Goodyear plans larger inflation

5/4/2011

Three Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. blimps are moored at the Goodyear blimp base in Suffield, Ohio, near Akron. Goodyear will team up with German manufacturer ZLT Zeppelin Luftschifftechnik to replace its three U.S. airships with bigger, faster ones. The Akron company said Tuesday it would build three blimps beginning in 2013, each of them costing about $21 million. The replacements will be longer (246 feet compared with 192), will fly faster (73 mph versus 54 mph), and will have more gondola seats (13 versus seven, including the pilot's).