Flying a Blimp Is Way Trickier Than You’d Expect

Goodyear

Goodyear’s newest airship, just christened Wingfoot One, is now cruising the skies in all its newfangled glory. From the ground, the redesigned dirigible doesn’t look that different—it’s bigger, sure, but not much else. Not so from the cockpit. “From a pilot’s standpoint, it’s a night-and-day difference from the old model to the new airship that we’re flying,” says Goodyear pilot Derek Reid.

Pilots flying the old model operate a wheel and rudder system, like old-timey boat captains. The new model feels more like a videogame, with a joystick controlling pitch and yaw. A control panel displays electronic feedback from all flight control surfaces, and vectored engines can swivel in any direction, allowing the ship to take off and land like a helicopter and hover in place.

For all the innovation, though, the Wingfoot still moves on the relaxed timescale of an airship—it has a maximum speed of 73 miles per hour, compared to the old ship’s 50. “In order to be a good blimp pilot, you have to have patience—you aren’t going anywhere fast,” says Reid. “If you want to move fast, get in a Boeing 747.” (Typical cruising speed: 567 miles per hour.)

Despite those slow speeds, blimps are notoriously difficult to fly. (And with less than 40 blimp pilots in the world, it’s one of the rarest jobs on the planet.) There is no “flying by the numbers,” no set altitudes, airspeeds or power settings. The ship is so impacted by air pockets, wind and weather that a pilot needs to adapt moment-by-moment, operating by sense and intuition. “It’s seat-of-the pants flying,” says instructor pilot Mike Dougherty. “It’s different every time. No two take offs and landings are the same.”

Nor are any two airships the same. “Anyone that’s been around an airship will tell you that they have personalities,” says Reid, “little qualms that you have to get used to. Each one is different. It may sound like a superstition, but it’s really true.” Those who work around airships believe they take on the attitudes of their crews. Reid says he hasn’t figured out Wingfoot quite yet, but that it’s similar to its elders in at least one respect: “Even in a brand new ship like this, you still get that physical, romantic kind of flying that you don’t get in too many other aircraft.”