New Goodyear Blimp, Wingfoot Two, Lands In Long Beach

LOS ANGELES, CA — Goodyear's newest blimp Wingfoot Two and crew arrived in Los Angeles Thursday, completing a 2,600-mile, 10-state and three-week cross-country trip from Ohio to California.

Wingfoot Two will stay a few weeks at Long Beach Airport before going to its permanent home at Goodyear's airship base in nearby Carson. It succeeds Goodyear's last blimp, the Spirit of Innovation, which first flew in 2006 and was decommissioned and dismantled in March.

Wingfoot Two will provide aerial coverage for the Clippers game on Nov. 1, BlizzCon on Nov. 3, the Arizona-USC college football game on Nov. 4, and coverage of both the Clippers and Lakers home games on Nov. 5, Goodyear announced.

"We are very excited to introduce Wingfoot Two to her new home in Southern California after a great trip creating new fans across the country," said Pilot in Charge Matthew St. John. "We are honored to carry on our role as an aerial ambassador for Goodyear with this new generation of Goodyear Blimp."

Goodyear blimps have flown the California skies for more than 90 years, providing aerial coverage of many of the most-watched sports, entertainment and news events. Notable events include the first-ever live aerial feed to a transcontinental telecast over the 1955 Rose Parade and Rose Bowl, the 1984 Summer Olympics, the Academy Awards red carpet arrivals, the 2015 Special Olympics and numerous Dodgers, Lakers, Clippers, Galaxy, Kings, USC and UCLA games.

At more than 246 feet long, Wingfoot Two stretches nearly the length of a football field. The blimp's top speed is 73 miles per hour.

Since 1917, Goodyear has built more than 300 lighter-than-air vehicles for public relations and U.S. military applications.

Although the new craft look like Goodyear's previous blimps and use helium, they are semi-rigid dirigibles with a fixed structure holding the balloon in place. Goodyear says the new airships are longer, faster, quieter and easier to maneuver than the original ones, and will operate more like a helicopter rather than the ship-like blimp.

City News Service; Photo: This Oct. 6, 2016 photo shows Goodyear's newest airship, Wingfoot Two, in Mogadore, Ohio. (Malcolm Porter/WEWS-TV via AP)