Another Blimp Story

Another Blimp Story,
September 25th, 2024

My foreman at Kenmore Air Harbor, Mac, worked for Goodyear on the blimp crew after he returned from Vietnam around 1970. Mac, John, and I were all aircraft mechanics.

We worked the swing shift at KAH, the largest privately owned seaplane base in the world, from 4:30 PM to 1:00 AM. Mac told us stories from his days working on the Goodyear blimp crew based in Spring, Texas, just north of Houston.

The blimp would winter in Texas and then spend the summer and fall going up and down the Midwest to sporting events. College football games were one of the main venues for a blimp appearance.

The blimp would head north with a couple pilots in the gondola and a mechanic and/or engineer. The fastest the blimp could go with its two piston engines (now they use turboprop engines) was about 45 mph. Sometimes in the Midwest, the blimp would be facing a 30-40 mph headwind and would barely go as fast as a bicycle. The ground crew in trucks and cars following the blimp, would reach the destination before the blimp.

They would all stay in motels along the way. Mac had a roommate named “Luther.” Every morning, Luther would wake up and light a Camel cigarette. Then he’d pour himself a cup of coffee and splash in a heavy dose of Old Crow Whiskey. Luther would stir it with a metal spoon.

It drove Mac nuts. Mac didn’t drink or smoke, and waking up every day to cigarette smoke and that damned tinkling sound of the metal spoon in the porcelain cup put Mac’s teeth on edge.

Mac told us that often, the blimp would get into trouble flying. The blimp carried lead shot ballast in burlap bags in case it had to climb in a hurry. The bags of ballast varied from 500 to 2,000 pounds.

It was an often occurrence for a farmer or rancher to show up in his old pickup truck at the airfield where the blimp was moored. The rancher and/or farmer would show the Goodyear ballast bag to the Goodyear purser claiming damage to crops and livestock. The purser paid them whatever they asked for.

One time, the blimp was caught in a violent downdraft and had to drop the 2,000 pound lead shot ballast weights to stay airborne.

The next day, the farmer showed up with the ballast bags and a Polaroid photo of his flattened barn. That cost the purser a goodly sum.

The Spring, Texas Goodyear base closed in 1992. Today, there are no Goodyear blimps. In 2014, the three Goodyear blimps were replaced by semi-rigid airships. These have a rigid internal frame. The old blimps were just a bag full of Helium gas bags. Fortunately, Helium is a by-product of natural gas drilling, and there is plenty of Helium in Texas.

Mac told us that sometimes the blimp would get low on Helium, and the purser would pay top dollar for every tank of Helium gas in a town or city near the blimp.

It must have been exciting to have 2,000 pound bags of lead shot dropped from 1,000 feet level your barn.

TJM