網址出處：http://www.flickr.com/photos/98964418@N00/882291815
The Spirit of Goodyear blimp on land
網址出處：http://www.mapsairmuseum.org/gz-22.asp
Goodyear GZ-22 Gondola
For more than 75 years, Goodyear blimps have adorned the skies as very visible corporate symbols of the tire and rubber company that began operations in 1898.
Today, these graceful giants log over 400,000 air miles per year traveling across the United States, Europe, South America and Australia as Goodyear's Global "Aerial Ambassadors."
The blimp tradition began in 1925 when Goodyear built its first helium-filled public relations airship, the Pilgrim. The tire company painted its name on the side and began barnstorming the United States. Humble beginnings to an illustrious history.
Over the years, Goodyear built more than 300 airships, more than any other company in the world. Akron, Ohio, the company's world headquarters, was the center of blimp manufacturing for several decades.
During World War II many of the Goodyear-built airships provided the U.S. Navy with a unique aerial surveillance capability. Often used as convoy escorts, the blimps were able to look down on the ocean surface and spot a rising submarine and radio its position to the convoy's surface ships. . . in essence acting as an early warning system. Modern surveillance technology eventually eclipsed the advantages of the airship fleet, and in 1962 the Navy discontinued the program.
Today, The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company no longer mass-produces airships. In the United States it operates three well-recognized blimps: the Spirit of Goodyear, based in Akron, Ohio; the Eagle, based in Carson, California; and the Stars and Stripes, in Pompano Beach, Florida.
Under Goodyear Chairman Sam Gibara, the fleet has been expanded from the three North American airship operations to seven airships worldwide. Two Spirit of Europe blimps - operating on the European Continent, the Spirit of the Americas flying over South America and the Spirit of the South Pacific covering the Asian Pacific Rim.
網址出處：http://blogs.chron.com/bayoucityhistory/2008/08/remember_the_goodyear_blimp.html
Remember the Goodyear blimp?
E. Joseph Deering : Chronicle file
On rare occasions, Houstonians would look up and see two blimps in the sky. Such was the case in July 1986, according to this Houston Chronicle cutline: "The extraordinary sight of two Goodyear blimps flying lazily over Houston's downtown skyline was the corporation's way of saying farewell to the 11-year-old Columbia, background, which will be dismantled. It will be replaced by the new Columbia flying in the foreground."
What do you think of when you think of corporate advertisements in Houston?
Some recall the Weather Eye atop the Texas National Bank building. Others remember the Gulf Lollipop.
As for me, I remember the Goodyear blimp.
In early 1968, the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company was seeking government approval for a blimp base in Spring. Such a plan was not readily welcome by the Federal Aviation Administration, mainly because authorities felt a blimp would pose a hazard to flight operations at the new Intercontinental Airport.
Here's how the Houston Chronicle covered it in a Feb. 21, 1968, article:
The government agency considered it hazardous to planes to have a slow-moving blimp operating near the runways. The FAA said it would approve the site only if the city strongly recommends it.
City Aviation Director S.E. Manzo agreed with the FAA.
Goodyear, in turn, doesn't like two areas east and west of the city which the FAA sas are acceptable as blimp bases.
"We don't want to go where there is air pollution or a concentration of chemical plants or refineries, and we don't want to go south where we'd be too close to the Gulf storms," a Goodyear spokesman said today.
But by May, aviation officials withdrew their opposition to the 30-acre blimp base as long as the blimps used "certain procedures" to ensure safety.
By early October 1969, the 192-foot-long airship America had arrived in Harris County. The hangar off I-45 wasn't ready by then, so the blimp -- which at the time was the world's largest airship -- was moored at Hooks Memorial Airport.
Now, if you'll remember, it wasn't in Houston 12 months out of the year. It spent six months here and six months touring the country.
But things weren't always smooth sailing for the blimp. In 1971, stiff winds blew the airship into some power lines along U.S. 75, knocking out power to parts of Spring.
After 23 years, the frequent sight of the Goodyear blimp in the skies above Houston came to an end when the airship America floated away for good. A belt-tightening effort by the tire maker led to the decision to close the blimp base and send the airship to Akron, Ohio.
Eventually, the blimp was rebuilt, renamed and sent to Pompano Beach, Fla., according to the Chronicle.
As for the hangar, the rock band Genesis used it to rehearse for their 1992 concert tour. Soon after, it was torn down.
You know, I can still remember the high-pitched buzz of the blimp's engines. Whenever I heard that sound I would instinctively look up to see where it was in the sky. Although I visited the blimp base, I never got the chance to go for a ride.
How about you?
Larry Reese : Chronicle file
From the July 18, 1982, Chronicle: "The Ghost Blimp, N10A, the America, hovers as it waits for its replacement, N3A, to take off on its maiden voyage. The N3A will take the place of the old airship over the skies of Houston and the South. While the N10A was retired, its name was not; the new blimp also is called the America."
Tom Colburn : Chronicle file
From the Nov. 29, 1970, Chronicle: "Not every little girl can hop a blimp for a trip over the city, but Sunday afternoon Carol Richardson, 8, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Frank M. Richardson of 6305 Bellaire, a second-grader at Sutton school, became a guest of Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company for a flight out of the blimp's North Freeway base. At the controls, as they float across Interstate 45, is Patrick Henry, a former naval officer."
網址出處：http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=1686
Goodyear Aerospace Corporation
Mayer, Jacquelyn Christening the Goodyear Blimp Columbia
Image Details
Jacquelyn Mayer Christening the Goodyear Blimp "Columbia," 1963. She was from Sandusky, Ohio and won the titles of Miss Vacationland and Miss Ohio to qualify for the Miss America pageant. She won the Miss America pageant in 1962 and served as Miss America 1963.
In 1916, the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company purchased land near Akron, Ohio, to build a plant that could produce zeppelin aircraft. In 1917, the main Goodyear Company created a subsidiary known as the Goodyear Zeppelin Company to manufacture the zeppelins. This company was the precursor to the Goodyear Aircraft Corporation. That same year, the firm received a contract from the federal government to manufacture nine zeppelins for the United States military during World War I. Unfortunately for the company, its manufacturing facilities were not complete in 1917, so Goodyear completed the first airships inside of a large amusement park building in Chicago, Illinois. The military used these airships to bomb and to spy upon enemy positions.
Upon World War I's conclusion, the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company continued to manufacture zeppelins. The firm used most of these ships to advertise its products. By the late 1920s and the early 1930s, among the firm's completed zeppelins were the Pony, Pilgrim, Puritan, Volunteer, Mayflower, Vigilant, Defender, Reliance, Resolute, Enterprise, Ranger, and Columbia. Most of these ships utilized helium to become airborne, while zeppelins originally used heated air or hydrogen. During this period, other companies, especially European ones, were constructing airships for commercial transportation. Some of these ships carried passengers across the Atlantic Ocean. Goodyear also manufactured two airships, the Akron and the Macon, for the United States military during the early 1930s. During World War II, the company, now known as the Goodyear Aircraft Corporation manufactured 104 airships for the military at its Akron facility. The firm also built F4U Corsair planes for the United States Navy. When Goodyear created the Goodyear Aircraft Corporation in 1939, this branch of the company employed just thirty workers. With World War II's outbreak, by 1942, the Goodyear Aircraft Corporation consisted of thirty-five thousand employees.
Following World War II, the Goodyear Aircraft Corporation continued to manufacture airships, but it also expanded into producing other types of aircraft and aircraft parts. The main thrust of the company, however, remained the airships. The company now used the zeppelins almost exclusively for advertising purposes. In 1966, the firm created the "Skytacular," a four-color sign that could be flown from blimps and read especially at night by people on the ground. Beginning in the 1950s, the Goodyear airships commonly appeared at major sporting events. The firm manufactured over three hundred zeppelins between 1917 and 1995, but it currently only operates four airships in the United States.
In 1963, the Goodyear Aircraft Corporation changed its name to the Goodyear Aerospace Corporation. The firm played a major role in space exploration during the 1960s and the 1970s. The Goodyear Aerospace Corporation helped the National Aeronautics and Space Agency design heating and cooling systems for Apollo spacecraft. The company also produced tires used on moon vehicles and flotation devices for spacecraft landing in water. The firm also developed missile parts, as well as radar and guidance systems. In 1987, Goodyear sold the Goodyear Aerospace Corporation to Loral, although Goodyear continued to manufacture tires and other airplane components after the sale.
網址出處：http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=899&nm=Goodyear-Zeppelin-Company
Goodyear Zeppelin Company
Goodyear Hangar
Image Details
The Goodyear company hangar in Akron, Summit County, Ohio, ca. 1940-1949.
In 1916, the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company purchased land near Akron, Ohio to build a plant that could produce zeppelin aircraft. In 1917, the main Goodyear Company created a subsidiary known as the Goodyear Zeppelin Company to manufacture the zeppelins. That same year, the firm received a contract from the federal government to manufacture nine zeppelins for the United States military during World War I. Unfortunately for the company, its manufacturing facilities were not complete in 1917, so Goodyear completed the first airships inside of a large amusement park building in Chicago, Illinois. The military used these airships to bomb and to spy upon enemy positions.
Upon World War I's conclusion, the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company continued to manufacture zeppelins. The firm used most of these ships to advertise its products. By the late 1920s and the early 1930s, among the firm's completed zeppelins were the Pony, Pilgrim, Puritan, Volunteer, Mayflower, Vigilant, Defender, Reliance, Resolute, Enterprise, Ranger, and Columbia. Most of these ships utilized helium to become airborne, while zeppelins originally used heated air or hydrogen. During this period, other companies, especially European ones, were constructing airships to transport passengers, including across the Atlantic Ocean. Goodyear also manufactured two airships, the Akron and the Macon, for the United States military during the early 1930s. During World War II, the company manufactured 104 airships for the military at its Akron facility.
Following World War II, the Goodyear Zeppelin Company continued to manufacture airships, but it also expanded into producing other types of aircraft and aircraft parts. The main thrust of the company, however, remained the airships. The company now used the zeppelins almost exclusively for advertising purposes. In 1966, the firm created the "Skytacular," a four-color sign that could be flown from blimps and read especially at night by people on the ground. Beginning in the 1950s, the Goodyear airships commonly appeared at major sporting events. The firm manufactured over three hundred zeppelins between 1917 and 1995, but it currently only operates four airships in the United States.
網址出處：http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=898&nm=Goodyear-Tire-and-Rubber-Company
Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company
Goodyear Tire Factory (LC)
Image Details
tripping tube on mandrel before sending to cure, Goodyear Tire Factory, Akron, O
In 1898, Frank Seiberling established the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company in Akron, Ohio.
The company was named for Charles Goodyear, the man who developed vulcanized rubber. Seiberling borrowed 3,500 dollars from a brother-in-law to purchase the company's first factory. Goodyear originally employed thirteen workers, but the firm quickly emerged as a leader in the production of rubber items, including bicycle tires, pneumatic carriage and automobile tires, horseshoes, and hoses. By 1926, Goodyear was the largest rubber company in the world.
David Hill, who purchased nearly one-third of the 100,000 dollars worth of stock that the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company issued in 1898, became the company's first president. The company went through two additional presidents before Seiberling became chief executive in 1906. The founder of the company remained as the firm's president until 1921, when an economic recession prompted him to resign. Seiberling personally developed the company's logo -- a winged foot -- the same logo that the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company utilizes in the twenty-first century.
Goodyear led the industry in the development of new products. In 1903, the company developed the first tubeless automobile tire. In 1909, the firm branched out into the aviation industry, producing the first airplane tires. Before this point, pilots primarily utilized bicycle tires on their planes. Three years later, Goodyear produced its first blimp. In 1919, the firm also developed the first bulletproof gas tank for planes. The company continued to lead the industry in creating new products throughout the twentieth century.
While the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company prospered, its workers sometimes suffered. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, factory workers faced poor working conditions, low wages, and almost no benefits. This was true for the workers employed by rubber manufacturers in Akron, Ohio, such the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, B.F. Goodrich, and Firestone Tire and Rubber Company. In an attempt to alleviate their conditions, workers established a union named the United Rubber Workers in 1935. The following year, this union organized its first major strike within Akron's rubber industry.
The strike began as a protest against a plan created by Goodyear to reduce wages and increase the pace of production. The workers utilized the concept of the "sit-down" strike. In the past, when workers went on strike they would leave the factory to join picket lines. Company owners often hired "scab" laborers to cross the picket lines and continue production. The practice of using scab labor made it difficult for striking workers to obtain their demands. In contrast, in a sit-down strike, workers quit working but still occupied their places within the factory. This process meant that the factory owners could not send in additional workers to continue the job. In addition, factory management was more reluctant to use private security forces or other strikebreakers to intimidate the striking workers, as that approach threatened destruction to plant property.
In addition to the sit-down strike, the rubber workers also organized long picket lines in protest. Akron's mayor, Lee D. Schroy, attempted to send in the police to put down the strike, but the police officers refused to do so when they faced the thousands of organized workers. In the long term, the rubber companies were forced to recognize the United Rubber Workers and negotiate better contracts with workers. One immediate success was a six-hour workday.
Several reasons existed for the workers' success in this strike. First, sit-in strikes made it much more difficult for employers to replace their striking workers. Equally as important in this strike was the federal government's recent passage of the Wagner Act. This legislation made unions legal for the first time in United States history. Finally, the United Rubber Workers belonged to a larger organization, the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO). The CIO consisted of an umbrella organization for multiple unions. These unions worked together by providing both moral and material support to CIO-member unions, especially when these member unions went on strike.
In 2003, the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company sold more than thirteen billion dollars worth of products. The firm employed more than ninety-two thousand workers. It had plants around the world and remained the largest tire manufacturer in operation.
網址出處：http://hartland.googlepages.com/moreofbirmingham
GOODYEAR BLIMPS
GOODYEAR BLIMP RIDES 1933 AND 1936
It was 1933 and the CENTURY OF PROGRESS WORLD'S FAIR was in full swing in Chicago. At that time I was in the 5th grade at Adams School. On a Friday afternoon in September, my teacher, Mrs. Easterday, excused me early so that I could head for Central High School in Detroit where my aunt Ella was waiting to accompany me to the Michigan Central Depot so that we could hop aboard the TWILIGHT LIMITED and head off for a weekend of fun at the Fair.
We ate in the diner, an exciting new experience for me. When we arrived in Chicago, we left the train at the 63rd St. Station and took a cab to 2232 East 70th place where I slept on a couch and my aunt slept on a cot, in the living room of a co-op apartment (now they call them condos) owned by a Miss Clendenning, a native of Pontiac, Michigan, who was working at the University of Chicago. It was in the midst of the depression and many Chicago residents were renting out rooms to Fairgoers in order to obtain a bit of extra cash. Just a little bit off Widetrack drive in Pontiac, Michigan you can still see an old 4 family apartment building with the name Clendenning above the entrance. This building was once owned by Miss Clendenning's family.
Saturday morning we had breafast at the apartment and then my aunt and I took the Illinois Central commuter train to the Loop where we lunched in a Fred Harvey Restaurant. At one time Fred Harvey operated top quality restaurants and hotels along the Santa Fe Railway, between Chicago and the west coast. Some of you older folks may remember a movie entitled THE HARVEY GIRLS starring Judy Garland and Angela Lansbury.
Following lunch, we went to the Fair where I saw my first astronomical show at the Adler Planetarium, operated American Flyer Electric Trains at their huge model railroad display on the Enchanted Island, saw popcorn popped by radio waves at the General Electric exhibit, saw the Michigan Exhibit in the Federal Building, watched hard hat divers pretend to harvest sponges from the bottom of the lagoon and had dinner at the Pabst Pavilion to the music of Ben Bernie. Saturday evening we watched the Fair being illuminated by the star Arturus, the light from which had started toward earth in 1893, the year of Chicago's Columbian Exposition. Supposedly, the Observatory in Elgin, Illinois focused the rays from Arcturus on an electric eye which then switched on the 1933 Fair's lights.
While seated near the Hall of Science, awaiting the light ceremony, I longingly looked overhead at the two story cable cars of the SKY RIDE as they ran back and forth 200 feet above ground between towers on the mainland and the Enchanted Island. These cable cars were named for characters in the very popular radio show, AMOS 'N ANDY which at that time was eminating from network studios in Chicago. There was an AMOS car, an ANDY car, a KINGFISH car, etc. Yes, I would have liked to ride in one of those unique vehicles, but when I left home I was warned NOT to go aboard the Skyride. It was too dangerous.
The next day we visited the PANTHEON, a huge painting of World War I. It was housed in a circular building. The canvas was 402 feet in circumference and 45 feet high. It contained the images of 6,000 people and it required 130 artists working from October 1914 until the Armistice to complete. We also had a chance to see many trains, including the ROYAL SCOT from England, on display at the Transportation Building. In addition to being exhibited in Chicago, during 1933, the entire train made an 11,000 mile tour throughout the U.S. and Canada before being shipped back to the U.K. where it continued to make its speedy runs between London, Glasgow and Edinburgh. One evening, around 11 p.m. the ROYAL SCOT passed through Birmingham, Michigan. A huge crowd gathered at the Birmingham station to see it pass through our town.
The TRANSPORTATION BUILDING is at the far left of this photo. Not far from it was the landing field for the GOODYEAR BLIMP. Although I was forbidden to go on the dangerous SKYRIDE, I didn't hesitate one minute when my aunt and I climbed aboard the blimp and took off for a flight over Chicago. You can imagine how excited I was, at the age of 10 years, to sit beside the pilot as he controlled the monstrous powered balloon. Due to the helium it contained, the blimp wanted to stay up in the air. Consequently, the pilot had to put the nose well down and actually speed up the engines to drive the blimp in for a landing where it was caught by the husky ground crew which held it it place while we climbed down from the gondola in which we had ridden.
Yes, I had another blimp ride over Cleveland, three years later, but that will have to be described another time.
I have never ridden in a commercial plane, but I've had two blimp rides and one private plane ride in a friend's NAVION.
網址出處：http://www.airventure.org/news/2008/5thu31/blimp.html
Goodyear blimp returns to Oshkosh
When the Goodyear blimp Spirit of Goodyear returned to AirVenture 2008, its support crew included multi-tasking Mark Keitel. Mark’s business card reads Senior Radio and TV Technician, Aircraft Mechanic. He’s also a commercial big-rig driver, which comes in handy when the ground crew paces the blimp to outlying locations from its home base in Akron, Ohio.
Mark can fix the blimp, support it, and operate hi-definition video cameras from the sky for coverage of major sporting events. His blimp, built as Goodyear’s America in 1984, was rechristened when it was refurbished in 2000. Goodyear keeps three blimps in the air over the United States, and it has a refurbishing program in place to ensure blimps continue flying indefinitely. The rubberized envelope that gives the blimp its characteristic shape can still be built by a Goodyear contractor in Ohio, Mark said.
Spirit of Goodyear and its sister ships are model GZ-20A, with synthetic fabric envelopes. They are similar to the smallest blimps Goodyear made for the U.S. Navy decades ago, Mark explained. Two Continental IO-360 engines push the blimp at a leisurely cruising speed of about 35 mph, with a top speed at 50, he said. If the wind is blowing around 20 or 30 mph, Mark said the pilot may choose to remain moored on the ground. It’s tough to make headway when the wind matches the blimp’s forward speed.
When the Goodyear company decided to paint lower surfaces dark blue on the blimp, it bulked up by 400 pounds. In a light rain, the blimp’s hide can retain 600 pounds of clinging water. Such weight penalties cannot be ignored, so the Spirit of Goodyear now has an illuminated LED billboard only on its left flank, capable of flashing messages in flight at night.
Mark said the blimp is ballasted to neutral buoyancy; while he spoke about it, the blimp behind him occasionally rose a few feet off the grass, returning gently to bounce on its single balloon tire. Air moving over the huge teardrop-shaped envelope creates some lift.
The football-shaped blimp exterior envelope conceals two ballonets—air bladders—inside its shape. By shifting air pressure in the forward and aft ballonets, the blimp can be trimmed nose up or down. Since the blimp has no rigid structure, when it descends from altitude the outside atmospheric pressure increases, causing the helium to contract. The ballonets automatically take in more air to inflate sufficiently to keep the blimp’s envelope taut.
The gondola beneath the envelope is where the pilot and up to six passengers can ride. It actually hangs from support cables leading to a saddle, or catenary curtain, cemented to the inside of the top of the envelope.
With a history in blimp-making reaching back to 1925, Goodyear built the first blimp that flew over the Olympic Games, at Los Angeles, in 1932. Goodyear was the first to cover a sporting event with a television camera aboard a blimp in 1960 for the Orange Bowl. Now, the company’s blimps cover about 100 televised events a year.
While at AirVenture 2008, the Goodyear blimp is scheduled to fly over Wittman Field on Thursday and Friday between about 2:30 and 6:30 p.m.
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