Goodyear blimp goes down (CNN)
Luckily, no one was hurt. Looks like the blimp is toast.
Fortunately Goodyear has two other blimps in service. I never thought about it before, but I always thought there was only one. Learn something new everyday.
Well, it’s a damn pity, if you ask me. We live only about 8 miles from the hangar, and it really is a lot of fun watching it fly overhead. Very loud, though - it’s like having two single-engine planes fly over you, very slowly and very low.
The storms yesterday really were something else. Started late afternoon, like always for this time of year - we’re in the “rainy season,” and when a thunderstorm breaks out, it really makes it worth everyone’s while, if you’re into white-knuckle driving and roof leaks. Went out to meet friends at a local bar last night, after the worst of it was over, and the barman said he was with his dad when they heard the blimp go overhead. His father commented that the engines sounded especialy bad. Little did they know…
I remember reading a couple of years ago that the one in California went out of control and crashed into a huge manure pile. No-one was injured, but management said that it was pilot negligence, and someone was in deep shit.
OK, I made that last part up.
The damage might not be as bad as it looks. A few tears and punctures in the gas bags, patch 'em up and fly on.
The Goodyear Blimp in SoCal used to irritate me. Its field was right off the 405. Whenever it took off or landed, people on the already-slow freeway would have to slow down to watch it. Grrrrr!
As a pilot, I was always taught to ‘Fly the airplane!’ That is, no matter what else happens, keep flying. It’s a pity that people are not taught to ‘Drive the car!’ Now, I know that the Blimp is neat to watch; but there are better places for it than on the freeway. If you miss it, it will fly the next day. Take the kids on an outing and park the car – but not on the freeway!
ISTR that someone deliberately flew a radio-controlled airplane into one of the Blimps several years ago.
crap, that’s two air accidents in a week in my neck of the woods. I think I’m going to go have to start working from home, man.
If this turns out to be beyond repair, can it be replaced? Does Goodyear still have the necessary production facilities?
I remember hearing about other blimp crashes, but they never seem to kill people. I’m pretty impressed.
I’d like to see blimp races at Reno. I think they’d be fun. I can imagine them bouncing off of each other round the pylons. Boing!
I asked Goodyear about it years ago, and they said that they weren’t interested in blimp racing. Apparently their lighting system was so heavy it would put them at a competitive disadvantage.
But it would be fun to watch! 
Slightly off subject. I know an elderly woman who grew up in New Jersey. Her home was under the flightpath of the Zeppelins that flew into Lakehurst. They would wave to the passengers. She remembers waving to those in the Hindenburg as it passed over(they were low enough to see tiny faces). That was the evening it crashed and burned. She didn’t witness that, but it’s kind of eery to think that in less than an hour a number of the people she had seen were dead.
Yep, they still make 'em in Akron, OH.
(I only know that because my granfather was working on a government contract that proposed having blimps patrol the DMZ in Korea and spent a lot of time up in Akron working with the Goodyear folks.)
That would be awesome. The Goodyear blimps can reach speeds over 55mph, IIRC. But I think there are so few models flying, with such different performances, that the race won’t be even close. I’m guessing the Zeppelin NT, with its three vectored thrust propellers and 77mph top speed, would run circles around the Goodyears.
Good to hear Goodyear’s still making them, thanks.
Here’s a tale of a much smaller, but much funnier blimp crash.
holy crap, scylla left, too? 
That’s the one I piloted once. (No, I didn’t crash.)
–Cliffy
Where do you live, Daithi Lacha? I live in Boca Raton and work in Ft. Lauderdale, I got hit with the worst of those storms yesterday on my commute home on I-95. What fun…
It’s rumbling out there right now, probably gonna have the same shit on today’s drive home…
The website linked just above your post bears this out. Says ~50mph top speed for the one that crashed.
Yep, parking lot here is already flooded. Rumbles started about 3pm.
Where are you at Mynn?
Wonderful, just wonderful. How I wish there were a way to work this gem into everyday conversation!