DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Flying just a few hundred toes above the streets and shores of Daytona Seashore, the Goodyear Blimp attracts a crowd.
Onlookers stare and level. Drivers pull over for higher seems, snapping photos, recording movies and attempting to line up the proper selfie. For some, it’s nostalgic. For others, it’s a glimpse at a larger-than-life promoting icon.
At 100 years outdated, the blimp is an ageless star within the sky. And the 246-foot-long airship will likely be within the background of the Daytona 500 on Sunday — roughly 1,500 toes above Daytona Worldwide Speedway, really — to rejoice its newest and biggest anniversary tour.
Though distant digital camera applied sciences — drones, largely — are bettering recurrently and altering the panorama of aerial footage, the blimp continues to carve out a distinct segment. At Daytona, with the standard 40-car area racing round a 2½-mile superspeedway, views from the blimp aptly present the scope of the occasion.
“It’s nice to indicate the pack racing,” Fox Sports activities director Artie Kempner stated, including that he anticipated to make use of aerial photographs from the blimp about 50 occasions throughout Sunday’s race.
The Goodyear Blimp has been an everyday at main sporting occasions since flying above the 1955 Rose Bowl. A couple of years later, it turned a service car for tv protection whereas concurrently functioning as a extremely seen promoting platform. It’s been at each Daytona 500 since 1962.
Throughout that streak, blimps have undergone wholesale modifications and improved dramatically: steering know-how, security improvements, high-definition cameras, gyro-stabilized aerial views and far quieter rides due to relocated engines and propellers.
These days, driving on the blimp isn’t a lot completely different from touring on a small airplane. The 12-seater comes with reclining seats, tray tables, seatbelts, a security briefing and a rest room with wonderful views. A couple of home windows function the one air con onboard. The blimp affords a easy trip even at high velocity, creeping alongside at 73 mph — properly beneath the vehicles pushing 200 mph on the monitor.
“It’s an iconic image for our nation, a floating piece of Americana,” blimp pilot Jensen Kervern stated. “There’s nothing prefer it on the earth.”
The blimp has lined greater than 2,500 occasions and brought greater than 500,000 passengers for rides, in response to Goodyear. Former President Ronald Reagan could be essentially the most well-known passenger, and rapper Ice Dice raised the blimp’s road cred when he included a line about it in his 1992 music titled “It Was A Good Day.”
However not simply anybody can climb aboard. Rides are invitation solely despite the fact that telephones at blimp headquarters — the three U.S.-based airships are housed in California, Florida and Ohio — ring off the hook with individuals inquiring about shopping for a trip.
As a part of the blimp’s 100-year anniversary celebration, nevertheless, Goodyear is giving three U.S. residents an opportunity to hitch the unique membership and win a trip. The sweepstakes will present every winner a certificates for 2 to fly on the blimp. The prize additionally consists of $3,000 for journey bills to considered one of Goodyear’s airship hangars.
It could be a once-in-a-lifetime expertise, little question.
The blimp flies low sufficient to identify pods of dolphins or flotillas of sea turtles within the Atlantic Ocean. The view over Daytona Worldwide Speedway is equally beautiful, with the power to see each inch of the famed monitor whereas watching (and listening to) race vehicles turning laps.
Already in 2025, the Goodyear fleet has flown over the Rose Bowl, the Orange Bowl, the Professional Bowl and Pebble Seashore. Its upcoming schedule consists of the Academy Awards, Coachella and WrestleMania.
However will the blimp survive one other 100 years?
Drone imagery and backbone proceed to enhance together with maneuverability, stability and flight longevity. And the place drones may be flown by one particular person, the Goodyear Blimp crew at Daytona tops 20 staffers.
However given the blimp’s longevity, adaptability and superstar, nobody ought to wager towards it sticking round for generations to come back.
“Regardless of modifications in know-how and our surroundings, individuals nonetheless get so excited to see the blimp,” Kervern stated. “It is simply an iconic image for our nation.”
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