Tuesday, June 03, 2025

Happy 100th birthday to the Goodyear Blimp! (one tire company became the restaurant critic, this other, became the live aerial coverage at major events in sports arenas and race tracks, proof that companies can become celebrated outside their genre)

The first non-military airship, Pilgrim, debuted in 1925 as the first helium-filled, non-rigid airship, marking the start of the Goodyear Blimp program.




the portable mooring mast built on a bus wasn't a short lived operation, it was maintained over decades, above, 1969, and below in back and white, debuting the messaging lighting system, was 1949. Both busses are labeled "Airship operations"

In 1946 and 47, Goodyear ordered 3 Clipper busses from Flxible. 






https://58flx.wordpress.com/1947-flxible-2/




as long as I'm posting about Goodyear, it turns out, they also own 10 other brands of tires, including Cooper, Dunlop, Mickey Thompson, and Avon, of the ones I've heard of  

3 comments:

  1. I was going to tell you that the Liberty Museum has a Goodyear bus, but you already found that. The company where I work was just sold to General Dynamics, and the former owner donated a Dodge M37 military truck to the museum when he was cleaning up his belongings from the company property. The head of the museum came with a flatbed truck to get it, and he said they plan on getting it running again.

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  2. Nice history on the Blimp and the Flxible Buses. I toured the Flxible plant on business in 1980.

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    1. thank you! And compliments on that tour! I wish more corporations would give and advertise, that they give tours! When I was in 1st grade, we got a tour of Kelloggs cereal factory! That was about 1977 or 78!

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