When You're Done Flying the Goodyear Blimp, You Don't Just Tie It Down and Go Home

[@pyootchnich]

Hats off to Goodyear for keeping the commitment to this relatively novel form of marketing.

[@dougcapehart]

That, and they're the only all-American tire brand left.

[@deathwizxx]

@@dougcapehart cooper as well unless that's changed since I have been out of the tire business. American tires aren't really worth it though in my experience Michelin is just about as good as it gets for street tires

[@carlosandleon]

"novel"

[@gillespriod5509]

Novel? LMAO

[@natewhite7973]

@@gillespriod5509 What makes it not novel...?

[@freedomfalcon]

Man, blimpin' aint easy.

[@surebrah]

well played

[@andie_pants]

Nice!

[@james-faulkner]

Nice Ice-T reference! O.G. Track one Squeeze the trigger, syndicate fool! Ice T Pimpin aint easy! OG Any hick wrestling reference is a faker.

[@omnipotentgoku]

But somebody gotta do it.... (Wouldn't Leave ya hangin)

[@jr.ramirez5798]

I like how u think brother brother

[@TwoYaks]

Oh, man, there was easily content here for three videos. The mechanics and avionics alone deserved more than under two minutes. It all blew by too quickly!

[@rrickrose1]

I agree

[@VictoryAviation]

This is by far the most in depth explanation of how a modern airship works. Thank you! On my first deployment to Iraq I was trained to be an aerostat operator. Ours was 17m in length. We had to make calculations for how much helium to fill based upon lift, temperature variation between day and night, baro pressure, etc. It was an awesome experience and I learned a lot about lighter than air operations and aerial surveillance.

[@JimBob1937]

What is the advantage of airships in your application? Just curious.

[@VictoryAviation]

@@JimBob1937 For our application it was the cheapest and most practical solution for nearly 24/7 aerial surveillance at that altitude. The only alternatives are drones or full scale aircraft. The aerostat is tethered to the ground base station with a kevlar wrapped cable. It doesn’t fly around on its own.

[@JimBob1937]

@@VictoryAviation , ah thanks, that makes sense. I was thinking it was moving and acting in place of a plane... but then that just seems like a crazy easy target. In your case it sounds like a way to get stationary high altitude surveillance, which makes sense, as hopefully the general area would be secured, but you'd be keeping an eye on pretty wide radius from the ship/aerostat, plus it would be low energy as you say.

[@VictoryAviation]

@@JimBob1937 Exactly. You are correct in saying that the system was a target. It’s the highest point for mortar and rocket teams to aim at. On the deployment where I was an aerostat operator, the aerostat surveillance was so effective that by the time I was deployed, we only had one or two attacks the entire year. That’s how important the system was for deterrence. They knew if they fired on us, we would have their coordinates within seconds and send out a quick reactionary force (QRF) team to take care of them. This was just outside of Tikrit. The area used to be so bad that the chow halls would be attacked at nearly every meal.

[@michaelhelmick8225]

The Navy had MZ3A (American Blimp) as a test bed. The Army attempted LEMV (Northrop Grumman / HAV) and the USAF attempted Blue Devil (TCOM). Blue Devil was a traditional airship and LEMV was a hybrid. Both were intended to provide persistent surveillance in theater. Both were cancelled due to cost/schedule overruns. The tethered aerostats that Matt talked about (e.g. RAID) were cheap persistent surveillance in comparison but their field of view was substantially less that what either LEMV or Blue Devil would've provided.

[@tricknfa]

I Used to work for Goodyear and got to ride on the blimp over Charleston SC, amazing experience. Those ground crews work their asses off. We got to spend extra time up so the crew could have a rest.

[@BeKindToBirds]

Literally one of the most interesting videos on an aircraft I've ever watched. Airships are so rare and the Goodyear Blimps are incredibly sophisticated and have been around forever so this was a great glimpse into another world. I'm not surprised to hear how they endure storms, just like old tall ships at anchor! Really a lot of aspects of this aircraft made me think of how they intersect with old tallships.

[@daffodildeb]

We moved to the Houston area in 1975, and bought a house a few blocks from the blimp base in Spring (now a shopping center). We used to watch them all the time, and of course they flew over our house at a very low altitude. I remember one winter night when I heard it approach multiple times in the wee hours of the morning, maybe 4 am, and abort the landing attempts. Finally landed on about the 4th or 5th time. I think they were returning from a football game in Dallas and got caught in freezing rain. As slow as those things fly, that would have been about the right time to arrive at the base. Really enjoyed living there, and it was a sad day when the base closed and the hangar was dismantled. We even watched them build a new blimp, and for a short time old and new flew in formation over Houston.

[@pamagee2011]

Having operated at airfields where the blimp has been moored I can tell you it is the worlds. greatest. windsock.

[@ColKorn1965]

In days gone by if there was an event at what was once known as Charlotte Motor Speedway the blimp would be moored at our local airport 40 miles away. The crew took my 90+ year old neighbor into the gondola for a tour. It made his day.

[@dbfcrell8300]

When I was about 13, I flew the Goodyear Mayflower blimp. This was back in the 1970's when Capt. Chambers let me take the controls over Miami Beach. I have a pic of me in the blimp after I ran down a causeway and through the air field to get to to it in time for departure. I was lucky to get a seat and to get there on time via the Miami bus system. They never charged me a penny for the ride. I will never forget that day. ANOTHER STORY, I also have a pic of a Goodyear blimp over my house in MA in the late 90's that was out of control. They were trying to land but it was real windy and I think they were having engine trouble.

[@williamconrad1087]

GY blimp was stuck over my house once too. Winds of of Lake Michigan. They turned away from the headwind and plotted a different course.

[@dbfcrell8300]

@@williamconrad1087 It bet some of the blimp pilots have some great stories to tell.

[@manariitane5167]

Around 1980, my son (high school student) and I rode the Mayflower blimp from Opa Locka Airport in Miami when Goodyear was giving free rides. You had to call to make a reservation. Great experience for us.

[@LeeryMuscrat]

living in Akron, seeing the Goodyear Blimp flying around is one of my little life pleasures i always look forward to. i pass by the blimp hanger off of rt 224 all the time and its always neat seeing it being prepped for the day or landing to be hangered

[@BrianReeves2]

I always looked forward to driving past the hangar outside Houston in the years they were based in Spring. Very rarely did I actually catch the blimp in action, I didn't live there just passed through on occasion.

[@aelumley]

It was about 45 (gulp) years ago when I was visiting a friend in Florida and we went to see the Enterprise where it was moored. We went into the office, my friend said we were GA pilots and wanted to take a look at the Blimp and the person behind the desk said sure. We got to sit in it, it was very cool and such a nice memory of everyone being so friendly.

[@FlightChops]

Super interesting stuff here - really well done. I screwed up my schedule and missed my chance to fly / film the blimp at the event, and you guys did a great job.

[@AVweb]

Thanks, Steve.

[@MrWATCHthisWAY]

One item he didn’t mention is from time to time the crew performs helium quality checks and if the helium in the airship becomes contaminated with other gasses through bleeding the crew will run the helium through a truck unit that filters and purges out contaminates to achieve a 99.99% pure helium. Not sure what the acceptable level of purity is for these airships but the purer the helium the more predictable & efficient the airship performs. I love airships and if they didn’t require such a large compliment of personnel to maintain we would be using them for search air rescue to go out and get survivors from people in distress off our coastlines. They couldn’t bring them back as fast as a helicopter but they could stay on station much longer, but sometimes you need to get injured people medical help immediately.

[@ParadigmUnkn0wn]

He didn't mention it because that's not a thing. 98% helium is going to provide 98% of the lift that 100% would provide. That's all of ~300lbs difference. They add and remove more ballast for heating and cooling than they would need to account for any helium impurity. It's a non-issue, and you can't just "filter" out everything except helium. The only time the helium gets "filtered" is probably when it's valved out for maintenance/inspection and is hopefully recovered 'cause helium is a limited resource.

[@MrWATCHthisWAY]

@@ParadigmUnkn0wn - that funny because we filtered ours. And it wasn’t as much as filtering as it was separating the molecules.

[@dano8613]

@@ParadigmUnkn0wn if its limited and im not saying it isn't but if it is then why is it so easily obtained at places like Walmart for useless stuff and its rather cheap? When I say limited im assuming you mean precious resource.

[@SoapinTrucker]

I was so fascinated by the Goodyear Blimp as a kid in the early 70's!!!!! :)

[@ddegn]

This is just a quick preview of the full length video you'll release soon? Right? Please! This was a lot of fun and interesting but there's a lot more about these blimps I'd love to know. Thanks for sharing this.

[@trekkie1995]

Bring back memories. I used to watch this fly over our neighborhood in Texas during christmas and we would pass the hanger along I45 just outside Houston

[@FrankConforti]

Way back in 1985 I had the honor of going up in the Goodyear blimp from Pompano Beach back when they didn’t offer rides to the public. We boarded much the same way as it is depicted in this video and spent an hour or more flying along the coast just over the water less than a mile offshore. It was absolutely a bucket list level experience. When we headed back to the landing field it was amazing to experience the steep angle of the approach to the fixed tower. Landed as soft as a feather. The ground crew were very efficient in docking the ship. I was sad it was over so soon. The most amazing part of the flight was the total lack of worrying about falling from the sky. It was so natural. I’d do it again in a heartbeat!

[@195511SM]

Was anyone around in the late 1970s.....who remembers a model of the Goodyear blimp? I think it was simple snap-together kit made by Revell. About 10" long, it included an electric motor....that turned a drum....on which you could place your little homemade signs. The kit came with a pad of paper & a few colored pens.

[@socalfun64]

Yep, I had one. I was born in 64. That was a really cool “toy”. You could “program” it to say various things and it even scrolled the messages. But, for some reason (cough cough, the 80’s) I can’t remember any of the details. I do remember I loved it. Living in Redondo Beach we would see the one moored off the 405 Freeway all the time when it was there or flying around. It would display many different things including moving simple graphics. Thanks for reminding me of this cool time in my life growing up in the South Bay, Los Angeles.

[@SoapinTrucker]

YES! I had one, 1975 give or take a year!!!! :)

[@SoapinTrucker]

@@socalfun64 Hi Neighbor!!!!! I lived in SoCal Beach Cities most of my younger years! :)

[@saxteacher8110]

I had one of these! I remember it came with premade signs and you could make your own by coloring in dots!

[@jpbaley2016]

A thousand years ago during the Statue of Liberty celebration, my boyfriend and I decided to watch the fireworks from the landfill island just south of the Bayonne Navy base. We got there early. We were standing on the top watching all the boats in the harbor trying to pick out my sister’s sloop, when we noticed the dull roar of an engine getting louder and louder. We looked up and we watched as the GoodYear blimp was getting closer and closer as it descended. It passed less than 30 feet above us. We were jumping and waving as we got buzzed by the GY blimp. I had a tour of the Lakehurst Naval Base given by a retired Navy man. I had no idea they still had blimps stationed there. Pretty cool up close.

[@glennwatson]

Lol, love the fancy "Don't correct us in the comments on the blimps thing" intro animation.

[@the_mowron]

I was thinking that if it wasn't semi-rigid, it would just be a balloon. If it had a full rigid frame, it would be a dirigible/Zeppelin. Since it isn't either of those, it's a blimp.

[@Bortnoone]

Now that was really interesting. I’ve always thought I might want to be a blimp pilot instead of a lawyer. Easy to watch football games and golf tournaments

[@thedailytoast4872]

Haha, never thought of that benefit!

[@demef758]

At least as a lawyer, you get to spew a lot of hot air!

[@Bortnoone]

@@demef758 hydrogen

[@clarencegreen3071]

@@Bortnoone Hindenburg

[@ThePikeywayne]

Thank you for sharing this one, what an amazing piece of equipment

[@jovangrbic97]

Nice to see Zeppelin pride in German engineering, still using German on some of the controls Alt. Statik for switching to an alternate static source for example, and the chalk part number on the shot ballast locker 'Klappe vorne RH"... nice!

[@bripslag]

The current generation of Goodyear airships is the first German made model. Previous generations were all made by Goodyear themselves. These NT airships represent a huge technological step forward compared to the ones they replaced.

[@lawrencemartin1113]

Fantastic. They are seriously time consuming and demanding machines to look after. Back in the early 1990's I was working part time at an airfield here in the South East of England, Fairoaks, and we had the then 'FUJI' branded airship with us over a couple of summers. I was so lucky to get a two and a half hour trip one evening, around the local area at low level. It was incredible and I will never forget that amazing feeling of buoyancy you experience. It seemed to do everything at thirty five knots! That one was obviously an older design and had a massive ships wheel like device between the front seats arranged fore and aft. I think that was the basic trim wheel allowing for large inputs to be made quite fast. It had a number of toggles on cords across the overhead roof panel for the Ballonets and two Lycoming ducted fan engines. I clearly remember we could manually slide the long window panels downwards to sill height (they retracted into the walls of the gondola) and kneeling on the floor, could lean out to see below! Mad. I love these things and thanks for the great film here on this mighty machine!

[@jamesmccartney5731]

Back in the 90s I watched one flying over I-80 backwards due to prevailing winds from a coastal hurricane returning from Daytona to Akron

[@misturchips]

One of my favorite memories was piloting the Goodyear blimp here in SoCal. It was a FANTSTIC chain of events, but I will ikely never have such a fun experience again - took it over the refineries for thermal action, and even stuck my camera out the window to take Queen Mary photos... My friend's Mom has only one thing left on her bucket list, and that's to ride in it. Been trying for years, but have yet to make any headway for her.

[@grommike3726]

This is GREAT!! I’ve been telling strangers that I’m a blimp folder for years! Good stuff to fill my repertoire

[@johnwhite3455]

I saw this bad boy moored right when you get off the interstate my first day at AirVenture, I about ran my car off the road because I couldn't stop staring, so cool!

[@opperhoofdrampeneer8324]

Dear Paul I lost both my grandfathers at an early age, both in painful ways. I miss them a lot. Your easy-going yet authoritative demeanor reminds me of them. Thanks for being my surrogate granddad Paul. It means a lot to me.

[@SoapinTrucker]

?????????????????????????????

[@opperhoofdrampeneer8324]

@@SoapinTrucker What? I shared a genuine emotion...problem with that?

[@triskellian]

I've always loved airships, all eras. When the opportunity came to fly in the one at Airship Ventures, it was something to make time for. Seeing this brought back fond memories of viewing the original Goodyear blimps to the Airship Eureka. By the way, they are a hoot to fly! 🙂

[@Archonch]

My euro ass is happy to hear them speak in Kilogramms and celicius so that I don't need to use my calculator watching a video for once

[@jamesordwayultralightpilot]

I thought Europeans were used to conversion. It's we Americans who always need calculators lol

[@ZeeCaptainRon]

I think another 20 minutes of that might have gotten close to scratching the surface. Fascinating

[@UncleKennysPlace]

The last time I was aboard a tethered blimp (at KLUK) a wind gust picked it up and turned it. Rather an interesting "ride". I grew up with them, pop worked at Goodyear Aerospace (née Goodyear Aircraft, and Goodyear Zeppelin.)

[@MichaelOfRohan]

Well, itll take some pausing, but that intro told you just about everything you could ever want to know about the goodyear aircraft.

[@PurpleObscuration]

This is both interesting and exciting, in the 90's I was lucky enough to ride in one. The one that I got to ride on was located in Carson California. Everything about it is really exciting, the first thing, boarding it ( kind of hilarious if you ask me) about 20 guys in uniforms come out, chase it down, grab the long rope hanging from the nose, the blimp never makes contact with the ground. One guy with an aluminum ladder with two huge 'J' on the top chases down the blimp and hooks the ladder by the 'J' hooks, one person from the blimp climbs down and one new passenger climbs on, this procedure repeats until until the exchange is complete. I have flown by plane and helicopters but nothing is as smooth and gentle as a blimp, the view and experience is beyond belief

[@av8tor261]

Excellent video. Educational. Thank you for posting. I wonder what their annual operation budget is?

[@pabloata4708]

some serious $! =O

[@james1787]

I had no idea how much around the clock care they needed. Interesting, thanks!

[@fredboat]

Pretty slick info and story, Thanks, There use to be one stationed here in North Houston, Tx ,But was removed around 2000.

[@flybobbie1449]

We had Virgin airships based at our field, UK. One day freak snow storm weighed down the airship, couldn't land. So pressed on to next airfield. Crashed on hill side out of control, no one hurt. In past we would see the Goodyear airship for a few days at our field, but not seen for 20 odd years. 9/11 seemed to kill off airships in UK.

[@benjaminelsbury683]

I love the foot pedals and the big wheel. Amazing to ride in. This looks like a newer version than what I rode in. Looks like it holds more people as well

[@derekninabuck5359]

foot pedals and the big wheel are a thing of the past, the GZ-20 model blimps that it sounds like you rode on were retired and decommissioned in 2017, and with goodyear reviving their long lost partnership with the zeppelin company switched to the new Zeppelin NT semirigid airship. It fly's more like a helicopter or vertical takeoff aircraft and has a more airliner style of avionics where you are controlling it with just a joystick. and yes it holds 12 people versus and 7 that the old blimps did and it has an onboard restroom. In my opinion the new airships feel more like an airliner sightseeing type flight versus the unique flying experience the old blimps used to be.

[@tomhorrocks8275]

Such a great experience to fly on this airship!

[@dax8476]

Many thanks for an extremely informative look into the world of Helium Airships!

[@Top10VideosOnTheWeb]

Little bit of trivia: the word dirigible comes from the Latin word “derigo” meaning “to steer” not from the word “rigid” so both blimps and airships such as the Hindenburg are correctly called dirigibles.

[@akaHarvesteR]

In portuguese, the verb 'dirigir' literally means 'to drive'

[@willierants5880]

This "blimp" is a lot different now than the one that I grew up watching out of Sprint, TX which would fly over our homes in Conroe back in the 70's. One time it was just above the tree tops. We were riding our bikes and we could hear it, it was so loud (not electric back then). We came out of the wood (where we were riding) and there it was so close you could almost jump up and touch it. So it seemed to me back then. I would often see it lifting off or landing when we drove by the "Blimp" base driving down I-45. Sometimes I would see it tethered. The "Blimp" base concrete slab is all that remains and the entire area is completely different. That area used to be nothing but open field. It's now all developed.

[@MongooseTacticool]

Interesting :) I've seen parts of an older model when I visited the Western Museum of Flight in Torrance.

[@neogator26]

On my last tour in Iraq we had a RAID-A which was basically the FLIR camera turret from an Apache attack helicopter on an aluminum frame strapped to a 17 meter aerostat balloon. With a price tag of over $2M nobody wanted to have anything to do with it. Since I love balloons I stepped up and became the NCOIC for the following 15 months and loved it. It was very interesting learning the ins and outs of taking care of a balloon that size in a place where sandstorms can roll in with less than 30 minutes notice. The "super heat" concept is interesting because we actually had times where the temperature was so high we could not seem to get enough lift.

[@SmittyAccess]

I remember when I was a kid that Blimp flew over our house all the time in Houston Texas. That was like 30 years ago

[@punchline43]

Impossible, this airship didn't even exist 6 years ago. You wouldn't have forgotten the America (N3A). I doubt it.

[@wrphelan]

Very interesting video of a somewhat unknown operation. Thank you

[@ev1558]

I just saw one overhead this past week in the Indian Lake area, kinda cool :)

[@RickyD1968]

I remember the Good Year blimp flying around Portland Oregon in the 80s but have not seen it since then ???

[@arthousefilms]

That was super interesting!!!!! So many things in the processes were a complete surprise.

[@mattbartley2843]

Years ago I went to a lecture at Torrance by one of N2A's pilots. A few tidbits I remember: As mentioned here, they usually call it "Goodyear Blimp" because the correct "Goodyear Semi-Rigid Airship" is too much of a mouth-full. The engines are Cessna 172 engines with thrust-vectoring. They usually fly simply VFR. They can't fly over the Rams or Chargers football games, because that stadium is right under the short-final approach path for LAX. They have to fly at high altitude over Angels baseball games, because that stadium is in the "temporary" (20 years and counting!) flight restriction area around Disneyland. (And that puts them up with all the airliners in the class C surrounding SNA.) I don't know about other venues. N2A often flies up and down the beaches, and often gives us a good show where I work, near its base in Carson, when it flies right over us. When it's flying downwind on a windy afternoon (often here), it's surprisingly fast. On flightradar24 it's usually shown as a balloon icon.

[@jdwilliams518]

Best blimp info I've seen.. 4.5 stars

[@blauer2551]

Saw the blimp in Ohio the other day off I-75 near Bowling Green I think. It was coming through some low clouds and caught me off guard.

[@geoffreybradford]

While living in ft Lauderdale some years ago , I got a ride and some stick time in the blimp that was the predecessor to this one after a friend won a ride through donating to a charity , then let me go in his place. I was a pilot , the other passenger they let fly wasn’t. But they weren’t exactly worried about abrupt control movements if you get my meaning 😎 An unforgettable experience !

[@GoldenCroc]

Sweet!

[@Kenny-en7wb]

Very good video! Informative and educational..

[@jimjernigan3670]

Great video, Paul. I love the soft focus effect from the Vaseline on your camera phone lens. Reminds me of 'Moonlighting' with Cybil Sheppard and Bruce Willis. Or, maybe you just licked the lens? Just giving you a hard time. Love the videos.

[@bob39434]

Its actually the Good Year Zeppelin now. Its designed by the Zeppelin company and is a semi-rigid airship with a keel.

[@chillylizerd]

I would love to see that maintenance procedure

[@evanbarnes9984]

So cool! I can see why we stopped using rigid airships, though

[@jimz508]

One of their bases is just 24 miles from me. Years ago I met one of the techs, got a tour of one of the ships and the hanger. (Wingfoot)

[@leeadams5941]

Got to fly it at Appleton Wis a bunch of years ago...its not as easy as it looks. This one looks a whole lot more advanced than the one I flew...all I remember is the wheel for up and down and the rudders seemed to have a huge throw to get some input..

[@Comrade_Sensei]

Everybody gangsta until a mad man wearing black tank top stealing this blimp

[@Ostsol]

I honestly never thought about the effects of temperature and air pressure, and the weight of rainwater. It certainly makes proposals for commercialising lighter-than-air craft somewhat more complicated.

[@kr6dr]

Thanks Paul! Very informative.

[@tihspidtherekciltilc5469]

Please do an extended video on this and maybe leave the parts with stats up a little longer as I could barely make it through the first three lines.

[@redrocket5183]

easy peasy fix= hit gearwheel ikon at bottom right screen/slect 'playback speed' change it to .75 or slooower

[@tihspidtherekciltilc5469]

@@redrocket5183 That defeats the purpose of getting a more in depth video.

[@njcaveexplorer]

My one hour ride over NY state was the event of my life!

[@jamesordwayultralightpilot]

Must've covered 3 whole blocks lol

[@RandyBroderick]

Very interesting video Paul, thanks!

[@2fast2nick]

I always wondered about this.. I drive by the spot in LA where they keep it all the time.

[@punchline43]

It was only there for about 4 years prior to your comment though. You might be just as interested in the one that called that base home for the previous 48. It was a real blimp too.

[@privatesector0422]

I could even see the lights of the Goodyear blimp and it read ice cube's a pimp...

[@robertbass9032]

Wow... Has instrumentation changed ! Flew on Eagle a 'couple' decades ago.

[@hovanti]

Thanks much for this, quite interesting! I can only imagine the early 20th century era of the great zeppelins; wish I could have seen the Hindenburg, or at least one of the Navy dirigibles.

[@tsarbomba1]

On an unrelated note I'm still floored by the fact Goodyear allowed them to use their blimp in "Black Sunday". There's an interesting anecdote on the Wiki page as to how they were able to pull it off. Probably never happen today.

[@benjaminelsbury683]

I want to say we were 10k feet high. They fly from place to place but can fit in a semi to transport as well

[@clangerbasher]

Awesome. Glad o be the 1000th up vote. YAY! :)

[@jackraylongiii9663]

lol mine was at 999 when I read your comment so I hit it to make the 1k vote also but I realized I had to hit refresh first lol

[@clangerbasher]

@@jackraylongiii9663 :) It is fun to click up milestone numbers.

[@jackraylongiii9663]

@@clangerbasher sure is!

[@clangerbasher]

@@jackraylongiii9663 :)

[@paddington1670]

"Tower, we seem to have forgotten our ballast, were ascending at 3000fpm, passing two..five..."

[@treadwelljones]

I have wondered all my life how blimps are flown and what makes them tick. Thank you

[@Nicholas-f5]

I met an airship pilot, Fuji, and he let me go inside and check it out when in Austin. 🙏

[@trey1531]

wow! I didn't know ground crew has to monitor the blimp 24/7!

[@kathrynmcmullen2874]

Got to ride it in Tucson, mining companies payed a bit for dump truck tores

[@andypearce5537]

I miss the Houston blimp base. 😭

[@aSinisterKiid]

Wow that was super cool to learn all that information. A lot more technical that I had thought it was. One question that didn't seem to get discussed - What is that black webbing/net on the left side of it for ? Does anyone know ?

[@AVweb]

It's the electronic message sign. Didn't have time to explain it.

[@aSinisterKiid]

@@AVweb OOoooohhh ok. That makes sense now. Thanks for the answer.

[@perryandy2]

It comes with a handy travel pouch

[@Coops777]

That was so interesting thankyou!!!

[@basiltregenza8473]

Fascinating. Of the 3 types of aircraft this is the least well known.

[@farLander1]

Must you forget about the lovely gyrocopter??

[@basiltregenza8473]

@@farLander1 The gyrocopter with the spinning disk or the rotating blades, it does tend to fall into the subcategory between fixed and rotor, doesn’t it? Like the winged seed, something Leonardo da Vinci could dream about.

[@saxteacher8110]

@@basiltregenza8473 no, Gyroplanes don't fall in between fixed wing and rotary wing. They are 100% rotorcraft. (some very early models did have little wings, but today's gyroplanes don't.)

[@saxteacher8110]

Trying to guess what your "three types of aircraft" are. Fixed wing, rotary wing, and lighter than air? What about gliders, powered parachutes, weight-shift aircraft, seaplanes, gyroplanes, powered-lifts...

[@prmath]

Enjoyed this video 👍🏼thank you

[@randomdude1786]

Ya truely a marvel , In short a beautiful ship. Job well done planes and helicopters your learning everyday bet you guy's got pictures hanging on the wall at home. I would

[@TTCS]

We saw this thing fly past our airfield a few years back. Was sick when they xalled us to transition through our airspace.

[@WinginWolf]

Lol imagine just seeing that thing roll back amd forth on the ground xD

[@XzadforSpacefox]

He forgot to mention how many times people shoot the blimps as they pass by. IT's also hard to mount them on the wall if you take one down.

[@Nysvarth]

The hardest part of this job is telling you friends and family that you stand next to a balloon for 8 hours a day.

[@manp1039]

i am wondering if they collect the helium back into tanks when they have to take the helium out of the blimp to do inspections.

[@cazarilolsen4630]

Great video.

[@77thTrombone]

I saw one of these overnighting at the local airport one evening. Sizewise, these current airships seem smaller. The gondola didn't look like it could carry more than 6. If they say they seat 14, I expect they're all inside the gondola. Do they draw straws for who sits on whose lap?

[@phillipbonner5215]

I used to live close to the one in Carson California

[@Kriswixx]

really cool, informative the goodyear digirable didnt have a good ring to it.

[@danielschechter8130]

I would love to fly in that!

[@synysterguitar63]

That would be such a badass job

[@toldt]

So, is it (I think it's called the envelope) made out of Goodyear rubber?