Goodyear to upgrade airship base in California

CARSON, Calif. (Feb. 17, 2017) — Goodyear plans to upgrade its airship operations base in Carson.

The improvements will include an inflatable hangar for the new Goodyear Blimp Wingfoot Two, scheduled to arrive in Southern California by year-end 2017. The company has flown its blimps for more than 90 years and has operated its base in Carson since 1968.

Since 2014, Goodyear has been transitioning to a state-of-the-art fleet of blimps from its 1970s-era GZ model blimps. The new blimps feature a fresh design with capabilities that include faster speeds, quieter engines, advanced on-board avionics and larger passenger capacity.

Wingfoot One (christened in 2014) and Wingfoot Two (2016), operate in Florida and Ohio. Wingfoot Two will replace the Spirit of Innovation (2006), which is scheduled to retire in March.

"At Goodyear, we honor tradition and drive toward innovation," Paul Fitzhenry, senior vice president, global communications, said. "We are proud to usher in this new era of our world-renowned brand icon and look forward to operating the new blimp in our Carson base."

The new hangar, the first on the Carson airship base, will be built out of 73 miles of partially translucent polyester fabric and will be almost nine stories tall and longer than a football field, the company said. Construction of the hangar is expected to be completed in seven months and erected on the property in July.

Other upgrades to the facility, according to Goodyear, will include an enlarged mooring circle for ground handling, a new masting system and a new maintenance building.

Since 1917, Goodyear has built more than 300 lighter-than-air vehicles for public relations and defense applications, many built at the company's Wingfoot Lake hangar near Akron.