, dust storm, helium management. I mean, it's a lot. And the main difference between kind of us is how we travel and other people travel. When I, you know, come into bad weather, you know, close in an airplane, I could, you know, land and have a cup of coffee. And this thing, I need a crew and a mast and everything to land. So coordination is the utmost importance. And also having a plan A, B, C, and sometimes D. It's interesting to say the least. I mean, it is. I mean, you think about the storms that develop in the summer and stuff like that, you got to know what, you know, how it's going to develop. Top speed for winds is published at 35 knots, but sometimes you might call that a little short of that. But you really got to know how to read the weather, how it's going to develop, and what options you have. I mean, if we want to get somewhere, we usually set it for like 55 or so, 55 knots we're traveling at. Passenger rides, 35 knots, and it's rated for, you know, top speed 70 knots in it. Usually about a thousand feet above the ground everywhere we go. We have valves that let air out. So we have two small air bags, one in the front and one in the back, which make up for the lost volume of helium. So we either blow air into those bags or we let air out of those bags. If there's a climate or sand or there's changes in pressure, those valves are right here, and we have our blowers right here, which are all automatic. So there's a fan inside there, and it's just blowing air in the bag. So I just shut the fan off, and usually that happens automatically. So it kicks on and off like a furnace does in your house. But there's a air valve right there. So right there, I'm letting air out of the front ballonet. So that's manually, and it can do it automatically too. So if it raises the pressure so high, it'll come off at sea. Also, we use the air bags for trim. So if you have more air in one bag or not, you can use it like a teeter-totter to trim the ship so it flies nice where you want it to. Down the center console here, so we have mixture like a regular piston-powered aircraft. Three engines, four propellers. And we have a mixture. We have an RPM setting. A thrust lever controls our pitch blade. So that we control thrust with pitch on the blades. So those are all three for the front engines, and the thrust levers for the front are right here. The thrust lever for the back engines right here. We also have swivels. So it's a vertical takeoff and landing aircraft. So we can swivel the front engines, and when they swivel, they swivel in unison. So they keep the same angle. So we can go from zero back to 120 degrees. And also the thrust can be positive, or we can put it in reverse. The back engine, there's a pod back there that we can swivel the pusher prop 90 degrees down. So when I go into takeoff and landing, I swivel that prop down so it's facing the ground. And once it's facing the ground, I control my pitch with that prop. So we push air through it or suck air back through it. And once I go into takeoff and landing configuration, which is 90 degrees down, all my control is on the stick. It controls the RPM and boost manifold pressure on the airship. So when I get released from the mast, those lights are going to go from green on the tower right there to red. And once I have a red light, I know the cup's released. So all I do is put the airship into the reverse and back up away from the mast. And then the mast will back away from me too. So we separate the two. And then all I do is I'll swing the swivels up to about 60 degrees or so, maybe a little more depending on what kind of day it is. Swing the swivels up, wait for those to come up. And I can see those right on the ICAS right here. And once they're ready, I give the signal to the crew chief to take off, which is this. And then I'll just hammer the thrust and we'll go up into the air. Once we get at a safe, kind of a safe altitude, I'll start slowly moving the swivels forward and they'll start coming down. And then we'll start propelling ourselves through the air. So the bag is shaped like an airfoil. So once I start gaining airspeed, we create lift. And that's how the airship flies, would lift over the bag. A lot of static lift is because of the helium, but our dynamic lift was which makes us fly. The reason we're just outside Akron, Ohio, is that this facility, which is known as the Wingfoot Lake Airship Base, is the central hub for the Goodyear airship fleet. It's their manufacturing, maintenance, and flight operations hub. The headquarters for the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company itself is actually a few miles up the road in Akron proper. Fun fact, this is the oldest active airship base in the world, dating back to 1917. Okay, maybe it's time to go see what this thing is like to actually fly. Jason got to fly it over in New York. Thank you. Meanwhile, Ian got the extra special treatment and was able to fly the blimp from point A to point B after attending Oshkosh, a very rare treat. It may not be the fastest way to get home, but it certainly is one of the most unique. After a week of carrying aviation enthusiasts high above Oshkosh and performing for hundreds of thousands of people at the afternoon air shows, it was my turn to fly the Goodyear blimp on a much less glamorous, but no less important journey. Our job was to ferry the blimp from Oshkosh to DuPage Airport, west of Chicago, normally a three and a half hour flight. We started the trip with a 21 knot headwind and routed around severe storms, giving us a total flight time of about five hours. Throughout the flight, it was impressive to watch how the pilots handled the workload. There's no autopilot in the blimp and maintaining an altitude and course in the massive airship requires constant control stick inputs and air transfer between the fore and aft ballonet. The pair of pilots fly one hour on, one hour off, to ensure that each pilot is well rested during a long flight. Flying the blimp over a long distance is very much like being on a boat, only the motion of the ocean is affecting the As we made our way south toward Chicago, we passed over multiple groups of people waving up at the blimp. One of the more surreal aspects of flying just a bit over a thousand feet off the ground with the windows open is that you can wave right back. Because of the poor weather all along the route, we tacked west to let a line of severe storms pass through the Chicago area before landing. The landing and docking sequence for the blimp is unique. The blimp touches down and is then winched onto the mast by remote control. But that's not the end of the landing. Because of the fuel burn, the blimp needs to be weighed down before it can be shut down. So as we sat there, engines running, with pilots still making control inputs, three members of the ground crew climbed aboard while other members began putting water in the ballast tank. If the blimp is attached to the mast and too light, there's a chance it could stand on end right over the mast. Go to the store, buy a gallon of milk, dump the milk out, put helium in it and multiply that by 2.2 million and that's how much helium is inside the airship. That's a lot of helium. What kind of structure are we talking about? What is it made out of? All that good fun stuff. If you want to walk down here, we can kind of look at that. Sure. So the airship is really unique. There's a lot of carbon fiber and there's a lot of specialized aluminum inside the airship. So the airship has three longerons that run nose to tail. There's one on the top and on the side where the actual engines bolt to on the side. This is aluminum longeron. That's what that feels like. Feels like a nice racing bike. This is a section of the composite triangle. Try that. My bike just got a lot more expensive. Didn't it? Yeah. And a lot lighter too. This weighs nothing. Yes. This is all carbon fiber? All carbon fiber. So really the advantage of carbon fiber is weight. Weight to strength ratio. Carbon fiber is awesome. What you see is we have an envelope that's going to go over top of the frame. You got the little point that's coming out. That's called our spindle or our nose spindle. And that's for mooring the airship at night time. So when the airship is not flying, it's on the mast. And this spindle fits inside of a big cup on our mast truck and it locks in and holds it. And that's what holds the airship. And that's what, you know, holds the airship when it's not flying. And as we work our way back, this is the envelope. This is the structure's inside. On the bottom here, that's our passenger gondola. So we have a landing gear on the front. It's a stationary landing gear. It does not retract. The gondola is there for all our, you know, flight management deck, our passenger seating. We even have a bathroom in the airship. So really cool. And then our engines are on the side. Our engines, the engines are stable, but the propellers articulate, right? So the gearbox's propellers come up 120 degrees and go back to zero. And as we work our way back, we have a left landing gear. And that aft landing gear is also stationary. It's straight down. And then we also have our flight controls. So our flight controls are here. They're fly-by-wire and they're all composite structure. And they are mounted here. If you, back on the picture where I showed you the big triangles, that's where they mount. And then back here is our aft engine. We have a unique situation because we have two propellers on our aft engine. And these propellers are really there for handling the airship when we're coming in, landing, and taking off. So when the airship, as it comes in, as we get below 15 knots, the control surfaces lose efficiency. So they're not as efficient as we want them to be. So what we've done is when we come into land, we will swivel that main propeller down. And when we do that, this propeller here on the side becomes active and it's tied to the side stick. So both propellers are tied to the side stick. This acts like an elevator. That acts like a rudder. And basically we can turn this airship on a dime. So that system on the aft engine allows us to land and take off with four people. The old airships, the GZ20A, that 1970 truck I was telling you about, we needed 12 to 15 people to land that thing because we did not have that capability. So that's the game changer for this airship, is that aft engine and those two propellers back there. And typically we don't fly in the snow and ice. We don't do snow and ice. Airships are not good for that. It'd be hard to de-ice one of those. It would be very difficult. That's a lot of surface area to try to de-ice. So in the wintertime here, we do our heavy maintenance here at Wingfoot. We take rain into consideration because the thing with the rain that we tend to forget is that there's a huge surface area here. So when you collect rain, the fabric, the water gets on the fabric. The fabric does absorb, it doesn't bleed through, but it can kind of absorb a little. So you can pick up 700, 800, 900 pounds of weight sitting on the mast if you get a heavy enough rainstorm. And that can have an impact on how the ship performs on the mast. So when we're outside and we're anytime, anytime there's helium in the airship, there's somebody with the airship. So in particular when we're outside, we're watching that we're very close. We have to watch that close because we don't want the ship to get too heavy because if it goes up or down, it can, you know, too heavy, it can damage the landing gear. There's restrictions there. So we have somebody on watch and they'll manage the ballast. We have a water ballast tank inside the PAX gondola. We can dump water. We can shove ballast out. We can transfer fuel from the aft tank to the forward tank. We can move air from the aft ballonet to the front ballonet. So there's a lot of flexibility with this airship. And this is the airship fabric. Oh cool. Right. So this is the outside. That's the outside. And this is the inside. So this is a polyurethane based material. And on the outside is, it's gray. It's a real thin material. It's about a mil thick, mil to a mil and a half. It's called Tedlar. And Tedlar is in the Teflon family. Okay. And it's made by DuPont. And so we have Tedlar here. So we had a partnership with, Goodyear had a working partnership with DuPont a while back when we started this project. They were the manufacturers of Tedlar. And we asked them if they could make it in gray. And they go, sure. So we bought a bunch of gray Tedlar and we have it here. So we go to manufacture our envelopes. We just send it out and they bond that together with the substrate below. We don't have the substrate. They supply that, but we supply all the gray. So basically if there's helium in the airship, someone's piloting it 24 hours a day. So the engines aren't running, but we're out there manning it. But someone's making sure that it's flying. Absolutely. Yep. So it's constantly flying. It's constantly in motion. Yes. It's constantly in motion. Yes. It's still in motion. It's constantly in motion. Yes. Yeah. It's really, from a standpoint of simplicity, you can't get any simpler than a Lycoming engine. Reliability is super high. Landing gears, you guys can see, right? And then all you got to do is just, can you just come right over here? There's not a lot of pressure on the airship right now, probably about 160 bar. When it's in flight, there's a lot more pressure. Yeah. Because we're a lot more tight. Yeah. A lot more tighter. Yeah. Because we want that aerodynamic shape. Because when we have wind coming across, we want that fabric to be taunt. So the wind doesn't create drag on the envelope and cause problems. It's like a tent where you want it to be. Exactly right. So if your tent's a little floppy like this and the winds pick up, your tent goes away, right? The way we get inside is right here. Okay. We open this up. We drop this down. There's a sleeve and we can go in the aft ballonet when there's helium in here. When there's no helium in it, we can just open up the sleeve on the inside and climb through. It's like walking in a big giant room. So it's really cool too. What's unique to this airship is that if you go to the, somebody goes to the tail and somebody goes to the nose and you face away from each other, we can talk like this and we can hear each other. It transmits sound like you wouldn't believe. So there's controls in the cockpit, but they open and they close. The LED sign is held on with, I tell people this, bungees and rope. That's old school technology. That's airship, right? With all the new technology in the airship, we're still using strings and bungee to hold the sign on. From the outside, looking at it, man, it looks really simple, but when you get inside of it, it's very complex. The deeper we've gone, the more complex it gets. Yeah, absolutely. When we moor, we need a 500 foot circle, clean circle that we can move the airship around. So sometimes that's a little hard to find. So that's really, we really spend a lot of time scoping airports. And when we went to this airship, I needed a 30,000 pound tug. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a 30,000 pound tug that was articulating that fit my budget. So I found 50,000 pound tugs that fit my budget that were articulating that I could modify. And we did that. So these are the first gen. We're working towards developing and talking about another, the next gen. So are these aircraft? Yes, they're aircraft tugs. They're military tugs. Okay. And they're used for moving big airplanes. And I'm like, well, the weight works, right? You know, it's just a little bit bigger than what I need. So I tell everybody, this is like a fine piece of China. And these are two bulldozers trying to handle it. So we got to be careful, right? You know, this was the truck, as you guys can see, you know, it's a very complex vehicle. The guys that work on it are really good, but they're familiar with PLC circuits. They're familiar with electronics. It's got hydraulics. It's got its own generators to supply power to the airship. So it's well equipped. We can put this in the field and it'll sustain the airship and hold the airship for as long as we want it to. Yeah. Hey, Xavier, I'm here in Iceland. Where's the blimp at? Iceland? No, I said it's in Essen. Hold on a second. You said the blimp is here in Iceland. If you want to fly it, get over here. Yes. Essen. Oh man. No blimpy for you, I think. No, good year blimpy. Why do I never get to fly you? Okay. Plan B. I'm going to continue on to New York and I'm going to get on a plane full of dogs. Dogs? Yes. I'm going to promo that video now, actually. Stay tuned for that folks. Good year blimp. I'm going to find you. We're going to fly together. It's going to happen.