You might think airships are a relic of the past, and you wouldn’t be wrong. The world’s most famous floating behemoth, Goodyear’s blue-and-yellow blimp, hasn’t gotten an update since the 1970s—and what’s more, its design hasn’t changed since the 1920s.
But that changes with the Wingfoot One, a new airship that Goodyear designed along with storied airship builder Luftschiffbau Zeppelin (yes, the same zeppelin of hydrogen-filled Hindenburg fame). Zeppelin’s hopes for a high-tech, dirigible-driven future largely went up in smoke with the Hindenburg. But today’s helium-filled design could propel us into a new age of flight, minus the airborne conflagrations.
What’s new about the ship? “It’s longer, it’s faster, it’s bigger, it’s better,” says Doug Grassian, senior manager of airship communications. At 246 feet, the new model is about 50 feet longer than its predecessor—a size made possible by a new type of interior frame. Until now, Goodyear has only flown traditional blimps, with soft, inflatable bodies, but this airship sports a semi-rigid skeleton composed of aluminum and carbon fiber trusses. That frame, packed with 297,527 cubic feet of non-flammable helium, makes the ship more aerodynamic and more buoyant—it can lift 700 pounds more than its predecessor.
With a rigid frame, the new ship can hold an additional engine, bringing the current number up to three. The new engines are vectored, maneuverable so the ship can hover in place and take off and land like a helicopter. The added stability will help the ship get better TV shots when covering sporting events. And the extra oomph allows this ship to reach 73 miles per hour, instead of 50. “The boost in speed opens up opportunity for us to get to new places and cover more events,” Grassian says. “Before it might have taken two days to reach Atlanta from South Florida. Now we can do it a day.”
Wingfoot One is the first of three airships that will be built in this model.
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