Amazing documentary! I never thought I'd tear up for a Blimp.

When I was 6 years old I got to fly on the America N10A, based near my home in Houston.. i sat by the pilot.. my dad was behind me.. awesome experience.. funny story about how I got the ride... we lived in the path the blimp took on it's nightly advertising flights when it wasn't on tour covering sporting events... i loved going outside and waiting to see it fly over.. so every day i would call the Blimp Base and ask what time it would be flying.. after a while they got to know me and one day I happen to get their PR guy when i called.. he said to put my dad on the phone and he would arrange a ride for us... so i lay the phone down and go tell my dad, who was reading the paper in his easy chair, the guy at the blimp base wants to talk to him and give us a ride.. he said "sure he is, go play, i'm busy".. blowing me off.. i said no, he really is.. so after about 4 times telling my dad it was for real.. he got on the phone and made arrangements.. took a couple weeks to make it happen due to winds.. but in May 1975 we got to go on that ride.. talk about a fun time... my dad, who was also a private pilot, enjoyed it as much as I did.. after that, my dad who knew the owner well at Clayton Tire company, the Goodyear dealer where he bought his tires... told him about our ride and how much we liked it.. he said he would get us another ride someday.. the second ride never happened, but i cherish my memory of the time I rode in the Goodyear Blimp..

This documentary was amazing. I wasn’t prepared for feeling sad for the blimp at the end.

I moved to Houston in 1987 and lived right off I45, where the blimp base was, I remember the first time I came upon the blimp as it was landing and the traffic was at a standstill as people stopped on the freeway to watch it land, I had never seen anything like it, it was amazing.

What an incredible ship, crew and story! I remember the first time I saw the Goodyear blimp flying low above my neighborhood south of San Francisco in the mid-80's. It was definitely an important part of aviation history.

The scene @21:00 with the whole crew walking out with "Next Episode" playing is priceless.

This operation is like a high-class carnival. Hard work, lots of travel, but still rewarding.

A fantastic insight into The Goodyear Blimp that I saw in the UK Skies when I was a boy .. brought back so many memories 👍🇬🇧

I live right next to the EAA airport, and have seen this blimp every summer for the last 30 years. The new one is pretty neat.

Never thought I'd be crying over a Blimp, but here I am 😞 really good documentary, thank you

By far one of the best documentaries I've ever seen..very very fascinating to have seen everything involved in the operation of such an American icon..so great to watch..great job on the ending...the music selection was great to it.

As a kid I experienced a blimp landing in the late 70's. This was an up and close experience. No invitation. I remember it exactly as depicted in this video. The crew was friendly. We were just two kids playing in a huge unused land area on the other side of the back yard fence.

I don't know how I got here, but I enjoyed this more than most movies...

Grew up in houston. one night, there was what seemed an earthquake - low rumble, everything shaking. Ran outside, looked up... and there was a low-flying goodyear blimp roaring overhead. Loved seeing the hangar, too. Sad it's gone, as are the blimps.

That was really great! I got to fly on N3H, and N10H. Very well done. Brought back a lot of memories. Thank you.

I can’t believe I cried over the demise of an airship. But I did. I live in Lawton Oklahoma where we got to see them from time to time. For us, the new has never worn off and the excitement has never diminished over all the years. Thank you for this splendid story.

The end where they took it apart was in the hangar where I worked for 3 1/2 years in the Marines with HMT - 301. I miss it!

I was station at MCAS Tustin when I heard the Goodyear blimp was in the hanger. I ran over to the hanger and when I I entered I was expecting this giant blimp in front of me. At first I though the guys lies till I looked way down the hanger and saw the blimp plus a few rigs parked in a corner. At first I thought that this is tiny! But then I realized how big our hanger was it was designed for a zeppelin. Cool thing after they worked on it the gave some people rides man talk about memories.

It has always been my dream to ride in the Good Year blimp. I guess that will never happen now. Very sad.

Was always a treat to see a blimp as a child.......🙂🏜

My dad Frank Kresse designed the cabin ventilation system for the first blimp designed by Goodyear.

If not for Goodyear I probably would not have been born. My grandfather was an engineer at the tire plant in Akron, Ohio all his life until he retired back when there still had company pensions. My Grandmother worked there during WWII working on the blimps. My uncle worked there until he hurt his back. My Dad said he refused to work in a sweatshop. He moved to Southern California where he met my Mother. Anytime we went anywhere on the freeway I would get exited when the blimp was out where I could see it. Sad to see blimps not being made by Goodyear anymore. Almost as sad as when Goodyear was the victim of a hostel takeover by the Loral Corporation in 1987.

I live out in the middle of nowhere Ohio, and I remember being excited to watch the blimps come past my house during the summer. Sad they are gone.

I always thought that blimps were really cool and I had always wanted to get up close to one. Years ago I was able to join the restoration team that was restoring the Goodyear K Ship K-28 gondola at NEAM. K-28 is a really interesting subject because she happened to be bought back from the Navy after WWII and pioneered the use of the lighted display board now used on all other Goodyear blimps up to now. When she was converted over to display ship standard after the war she was renamed “Puritan.”

Thanx for the video! Wonderful story.

The end was very sad. Had me in tears. I feel for the whole crew .✌️✌️😭😭😔😔🇺🇲🇺🇲🙋🙋

I live close to what used to be the Akron Airdock and the Wingfoot Lake. After seeing the various blimps almost daily, you tend to forget how special they really are.

I was so not prepared as to how sad I would be to see her deflate. 😳😭

Man, this is a killer documentary,good job!

I can remember watching the blimp flying over our neighborhood as a young boy. We would watch it until it went out of sight. It was even more awesome at night when they had the light display running. My mother worked in Torrance near Carson where the blimp would tie up. I was able to watch it come in and take off many times. I hope the new ship will have the lights on it as the old one did.

I’ve always been fascinated by the airships. I’ve tried to visit the Goodyear blimps when the came to Ft Worth Alliance and even earlier in GPT. As far as the competitors, there was a Pink Floyd blimp promoting their tour. It had engine problems and had to circle overhead while the ground crew set up. I never saw that one again.

I really enjoyed this. What a great job this must be, belonging to the blimp crew.

When I was in the Marines, I was stationed in Tustin (with now disbanded Helicopter Training Squadron HMT-301) and worked in the hanger that the Goodyear Blimp was shown in the video being disassembled. In 1991 I got to witness the Goodyear Blimp go from it's old Silver Black color - to the Silver Blue Gold colors right in front of my office. Took about 30 days. So it was sad to see it taken apart for good where I watched it's current version born.

A fantastic story, a sad but triumphal end for an American icon 😃👌👏👏👏❤️❤️❤️🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

I remember when I was about 10 years old watching the blimp port practically in my backyard. I lived near the airport and was fortunate to be ae to watch them come and go. I forgot all about that until recently and then this video came up as a suggestion. Thanks google for listening and reading my thoughts. I digress I don’t want to take away from the nostalgic memory of my days dreaming about what it would be like to ride in the Goodyear blimp and how spectacular views of the city and Sierra Nevada’s are.

So good to see this. I Love airships! Thanks for sharing. 👋🏻

I used to see the Goodyear blimp flying overhead all the time in the early to mid 80s in Eugene, Oregon. I think most of the times it was there for the Oregon Ducks football at Autzen Stadium. It was so freaking awesome. You can hear those propellers from a long way off, and I would always stop what I was doing and just watch it as long as I could. Good memories.

We used to chase it on our bikes at nite to see every light design that would be displayed on it as it flew over San Leandro 😂. Great story,great memories 👍

At least the crew will know if the blimp is leaking : they all start speaking like chipmunks. 🤣 Oh the humanity!!!!!

I lived in pompano beach and used to see this thing all the time

Theme I heard repeated relentlessly throughout the entire doc: "This is cool, but the Zeppelin is way better in every way"

Years ago I was in my 172 on down wind coming into land at Sacramento Airport and was right level with the Good Year blimp up there. It was absolutely majestic.

I was born and lived across the street from the original Big Black Blimp Hangar. We saw the ships go over our house all the time. Scared my Grandfather cause he thought it would hit the house! LOL My Dad taught flying at Shorty Fultons Airport across the street from us, after WW ll. Lot's of great memories! Hate to hear that things are changing!

thank you for the video. its so sad...😢

Great documentary.

My grandpa used to be a pilot of the good year blimp

Unexpected surprise. Thank you.

I flew on the blimp in Miami back in the 70’s. She was my first flight in any aircraft.

What an incredible, fantastic documentary! Wish there was more blimp and Goodyear Blimp history, though. I wonder who got those low-time, almost-new Continental IO-360s? Man, to be flying a plane with the classic blimp's engines! I'd paint it with a Goodyear blimp theme. 41:50 - He shouldn't mix fuel samples. Every sample from each sump should be in an empty, clean cup. At least that's what I was taught in pilot training and A&P school. 52:44 - Think it would have reached the sand-trap? So honored to have ridden in the Goodyear blimp in the 70s in San Antonio!

Great video. Thank you.

I was born in 2001 into a NASCAR home. Ive seen that blimp thousands of times throughout my life and things wont be the same without it

Really cool doc! Was fortunate enough to be allowed to board the Met-Life "Snoopy" blimp that was temporarily moored at Lansing Municipal Airport, in Lansing Illinois back in 98' (i think?). Didn't get to fly in it, just boarded the gondola and check out the whole ship by the night watchmen. It was in town slated for some event downtown - though i can't recall what game - Cubs, Sox, Bears? Nice people! Amazing airship! Neat experience! Lot of great experiences working there for Associated Air Activities as a lineman as a young man!

I was stationed at the base where it was dismantled from 1992-1996 MCAS Tustin. I also worked in that hangar.

thank you for being a good pilot and thank you for severing

Awesome documentary on this.

Reminiscent of my three years in Afghanistan (2011 - '14) operating our tethered ship we used for 24/7 surveillance, watching for bad guys doing bad things. Our PTDS ship had plenty of similarities, but was a bit smaller, and specifically purposed for wartime application with an array of various electronic equipment onboard.

When I was a kid (mid 90's) there was a field by a mall near my house that the GoodYear blimp would be parked at a few times a year. I got to look at it up close once. Really cool seeing them still in use.

Farewell, you brought joy to all.

Amazing! Great story!

I have watch many Goodyear Blimps over my life living in Southern California not to far from the Carson Goodyear Airship Operations. I remember when I was on the playground and the Goodyear Blimp flew by in 1963. I also remember watching the Goodyear Blimp take off and land at Torrance Airport before the Carson Facility was built and put into operation. I also remember going by the Goodyear Plant and seeing the old blimp hanger there. Sadly there are Beginnings and Endings to everything. I will watch the latest airship and riminess the Past. Then hopes for the future for Goodyear Airships.

I Agee with Tyson. This documentary was fantastic and yet sad when they deflated her, I was actually afraid in tears. Back around 2007 while I was senior flight lineman at the FBO at SFM in Maine we had an airship from Electric Light Ship stationed there for 3 weeks. Every morning that I worked I would get their fuel order ready. On one of those mornings the chief pilot who o b came friends with him whilst he was there asked if I had the next day off and I said yes. He invited me to fly right seat for most of the day. I was also a student pilot and he was a CFI and he said bring your logbook with you. Now you have four hrs time for a airship in my book. I still have fond memories of the MAYFLOWER coming to my area in Pennsylvania since I was five years old and through my teens. And I miss those glorious Goodyear Blimps and I am looking forward to seeing the new Zeppelins and maybe ride on one sometime soon. At 62 years old now it’s on my bucket list. God Bless everyone.

My office was right there looking right out on the hangar deck every day.

Great video!

Nice job Brian! Thoroughly enjoyed and super sad we weren’t able to join you when you were in WA. Cheers, Kevin

I live ten minutes away from the Wingfoot three hangar in Suffield Ohio and had no idea it wasn't the same blimp(s) we've been so accustomed to seeing all our lives. Quite a few days here in Akron, we will see two in the air. If we have Wingfoot three, then what is the other one? EDITED: I was just at Wingfoot lake park in Suffield, and we have Wingfoot two and not three, but according to wikipedia, we're supposed to have Wingfoot Three permanently docked out there.

I rode on the Spirit of Goodyear in 2002. Amazing experience, something Ive waited my whole life for.

So sad to see the iconic blimp being dismantled and deflated. Its like the death of a gentle giant, the end of an era. I can feel tears welling up in my eyes.

This documentary is Oscar Worthy. Amazing.

I’ve never seen a true blimp, let alone fly in one, but I’ve always been fascinated by them. I loved every second of this documentary and I actually cried when she wouldn’t want to land. Seeing her deflated was even worse. As cool and new as the NT is, it’s just not the same.

Kind of strange seeing the old Tustin hangers. I worked in there when I was in the Marines fixing helicopters. In 1984 for the LA Olympics we had the Goodyear blimp and a Fuji blimp both parked in one corner of the hanger. Could have easily fit a fleet of those things in there.

Fantastic!

I get to see this blimp flying often while at work in the later afternoon, i remember the first time I saw it it was coming right over our warehouse. I was pulling out of the parking lot after my shift and just seen a huge floating thing above and at first thought "holy shit a UFO!" I pulled out my phone's camera and as soon as I snapped the pic I just felt really stupid realizing it was just this blimp. Lol always neat to see it float by though.

I used to see the blimp flying when I was a kid growing up in Southern California. Every Christmas, the blimp would light up with a Christmas greeting, dancing light displays, and signify that the season had changed. I used to hear the droning of the engines, slowly crossing the sky. Sometimes, I'd look straight up, and I could see the blimp directly overhead. The lights on both sides spelled out "Goodyear", or "Seasons Greetings". The 405 freeway passed right next to the Carson "Goodyear Operations" field. When the blimp would take off or land, some people would stop their cars in the emergency lane of the freeway to watch the spectacle. Then, the CHP would swoop in and give them a ticket. I knew this guy who rammed his r/c airplane into the blimp during a landing. He did it on purpose, because he was an idiot. He was caught, and was on the 6:00 news. The blimp got punctured, and was grounded for a while. That was around 1990.

V1! Oh, we’re reversing. Hold on. Ok. V1! V2! Loft slightly!

It is always about the people.... Amazing journey!!!

Up up and awaaaay in my beautiful my beautiful balloooooooooooon !!!!

Yes the good your blimp. I grew up with that little Blimpie from the 1990s. I lived in Carson watched it every day of my life. I think I was about 9 years old. Never got on it. But I always love to watch it go up. I do miss the real 1 the 1st one. It's mortars coming by the sound. It's not the same now. I live in torrents now and I see it once in a Blue Moon when they came out from production. But now it's gone again haven't seen it ever percent. It's been about 6 months since last year. That's the last time I saw it parked haven't seen it ever since. Who knows it's probably back to square one? Bye bye Blimpie.

Amazing !!

Beautiful tribute to an end of an era......

I grew up near the army blimp base in Hitchkock Tx. The only thing left standing is the 4 corners of the massive old hanger. It is the same exact hanger that the Goodyear blimp went in at the end of the video. They are 1000 ft long

This is worth of applauses people!!!!

I miss the GZ 19 Mayflower and the skyships 500 and 600. I hope airships don't become extinct from the skies. I haven't seen any airships on the East coast for over 25 years now. Skies look awfully lonely and empty. Please save them. At least I have 15 or more model airships hanging from my ceiling. At least that's something.

Wonderful story, and very emotional for me. For 17 years, I was one of the blimp operators for indoor R/C electric blimps flown at many Detroit sporting events, including Pistons basketball and Lions football. We flew for a total of 6 teams in 4 sports at the Palace of Auburn Hills (now demolished) and the Pontiac Silverdome (first to be imploded, after a long abandonment), and had 6 airships over the years, ranging from 13 feet to 28 feet in length. There are so many similarities between these prize-dropping models and the real thing. But I have to say, vive la differance: Ours probably operated a bit more like the new NT. There were no control surfaces requiring speed, the rudder had a reversible motor and blade (two, two-blade props mounted in opposing directions for symmetrical thrust). Our gondola fans could rotate about the lateral axis, so we had thrust up, down, fore and aft. Being light was very bad, as down thrust was very weak as the exiting air from the fans is deflected sideways by the bag above - lifting was efficient. The rear rotor meant we could turn at any speed, even spin in place, and fly backward. That said, I think sometimes we made landing it look harder than the full-scale, as we battled the constantly changing currents in the stadiums from the ventilation systems, especially in the Silverdome, which was suspended by air pressure. 1:20:15

Proud of the Blue & Gold colors of the Goodyear Blimp. They are the colors of the Wooster City School District that were picked by late Goodyear CEO and COB Stanley Gault. Wooster,Ohio & Akron,Ohio are synonymous with Goodyear. Sad to see the end of the iconic GZ20’s. But proud to still see the famous Blue & Gold colors. RIP Stan Gault

So, I’m definitely a little too young, I was born in 1995, but my brothers and I used to have these old model planes that were piggy-banks, mine was an awesome Texaco biplane, one of my brothers had a folding-wing navy-carrier bomber ‘circa WWII’, and my other brother had a WWII fixed-wing. (I was super young so I couldn’t say the types) but my dad had his grandfather’s wind-up tin zeppelin, and most of my love of aviation came from those toys and that zeppelin. Awesome KZfaq find of the day.

I'm 55 those old blimps have been around my whole life. It' gonna be sad to see them go.

A took a ride in a Goodyear blimp in 1989 i believe. Both Pennzoil (guest for the indy 500) and the Blimp crew sere,staying at the holiday inn, Indy airport. Very cool experience. The pilots and crew were very nice people

an incredible ship. i remember it flying over the Chambers Bay pga tour championship.

21:20.....when the crew turned into gangstas.

Saw it when it visit my work place...the Goodyear tire plant in Lawton Oklahoma

When I was a little boy in the early to mid eighties the blimp flew over our house in Ky on its way to Indianapolis every time there was a race. We live on a big hill and the blimp would be just above the trees when it went over.

Great airships I had the opportunity to ride in the Columbia out of San diego Montgomery field . We were 6 grade and the pilot flew right over our house where my neighbors were waving .

Goodyear-Zeppelin built the USS Akron and USS Macon US Navy airships in the early 1930’s. They were only 18 feet shorter than the largest airship ever built. the German Zeppelin, Hindenburg. The US Navy airships were 785 feet long, 113 feet in diameter and had an internal gas volume of 6.5 million cuft of helium. I’m not sure why Goodyear had to turn to Zeppelin-NT for the design and manufacture of a semi-rigid airship. Goodyear and Goodyear alone has kept and improved LTA technology right up until 2015. So the question is, if Goodyear planned to cease blimp construction and wanted to fly semi-rigids instead, why didn’t they design and build it?

That thing used to fly over our ghetto neighborhood all the time in Los Angeles County. That thing had to take some bullet holes.

"I've seen them deflate the other way" 🤣

I took a ride in the Goodyear Blimp in 1970 at Ontario Motor Speedway !!!!

amazing

38:01 - Is that wheel a tiller for the horizontal fins? It's amazing how it makes the pilot seat look like a wheelchair.

I cant be the only one that teared up at the end :(

OH ! YOU GET A NEW ONE ! COOL!