The history of Goodyear airship

It's a bird! This is a plane! Oh … by the way, the airship … 1925 was the year when Goodyear's first airship was launched. Today, 85 years later, during football matches, basketball matches and even the 20 12 London Olympic Games, people can still see the iconic Goodyear airship floating in the clouds.

Although Goodyear airships are always associated with sports events and advertisements nowadays, this is not always the case. Goodyear originally made envelopes for these types of airships in the "airship" industry. Subsequently, they devoted themselves to building airships, and soon got a * * * contract to complete the work.

Five years after Goodyear made the first airship, two large rigid planes Akron and Macon were born. These flying miracles were created for the US Navy, carrying special aircraft like F9C-2 Curtis Sparrow Eagle. Because neither airship is equipped with weapons, it can be launched and recovered during flight for long-range reconnaissance and defense purposes.

These large aircraft "KDSP" are built with internal metal frames, and can carry and maintain up to five aircraft in the air, which is more than two football fields in length and weighs an astonishing 400,000 pounds (18 1437 kg). It takes 6.5 million cubic feet of helium to lift these immortal spacecraft into the air. 1April 3, 933, Akron was sent to calibrate the radio direction in order to find equipment on the northeast coast of the United States. Just a few minutes after midnight, the plane encountered a series of strong winds, causing the tail to crash into the water. That night, 73 people were killed, only 3 people survived.

1935 February 12, Macon met her sister plane in a storm and its vertical tail was damaged. The airship quickly climbed to a dangerous height of 5000 feet, causing the automatic valve to open, releasing helium before the inevitable descent. Akron crashed in the Atlantic Ocean-Macon suffered a similar fate and fell into the Pacific Ocean. Thankfully, due to the unfortunate crash of Akron two years ago, Macon was equipped with life jackets and life rafts, saving 8/kloc-0 lives, and only two people were killed.

Despite the loss of Akron and Macon, and the decline in the popularity of these aircraft, Goodyear continued to design and build airships. In the 1940s and 1950s, the company built a series of surveillance airships for the United States. These airships are designed to monitor and protect merchant ships along the coast, and to monitor and warn of upcoming attacks (if any). One of the most historic aircraft in history, ZPG-2 (Snowbird) made by Goodyear is also in the surveillance fleet. At that time, the record of continuous flight without landing or refueling was 200 hours and 26 minutes. On March 4th, 1957, Snowbird took off from South Westminster near Boston, Massachusetts. After an impressive voyage of 1 1 day, it landed at the Naval Air Station in key west, Florida on March 4, 1957, breaking the previous record of continuous flight. It has been four days because of bad weather or malfunction. Australian pilot Mike Nilandick was a hero in that air crash. Three survivors of the crash told the media that the airship caught fire during landing. When the airship was only two meters above the ground, Mike told three passengers to jump to a safe place, and they did. At the last moment of his life, he didn't try to escape. Mike took the burning airship from the ground crew and was later found dead in the control room.

About how Goodyear's airship is closely linked with sports events, it happened at 1960, and Goodyear's airship contract with * * * was coming to an end, so he changed his mind and decided to try to use their airship as an aerial platform for cameras in sports events. This provides a service for the sports report channel and a highly visible advertising platform for Goodyear itself. The first such event captured by the camera on the Goodyear airship was the Miami Orange Bowl in 1960.

Needless to say, this is very good for the company. Goodyear's airships travel an average of 65,438+million miles every year to participate in various large-scale sports events, which shows that their average speed is only 35 miles (about 56 kilometers per hour), although their speed can be as high as 53 miles per hour. Under the steady wind, the twin 265,438+00 horsepower engines run at full speed.

Today, you can still see Goodyear's name floating on one of its four active airships, three of which are in operation in the United States and one in China. These three American ships are Spirit of America, Spirit of Goodyear and Spirit of Innovation. Navigators can be found in the sky of China.

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A story about a man who fell from the sky and almost drowned. In this story, the tradition of shouting "geronimo" when he jumped off the plane came from a girl of 17 years old who survived a 2-mile fall without a parachute and then trudged alone in the rain in Peru for 10 days. When the engine stops, the forest helicopter will not fall from the sky. In this case, they are actually safer than airplanes. It can survive in vacuum for about 90 seconds without long-term damage.

Contrary to what you may have read, the word "B limp" does not come from the American "type B" airship, which has no rigidity, so it is type B limp. Although there are 19 16 A and B airships in the United States, the word "airship" appeared in Britain, which was one year earlier than the B-class classification in the United States. There is no document to prove that American class B is called "limping". As for the real source of the word "airship", this question remains to be discussed, but it is generally believed that it is the credit of British naval officer Captain Cunningham. It is said that he invented the word after knocking on the airship shell. These three American Goodyear blimps can carry more than 200,000 cubic feet of helium. The total weight of the airship is 12840 lbs (5824 kg). But when filled with helium, generally speaking, the total apparent weight of this ship is only 100-200 pounds. If you want to look like a man, and you are in contact with the top of Goodyear, maybe you can lie down while a small airship in Goodyear inflates the platform. At present, Goodyear's maximum rated altitude is 5 kilometers (1524 meters), but its average flying altitude is generally only 1000- 1500 feet (304-457 meters). Headquartered in Carson City, California, the American spirit proudly shuttles between Long Beach and downtown Los Angeles. On September 5th, 2002, the mother of a policeman named Stephen driscoll of new york Police Department named the spaceship of the South Tower of World Trade Center. She passed away on September 6th, 2006 54 38+0. The "American Spirit" has a pilot and five passengers (by invitation) and performs an average of ten flights every day. During special events, the airship provides a bird's eye view. At night, 165000 LEDs and more than 256 colors of advertising companies, charities and other activities will be lit. The second airship, called Goodyear Spirit, can be found in Akron, Ohio. It often flies over the home of Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company. On March 15, 2000, Dr. Sally Reid, the first American woman to go into space, named the spaceship. This pilot is the first Goodyear plane to fly to China. Before starting the adventure, Goodyear designed a web page on Sina. Invite citizens of China to name blim and fly over their country. Hundreds of entries were submitted, and it was finally decided to name it Lang Hangzhe and translate it into Navigator. Innovative patrol in Pompano Beach, Florida. Airships are also named through the online "named airship" competition. Spirit of Innovation is the youngest Goodyear airship, which was named by Lesa France Kennedy, President of International Expressway Company, and Lynn Keegan, wife of Bob Keegan, Chairman and CEO of Goodyear, on June 2, 20061day. [Image courtesy of Keith Bell/Shutterstock. ] For reference, American warship McCann wreck website, airship, American warship Akron and American warship McCann Goodyear, airship history, how airship works, Snowbird Goodyear, airship Goodyear, pilot hero Goodyear, Santa Claus, new airship, American warship Akron Goodyear, airship Goodyear, airship Goodyear, airship FAQ, airship etymology.