Goodyear’s Iconic Blimp Turns 100 Years Old—And Celebrates with a 3-Airship Flyover in Akron, Ohio

2025 marked 100 years since the first Goodyear blimp took flight. And ever since, these Giants of the Air have flown high over of many of the world’s greatest sporting events, car races, and historic celebrations.

In fact, it’s often said that you can judge the importance of your event by seeing if it was “blimp worthy.”

The first blimp to ever sport the Goodyear name was built just down the road from the Summit Racing Equipment headquarters in Tallmadge, Ohio. On their regular daily commutes, many Summit Racing employees pass by one of the massive hangar complexes used to shelter these huge airships.

That first blimp was named “Pilgrim” by P. W. Litchfield—the President of Goodyear at the time. The blimp flew for many years and was joined by a number of newer, larger Goodyear airships during its career.

Prior to the Pilgrim, Goodyear had a history of building airships at their Wingfoot Lake facility in Suffield, Ohio.

This hanger and base also become the first Naval Air Station for the American Navy in 1917.

While we’re accustomed to seeing airships like this fly over sporting events, its easy to overlook their role as weapons of war. During World War II for example, they served as coastal patrol ships and submarine hunters looking for German U-Boats—and could even deploy depth charges and torpedoes.

In fact, some of the blimps that later flew over races and football games were still using refreshed gondolas (passenger cabins) left over from their wartime duties.

Today Goodyear has contracted as a partner with the Zeppelin Corporation of Germany. They had a similar partnership back in the 1930s. (Yes, this is the same company that built Hindenburg and Graf Zeppelin.)

But before we go much further, let’s explain something. While we colloquially call these beautiful behemoths “blimps,” in truth, these modern vessels are considered semi-rigid airships.

A blimp has no internal structure and maintains its shape by air pressure alone. In other words, if you deflate a blimp, you’ll have nothing but a pile of aircraft-grade fabric. Conversely, a rigid airship has a complete framework that contains the envelope(s) that inflates to create buoyancy. Take away the airtight cells, and a clear skeleton of the craft will remain.

Semi-rigid airships, like the ones Goodyear flies nowadays, slot in between those two designs.

They have an internal carbon fiber framework that holds the gondola, propulsion systems, and other key components, but rely on the pressure of the envelope to form the airship’s exterior shape.

And again, since these modern airships were built by the Zeppelin Corporation, you can rightfully call these Zeppelins too.

Instead of a wheel attached to a rudder with a series of heavy cables, today’s lighter-than-air ships rely on modern fly-by-wire systems, similar to the ones used on fighter jets and commercial airliners.

They have three articulated turbine engines that let the ship maneuver forwards and backwards, as well as up and down.

This enhanced range of motion permits a smaller ground crew to handle these airships during takeoffs and landings, and they each use a special truck that serves as a mobile anchor/tether point.

The trucks are specially-built Macks with 8-wheel drive and 4-wheel steering. They carry a retractable mast to help land and retain the ships on the ground. They can also move the ships in and out of hangers. In extreme cases, these stout trucks can handle some off-roading—in case an airship goes off-course and misses the landing point.

Goodyear has a number of these trucks, so on long treks they can place them along the flight path for temporary docking points. But they’ve got to hustle—airships can cover a lot of territory, with a 70 mph cruising speed and a top speed of 77 mph. In the right conditions, an airship like this can travel 550 miles in a day and stay aloft for 24 hours.

To celebrate the anniversary, three of the four NT Zeppelins in the Goodyear fleet were in Akron and flying around the Rubber City for a week. Since they’re usually deployed all around the country, seeing all three members of Goodyear’s domestic fleet is a rare and special occurrence.

We’ve alluded to the airships’ names earlier—Wingfoot One, Wingfoot Two, Wingfoot Three—but they also have nicknames lovingly applied by their crews.

• Wingfoot One is affectionally dubbed “Christine“—yes, it’s a nod to the car, as she can have a mind of her own sometimes.
• Wingfoot Two is known as “Sybil” due to her split personality, she’s named after the Sally Field movie of the same name.
• Wingfoot Three is known as “Carrie” and, yeah, it’s also inspired by Steven King. (The crew thinks she is telekinetic, so you must treat her well.)

While Wingfoot One wore a special Pilgrim wrap in homage to the O.G. Goodyear blimp, the real Pilgrim’s gondola has been fully restored and is currently in the care of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.

If you go to enough sporting events—or have a stopover in Akron, Ohio—there’s a good chance you’ll see one of these iconic airships gracefully pass overhead.

It is certainly a sight worth beholding, so here’s to another 100 years of the Goodyear blimp and it being a presence at many of the races we attend!