Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. announced that they are going to replace their fleet of blimps with bigger, faster and hi-tech models.
According to the South Bay Daily Breeze:
Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. announced plans Tuesday to replace its three-airship fleet in the next few years with longer, faster models.
Carson's "Spirit of America" blimp, which has been stationed at 19200 Main St. since 2002, will be swapped for a new model in 2016, officials said.
German manufacturer ZLT Zeppelin Luftschifftechnik will begin building the new models in 2013 at Goodyear's airship hangar near Akron, Ohio. The company will replace its Akron and Pompano Beach, Fla., airships first.
Each new airship will cost about $21 million, including technical support, company representatives said.
The new blimp will be 246 feet long compared to the current 192-foot-long airship. It will hold 13 passengers in its dangling gondola, compared to its current seven seats. Top speed will increase from 54 mph to 73.
These new blimps won't exactly be blimps. Instead, they will have a semi-rigid aluminum and carbon fiber interior skeleton. Blimps are basically helium-filled bags that don't have interior skeletons to help support the envelope and other parts.
The Los Angeles area Goodyear blimp, Spirit of America, is based near the interchange of the I-110 (Harbor Freeway) and I-405 (San Diego Freeway) freeways in Carson, California.
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