Goodyear launches cigar-shaped craft to replace blimp

LOS ANGELES—The fabled Goodyear Blimp is retiring.

But don’t fret, blimp fans. That big, cigar-shaped thing you’ve seen floating over sports events all your life will still be there. It will also remain instantly recognizable with its blue-and-gold Goodyear logo emblazoned across the side.

It just won’t be, well, technically, a blimp.

But that’s OK, too, because from the ground it won’t look much different from Goodyear’s Spirit of America, which was deflated and disassembled earlier this month after a farewell flight across California.

“It’s a brand new design. It is a much larger airship. It’s a semi-rigid dirigible,” Goodyear’s Priscilla Tasker said of the new fleet of non-blimps replacing the company’s three aging U.S. airships.

In air-speak that means the new model has a fixed structure holding its big, gassy balloon in place. That’s unlike a blimp, which goes flat when the helium is removed.

“But the most impressive features are the glass cockpit that is all fly-by-wire, the most state-of-the-art avionics in airships today,” Tasker said.

The first of the new models, Ohio-based Wingfoot One, took to the sky last year, replacing the 14-year-old Spirit of Goodyear. The last of the old ones, Florida-based Spirit of Innovation, will fly to California next month to replace Spirit of America while its replacement is being built. After that, Spirit of Innovation will be retired.

The new ships, with three engines instead of two, will be able to hit freeway speeds of 73 mph and make less racket getting from place to place. They’ll also be more maneuverable. And they’ll still be carried aloft by helium.