MOGADORE, Ohio (AP) — The iconic Goodyear airships are taking a victory lap over the skies of an Ohio city this week.
The Akron-based tire company is celebrating the 100th anniversary of “Pilgrim,” its first blimp to take flight just outside of the city on June 3, 1925. The airships took to the skies on Tuesday, and will again on Wednesday and Thursday, flying over land that once housed the company's original hangar.
Jim Crone, who manages airship maintenance, explained why the company chose this swath of land in 1917. “It was secluded. It was away from most of other parts of the city, and it allowed them to build airships here. It’s a lot of property.”
Goodyear had started experimenting with vessels that would be lighter than aircraft in the early 1900s, and the dirigibles have since become a lasting and iconic symbol of the corporate brand. For some, it evokes nostalgia, while for others it offers a glimpse into a larger-than-life part of advertisement history.
Locally and around the country, Crone said the brand has a “cult following.”
“People love the airships,” he said. In the Akron area specifically, "they identify with Goodyear and identify with the airships. They’ve become part of this community.”
One of those fans, Madison Hayberg, brought her 2-year-old son Levi with her to see the airships on Tuesday.
“I think it’s just a cool thing that a lot of us locally probably take for granted because we see it all the time,” she said. “I wanted to bring him because when I was younger I remember they retired one of them so my mom pulled us all from school, brought us and we got to see them all, so I thought it would be cool for him to do something similar.”
Here is a by-the-numbers look at Goodyear airships over time:
Goodyear establishes an Aeronautics Department to build lighter-than-air aircrafts, and by 1912 the company had built its first balloon.
In 1930, the “Defender” blimp became the first airship in the world to carry a lit neon sign so the company’s name could be seen after dark.
Goodyear began making airships for the U.S. Navy in 1917, and its first blimp — the first commercial non-rigid airship flown using helium — launched years later, becoming a marketing tool.
From 1942 to 1944, the company built more than 150 airships for the Navy to serve in World War II, flying patrol over warships on the seas with zero reported loss of ships when a blimp was on watch.
The Goodyear Blimp has been a regular at major sporting events since flying above the 1955 Rose Bowl. A few years later, it became a service vehicle for television coverage while simultaneously functioning as a highly visible advertising platform.
Since that time, blimps have undergone wholesale changes and improved dramatically: steering technology; safety innovations; high-definition cameras; aerial views captured with specialized systems that compensate for movement during filming, resulting in stable and smooth footage footage; and much quieter rides thanks to relocated engines and propellers.
There currently are four Goodyear Blimps — the three in the U.S. and one in Friedrichshafen, Germany.
Today’s Goodyear Blimps are semi-rigid dirigibles, meaning they have an internal frame as compared to previous eras of blimps that could be fully deflated. In 2014, Goodyear transitioned to the New Technology semi-rigid airship platform designed to allow for improved maneuverability and speed.
The Goodyear Blimp is 246 feet long (75 meters), which would cover about 80% of a football field. It is 58 feet (18 meters) high and holds three Olympic-sized swimming pools' worth of helium.
Goodyear gets helium for its blimps from multiple sources. Because helium is a finite resource, the company purifies its helium every six to eight weeks to extend its life.
The blimp travels more than 100 days per year, with trips ranging anywhere from three days to three weeks. A crew of nearly 20 people travel with the airship whenever it is touring. Today’s Goodyear Blimps fly between 1,000 and 1,500 feet (305 meters and 457 meters) in the air and travel at speeds up to 73 miles per hour (117 kilometers per hour).
There currently are fewer blimp pilots in the world than astronauts, according to Goodyear, which has 10 full-time pilots. To serve in that job, you must have a commercial pilot license followed by approximately 250 hours of training to earn an additional lighter-than-air airship rating from the Federal Aviation Administration.
The blimp has covered more than 2,500 events and taken more than 500,000 passengers for rides, according to Goodyear. Former President Ronald Reagan might be the most famous passenger, but it was rapper Ice Cube who raised the blimp’s street cred when he included a line about it in his 1992 song titled “It Was A Good Day.”
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Shipkowski reported from Toms River, New Jersey.
FILE - A Goodyear blimp flies over Michigan Stadium in the first half of an NCAA college football game between Michigan and Southern California in Ann Arbor, Mich., Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya, File)
FILE - The Goodyear Blimp is prepared for takeoff, Wednesday, Feb. 12, 2025, in New Smyrna Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Mark Long, File)
FILE - The Goodyear blimp hovers above the 16th hole during the Phoenix Open golf tournament, Sunday, Feb. 12, 2023, in Scottsdale, Ariz. (AP Photo/Darryl Webb, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Congressional Democrats called for investigations Wednesday into renovations at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, as the ongoing drama over the president’s problem-plagued, $16 million rehabilitation project continued to roil the capital.
Lawmakers in the House and Senate demanded answers about the saga that's been highlighted in the news cycle for weeks, even as the White House has repeatedly blamed — without evidence — unidentified vandals for peeling paint and other problems. Six people have been arrested, President Donald Trump said, without providing details, and a local wildlife nonprofit conducted necropsies on dead ducks found near the Reflecting Pool. The president has said the pool may need to be drained once again for additional repairs.
Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal, the top Democrat on the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, challenged the Trump administration over no-bid contracts for work on the Reflecting Pool, saying they were awarded to vendors with previous relationships to Trump.
National Park Service projects undertaken at Trump’s behest in the Washington area “have been marked by blatant corruption, a shocking lack of transparency, disregard for legal requirements and apparent incompetence,” Blumenthal wrote Wednesday in a letter to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and Jessica Bowron, the acting Park Service director.
“Rushed no-bid contracts given to unqualified vendors with previous relationships to the president resulted in a reflecting pool more covered with algae than before, with freshly painted chunks of paint peeling from the bottom to float on the pool’s surface,” Blumenthal said.
The nation's capital “will now celebrate America's 250th birthday with an empty reflecting pool, a testament to incompetence and corruption,” he added.
Ohio-based Green Water Solutions was given a $1.7 million contract to install a water-purification system in the Reflecting Pool, while Virginia-based Atlantic Industrial Coatings was awarded $14.7 million to repaint and waterproof the pool’s concrete floor.
Both contractors have ties to Trump entities, said California Rep. Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
“Donald Trump’s disastrous renovation of our national reflecting pool is his latest failed vanity project,” Garcia said, calling the projects a waste of taxpayer money.
Trump pledged to beautify the century-old Reflecting Pool ahead of the nation's 250th birthday celebrations, draining its water and directing the bottom to be painted a color he dubbed “American flag blue.” But since the site was restored, its water has been plagued by an algae bloom and pieces of the new coating have appeared to be peeling off the bottom.
Without evidence, Trump has repeatedly blamed the peeling paint on vandalism, including a “350-foot gash” in the liner, as the administration faces a self-imposed deadline to complete the renovation before July 4th. Trump also has said the federal government would release images to substantiate his claim. None were made public as of Wednesday.
Trump said Wednesday that “sick people” had used razors and box cutters to slice portions of the lining. He wasn’t sure if the pool draining would come before or after the July 4 holiday, during which tens of thousands of people will be at the National Mall.
A White House spokeswoman said Wednesday it’s “a shame that Democrats do not think the capital of the greatest nation in the history of the world deserves to be safe and beautiful.”
Trump “generously spearheaded the restoration of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, which has long been plagued with algae and leaked 16 million gallons of water per year. The president’s efforts to beautify our nation’s capital are supported by Americans across the country and should be praised by both Republicans and Democrats,″ spokeswoman Taylor Rogers said.
A spokeswoman for Green Water Solutions, also known as Greenwater Services, said Wednesday the company uses devices called nanobubblers to infuse ozone into the water to kill algae and bacteria. The process is “functioning perfectly” and the water looked clear and blue Wednesday, after rain muddled it Tuesday, spokeswoman Erin Kramer said.
“The water is clear. What is visible is the sediment on the pool floor, a natural part of the remediation process when the algae dies,” she said. In a lake or river, that sediment is absorbed, but in a pool it needs to be vacuumed, she said.
The company is owned by John Cafaro, a Trump donor who lives near Mar-a-Lago, the president’s private club in Florida.
Atlantic Industrial Coatings, which spread blue sealant across the pool’s concrete floor, is owned by Curtis “Eddie” Wood. The company said this week it has identified some areas in the Reflecting Pool that require repairs, adding that the work will done once the pool is drained. It was unclear when that will happen.
Amid the calls for investigations, Democratic Sen. John Hickenlooper of Colorado called for Trump to personally reimburse American taxpayers for the pool renovations, which he called “a national embarrassment.”
Americans expect their tax dollars “to fix roads, support schools and protect our public lands,” Hickenlooper wrote in a letter to Trump. “They do not expect to bankroll failed presidential vanity projects. The bill for this fiasco should only belong to you, Mr. President.”
Associated Press writer Meg Kinnard contributed to this story.
Different shades of colors are seen on the bottom of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, Wednesday, June 24, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)
A duck swims across the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, Wednesday, June 24, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)
A white substance is pumped into the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, Wednesday, June 24, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)
A duck and ducklings swim in the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, Wednesday, June 24, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)
Visitors take a selfie at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, Wednesday, June 24, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)
A white substance is pumped into the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, Wednesday, June 24, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)
