AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2019 - 56

CREW MEMBERS load shot bags under the

gondola to bring the weight to about 700
pounds heavier than air for this particular
flight (above). The gondola from a GZ-20era blimp sits in the Goodyear hangar near
Akron, Ohio (right). For decades, as the
airship envelopes were replaced as they
aged, the gondolas were refurbished and
reused. Moving an airship in and out of the
hangar (below right) is a massive effort
and can only be done when winds are 8
knots or less, because even with enormous
mules tugging the tail on either side, winds
can shift the blimp as it emerges, possibly
causing it to hit the doors. The historic
hangar is 101 years old; some 300 airships
have been assembled inside.

NIGHT LIGHT

The Goodyear NT series of blimps utilizes an all-LED night sign system that
weighs about 530 pounds. The generator on the aft engine provides most of
the power for it. Not surprisingly, the
previous incandescent systems required enormous amounts of power and
weighed much more and required more
maintenance-imaging changing the
light bulbs. The first advertising lights in
the 1930s were called Neon-O-Gram-
neon lights spelling out Goodyear.
Incandescents came later. By the 1960s
the Skytacular system carried 3,000
incandescent lamps of red, yellow, blue,
and green and featured simple animations. But it required carrying a small
turbine engine just to power the sign. By
the late 1960s when the GZ-20 series
was launched with the Super Skytacular system, the signs used some 7,000
lamps. The current generation of LEDs
project millions of colors and include
advanced animations.
-TBH
56 | AOPA PILOT January 2019

With many millions invested in developing the new NT series and millions more
spent annually on supporting the three
locations-each with a crew of about 20
technicians, maintenance personnel, and
pilots-plus enormous expense in maintaining their gigantic hangars and their
custom-built support equipment, the
company clearly values the exposure the
airships provide.
With our 30 minutes or so of checklists
complete, Basaran calls for engine start as
the ground crew scrambles into position.
He communicates with the lead ground
controller via radio. At Basaran's direction, the crew members add or remove
bags of metal shot to get the airship to the
correct weight for takeoff-and, already
thinking ahead-for our landing weight.
If necessary, the pilot in flight can release
water ballast stored beneath the gondola
to reduce the landing weight.
Part of a blimp pilot 's job is
understanding the physics of lighter-thanair flight. Helium changes temperature
quickly, and when it does, it expands or
shrinks. Stationary on the ground on a
sunny day, it can heat up fast, causing
it to expand. If all is working correctly,
valves should then force air out of the
ballonets. If not, helium gets vented-this
is expensive and to be avoided. Climbing
to altitude where the pressure is less, the
helium will expand, except as it cools it
shrinks, so understanding the rate of each
is important. Simply moving through the
air at different speeds cools or warms the
massive envelope. Regardless, the crews
never rely on automation. The airships
AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2019

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