AEROMEDIA
The Italian Aerospace Information Web
by Aeromedia - corso Giambone 46/18 - 10135 Torino (Italy)

A Goodyear Blimp is Back in Italy

The popular airships bearing the Goodyear name, a renowned aviation icon, have been absent from Italian skies for a number of years. This year saw their return. On April, 25, 2011, the ABC A-60 Plus Lightship "Spirit of Safety II" - after a promotional mission in France - crossed the southernmost French-Italian border along the Mediterranean coast, to start a long tour of Italy, not merely for product promotion but also to provide coverage of the Tour of Italy cycle race and a number of the celebrations for the 150th Anniversary of Italy’s Independence.
After climbing over the Appennines, the silver blimp landed at Milan/Bresso airport, where it remained for the following five days. From there, the airship began its tour round the Peninsula which will last till the end of May. The evocatively-named "Goodyear Safety Together Tour" includes a series of collateral events related to the "road security", a subject in which Goodyear invests substantial resources. Along the way, local Goodyear customers and dealers will also be involved.
After leaving Milan, the airship docked at the Turin/Aeritalia airport on May 2 where it remained for a week, giving flights to a number of Goodyear dealers and their families. The 7th of May saw the blimp in action as a steadycam platform for the RAI (Italian TV) for the start of the 94th “Giro d’Italia” (Tour of Italy bike race) with coverage of the team time-trial. From then until May, 29, the blimp will be present at several races of the "Giro", including Alba-Parma, Messina-Etna, Castelfidardo-Ravenna, Conegliano-Gardeccia/Val di Fassa, Belluno-Nevegal, Bergamo-Macugnaga and the race ending in Milan. During this same period, the blimp will also visit other Italian towns such as Lucca, Rome, Capua, Reggio Calabria, Pescara and Ravenna.
Another Goodyear blimp, a genuine Goodyear-made GZ-20A called “Europa”, visited the Turin/Aeritalia airport exactly 30 years ago. In October, 1981, a blimp mooring mast was erected between the then two runways (the larger of which was stupidly truncated three years later, just to make room for a Ministry of Finances office building!) to support a promotional tour over north-western Italy.
From back in the golden age of the airships, some 85 years ago, Goodyear has been strongly related to the lighter-than-air saga. The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company produced more than 300 helium-filled airships of different models, more than any other company in the world. Of these, 261 were constructed under contract by the U.S. Army and Navy, and included the USS "Akron" and "Macon" fighter-carriers, the largest rigid airships ever manufactured in the USA. The remaining airships were destined to commercial operators, of which the first was the "Pilgrim" in 1925.
During WW2, Goodyear-produced airships were employed by the U.S. Navy for coastal patrol, rescue, convoy escort and anti-submarine warfare. Particularly successful, in the war-time period, was the "K Model", 130 of which were delivered (first flight December 8, 1938; length 77 m; volume 12,900 m3).
During the early Cold War era, the Akron (Ohio)-based Company designed and procured to the U.S. Navy further types such as the ZSG-4 three-fin tanker airship (first flight December 1953; volume 14,900 m3) and the large ZPG-2 type (first flight March 3, 1954; length 104.60 m; volume 27,600 m3; powered by two 800 hp radial engines) which made a record 264 hours and 28 minutes flight, lasting from March 4 to 14, 1957.
However, in the same period, U.S. Navy began to slowly but progressively reduce its fleet of airships. With the decline of interest by the military, in the period 1963-1968, Goodyear-Airship Operations concentrated its activity to self promote its brand by operating a small fleet of the GZ-19 non-rigid airship (known as blimps in US jargon), derived from U.S. Navy's L Class model.
Along with a modernization programme for the earlier GZ-19's "Columbia II" and "Mayflower III", the new and slightly larger Model GZ-20A was also developed. Prefix GZ stands for Goodyear-Zeppelin, as a legacy of the partnership between the two companies almost 90 years ago, when Zeppelin brought rigid airship technology to the USA. Of course the collaboration ended well before WW2, but the classification system remained in use. The USS Akron was GZ-1.
Starting from the late nineteen-sixties, a series of four new GZ-20A's were manufactured. They bore evocative fleet names such as "Enterprise", "America" and "Columbia", as part of a long standing tradition. In fact, since 1925, Goodyear had named its airships after the U.S. winners of the America's Cup yacht race, although this practice deviated with the introduction of "Spirit of Akron" in 1987. The Florida-based "Star & Stripes" would be the last to carry this honor.
The new Goodyear blimps were sited in a well spaced network of permanent bases across USA, including Carson (Los Angeles, California), Houston (Texas) and Watson Island (Miami, Florida). The Watson Island base was later moved later to Pompano Beach airport (Fort Lauderdale, Florida).
Since the 1930s, the Goodyear commercial blimps have been fitted with a night sign. These were originally neon tubes or rows of incandescent lamps. Today’s computer-controlled LED system is able to produce multi-coloured lettering, moving images and also deliver public utility messages.
Due to the constant success of the blimps for promotional activity in the USA, Goodyear decided in 1971 to build a GZ-20A airship for public relations operations in Europe. Accordingly, "Europa" (registration N2A) – which was actually the first Goodyear blimp not named after a Cup winner - was air-ferried across the Atlantic and assembled at Cardington, in UK, making its maiden flight on March 8, 1972.
"Europa" was then based at the new Capena facility, near Rome, becoming a common sight not only in the Italian skies but also in those of other European countries. Unfortunately, in late 1986, as part of a corporate restructuring programme, the Capena base was shut down and "Europa" returned to the USA.
The envelope of GZ-20A model is made of two-ply rubber coated polyester fabric and is helium filled. Inside the exterior envelope, a number of gas bladders are inserted. As the blimp ascends or descends, the internal bladders expand or contract to compensate for density changes, thus maintaining uniform pressure inside the envelope. The gondola of the GZ-20A has accomodation for a maximum of six passengers and one pilot. In general, take-off is a simple affair, while landing is a somewhat complicated operation, also entrusted to the skill and strength of the ground crew.
The service life of a non-rigid blimp has to be considered about ten years before stricking off or substantial rebuilding, mostly due to envelope tissue strain and weathering. During their long careers, the four GZ-20A’s have been re-manufactured, re-certified and renamed several times. Sometimes they changed also their US registrations, but always rotating in the range N1A, N2A, N3A and N10A.
In mid ‘Seventies, Goodyear started development of a next generation model. Accordingly, in 1987, the first GZ-22 was manufactured ("Spirit of Akron", N4A), having larger envelope, featuring fly-by-wire tecnology and a new gondola in composite material seating nine passengers and two crew members. It was powered by two 313 kW turboprop engines, with propellers turning within annular ducts with a swivel system to vector the thrust. This solution brought a decisive easing in control and improvement in maneouvrability. Originally built to revive the U.S. Navy interest in airship operations, the sole GZ-22 ended up in the Goodyear promotional blimp fleet.
In March 1987 Goodyear’s aircraft and aerospace subsidiary for more than 60 years, Goodyear Aerospace Corporation, was sold to Loral Corporation, which, in a short while, discontinued the airship manufacturing business.
In the same 1987, Mr. James Thiele founded American Blimp Corporation, based at of Hillsboro, Oregon (USA) to develop a new family of blimps having the "familiar Goodyear shape". First to fly was the four-seat A-50 Model, on April 9, 1988. Smaller than the look-alike Goodyear GZ-20A, it was aptly named "Lightship", being the first to adopt the internal illumination system for full colour advertising display. Soon ABC developed successive A-60 Model and finally A-60 Plus, which obtained a number of orders worldwide, in a relatively limited market.
At present, the Goodyear’s blimp fleet in North America is formed by three GZ-20As including N2A “Spirit of Innovation” (c/n 4119), N3A “Spirit of Goodyear” (c/n 4118) and N10A “Spirit of America” (c/n 4117). For the advertising campaigns in the rest of the world and across Europe, Goodyear chartered a pair of A-60 Plus blimps operated by Lightship Group (TLG). In particular, they are G-HLEL, c/n 010 manufactured in 1995, and G-TLEL, c/n 003 of 1990. The latter was also operated by Aeronord of Italy, from 1999 to 2002, as I-TIRE.
On May 3, 2011, in the same days of the Turin stage of the Goodyear A-60 Plus blimp, the US Company announced it has signed a contract with ZLT Zeppelin Luftschifftechnik, to renew their fleet with three modern Zeppelin NT LZ N 07–101’s, the first being operating in 2014. The new airships will be built by personnel of the two companies at Goodyear’s historic Wingfoot Lake Airship Hangar near Akron, Ohio. The Goodyear-Zeppelin saga has come back!

In the picture: ABC Lightship A-60 Plus G-HLEL "Spirit of Safety II" flying over Turin/Aeritalia airport in May, 2011. (Aeromedia)

(Aeromedia, May 2011)