Goodyear Unveils Next-Gen Blimp, First in 45 Years

CommanderFrank

CommanderFrank

Cat Can't Scratch It
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Goodyear was busy proudly showing off the newest airship in its fleet on Friday, the first to have new technology avionics in 45 years. The new blimp (technically a zeppelin) is 246 feet long and can reach speeds of 73 miles per hour.
 
I get beat home regularly by the goodyear blimp commuting home from downtown Los Angeles... pisses me off. That bastard will cross the entire San Gabriel Valley, do a loop or two around the Race Track, then leave the San Gabriel Valley before I can cross 10 miles.
 
schizrade said:
I get beat home regularly by the goodyear blimp commuting home from downtown Los Angeles... pisses me off. That bastard will cross the entire San Gabriel Valley, do a loop or two around the Race Track, then leave the San Gabriel Valley before I can cross 10 miles.
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Isn't Traffic Great! :D

This is one of those strange things that technically is just outdated in about every way, yet still cool. Neat to see them continuing to produce these.
 
Dekoth-E- said:
Isn't Traffic Great! :D

This is one of those strange things that technically is just outdated in about every way, yet still cool. Neat to see them continuing to produce these.
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Hey just because its 'outdated' doesn't mean its completely useless. :D Something that's often lost on John Q Public it seems...
 
Wonder what the realistic range of that thing is. I mean lets assume that it truly is air tight and doesn't leak a single atom of helium, fuel is weight and that thing doesn't act like a sailboat riding the winds\
 
When they say 73mph, I assume they mean with a 70mph tailwind, and it can land in winds up to 5mph? xD

Have they named it yet?

I vote for "Rebel" after Rebel Wilson.
 
xX_Jack_Carver_Xx said:
"Oh the Humanity!!" :eek:

Someone had to. :cool:
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Your doing it wrong..

H0WAM.jpg
 
Ws60 said:
Hey just because its 'outdated' doesn't mean its completely useless. :D Something that's often lost on John Q Public it seems...
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There was a golden era of airship travel that most have forgotten about. Zeppelins were expected to replace trans-Atlantic ocean liners. A few issues stopped development of the air ship concept. #1 was stability in bad weather. The sheer surface area of a blimp or zeppelin made it unmanageable in high winds. Most all of the United States fleet of air ships crashed in storms. #2 The Hindenburg disaster more or less sealed the fate of air ships because it painted a picture of a huge fireball waiting to ignite with people on board. This was unfortunate because most all air ships uses helium as their lighter-than-air gas. The Hindenburg used highly flammable hydrogen because helium was in short supply in German at the time.
Not long after travel by airplane was emerging as an alternate way of air travel. The idea of air ships faded away but not disappeared.

http://qz.com/158611/76-years-after-hindenburg-can-airships-make-an-industrial-comeback/
 
Dr. Righteous said:
There was a golden era of airship travel that most have forgotten about. <snip>

http://qz.com/158611/76-years-after-hindenburg-can-airships-make-an-industrial-comeback/
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Wasn't there tentatively an airship dock planned (and then scrapped) for the Empire State Building? How cool would that have been.

Found it. Apparently it was more stunt than substance, and also helped raise the building's height: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/26/realestate/26scapes.html
 
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