GZ-20 Goodyear Blimp; It's full of hot air, but everyone loves Goodyear's advertising gimmick.(Brief Article)

Mercedes-Benz has the Maybach Zeppelin. Cadillac grooves to Led Zeppelin. Even Mick and the Stones have a yellow blimp.

Airships may be suddenly in vogue, but not at Goodyear. Goodyear's Southern California airship base in Carson will be getting a new blimp in August to replace its Eagle. Well, more like a new ``old'' blimp. One of the airship pilots explained, ``It's like building a new 1939 VW Bug every 11 years or so. The only thing that changes is the materials used and the people who fly it.''

Actually, Goodyear has been building airships longer than Volkswagen has been building Bugs. Goodyear's chief executive in the 1920s, Paul W. Litchfield saw the potential in lighter-than-air craft as ``air yachts'' for promotional cruises across the country. He acquired the patents for building zeppelins along with engineer Karl Arnstein and his crew from Germany. In 1925, Goodyear launched its first airship, Pilgrim, which was also the first commercial airship to use helium. Americans have been looking up to Goodyear's blimps ever since.

In 1929, Amelia Earhart christened the Defender, the first airship to carry a neon-lit ``Goodyear'' sign. It became part of a four-ship fleet. Goodyear's home base of Akron, Ohio, soon became the world's leading manufacturing center of lighter-than-air craft. Goodyear's blimps made 150,000 flights from 1925 to 1941 covering a distance of around 4 million miles. During World War II, the company built 150 blimps and balloons for the Navy to protect the coasts and Allied convoys from submarine attacks. The Navy discontinued its blimp fleet in 1962. Goodyear, which has built more than 300 airships, no longer mass-produces the craft.

Goodyear got its promotional fleet back in the air in 1947 by purchasing war surplus blimps. That year the first animated message board also debuted. It blinked ``Goodyear means Goodwear.'' In 1963, the Orange Bowl was the first event to feature television coverage from the Goodyear blimp. Goodyear currently has three airships in the United States at Akron, Pompano Beach, Florida, and in Southern California. Each blimp is valued at about $5 million.

Blimp operation has not changed much in 77 years. The Carson base consists of a small office, a portable mooring mast and enough open space alongside the 405 freeway to let the 192-foot-long Eagle freely swivel 360 degrees to always face into the wind. A ...