The Goodyear Blimp is any one of a fleet of airships operated by the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, used mainly for advertising and capturing aerial views of live sporting events for television.[3] The term blimp itself is defined as a non-rigid airship – without any internal structure, the pressure of lifting gas contained within the airship envelope maintains the vessel's shape.
From the launch of the Pilgrim in 1925 to the decommissioning of the Spirit of Innovation in 2017, Goodyear generally owned and operated non-rigid airships in its global public relations fleet. In 2014, however, Goodyear began a process of replacing its three U.S. non-rigid airships (blimps) with three new semi-rigid airships, each of which will have a rigid internal frame. Although technically incorrect, Goodyear has planned to continue to use the word "blimp" in reference to these new semi-rigid models.[2] Wingfoot One, the first such model in Goodyear's U.S. fleet, was christened on August 23, 2014, near the company's world headquarters in Akron, Ohio.[4]
