The Goodyear Blimp is any one of a fleet of airships operated by the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, used mainly for advertising purposes and capturing aerial views of live sporting events for television. The term blimp itself is defined as a non-rigid airship—without any internal structure, the pressure of lifting gas within the airship envelope maintains the vessel's shape.
Wingfoot One (N1A) is not actually a blimp, but rather a semi-rigid airship built by Luftschiffbau Zeppelin.
Spirit of Innovation (N4A), Goodyear's last true blimp (non-rigid airship), was retired on March 14, 2017.
The Spirit of Goodyear (N3A), one of the iconic Goodyear Blimps which was based at Wingfoot Lake
Enterprise (N1A), a model GZ-20 blimp, flies over the 1981 Indianapolis 500. Goodyear replaced the fleet's old color scheme in 1991.
An airship or dirigible balloon is a type of aerostat or lighter-than-air aircraft that can navigate through the air under its own power. Aerostats gain their lift from a lifting gas that is less dense than the surrounding air.
A modern airship, Zeppelin NT D-LZZF in 2010
Dirigible airships compared with related aerostats, from a turn-of-the-20th-century encyclopedia
U.S. Navy airships and balloons, 1931: in the background, ZR-3, in front of it, (l to r) J-3 or 4, K-1, ZMC-2, in front of them, "Caquot" observation balloon, and in foreground free balloons used for training
The air-filled red balloon acts as a simple ballonet inside the outer balloon, which is filled with lifting gas.
