Airship was once a popular
means for travel. Airship was considered as ultimate luxury on air. The airship
of yesteryears were enormous. It was complete with dining hall, piano room with
bar, individual cabin with beds and washrooms. However compared to it’s size,
it could carry very few people. And the infamous airship disaster that was
caught on camera had with time decreased the popularity of airships.
Goodyear blimp, with its
present day fleet does not have a blimp but is continuing with the name blimp.
A blimp is where the envelope is non-rigid and is dependent on the air inside
to maintain the shape of the blimp. Present day Goodyear blimp is semi rigid. The
Goodyear blimp uses Helium (instead of the highly explosive Hydrogen). Although
it is true that performance of Hydrogen is better than Helium, in terms of
lifting capability, but Helium is safer to use.
Inside the Goodyear blimp
there is a cockpit area where the pilot operate the blimp and the cabin area
where the passengers enjoy the beautiful view through the large windows of the
cabin. The beautiful aspect about the windows are one could open them and enjoy
the draft as the blimp floats in the air. There is no physical partition
between the cockpit and the cabin.
Goodyear blimp is operated
by the Goodyear Tire and Rubber company. It is primarily used for advertisement
purposes and capturing aerial view of live sporting events for television.
Goodyear blimp rides are provided to corporate guests of the company and members
of the press media. Although no public rides are provided but it often do offer
some limited public rides at certain places.
Goodyear blimp provide us a remembrance of the yesteryears where airships was a common experience. However research and development for safer, better, and efficient airship travel is being pursued. And may be in years to come, airship will again be common in the sky.
TO KNOW WHY AIRSHIP IS NOT COMMON THESE DAYS WATCH THE FOLLOWING VIDEO: