Good Year Blimp falls out of the sky

[Valigator]

Goodyear blimp crash-lands in Coral Springs during thunderstorm

By Jon Burstein, Akilah Johnson, Kevin Smith and Brian Haas
Sun-Sentinel
Posted June 17 2005


The Goodyear blimp Stars & Stripes crashed Thursday night during a spectacular summer lightning storm, slamming into a Coral Springs storage building after struggling to stay afloat as fierce rain whipped around it.

The blimp's two pilots walked away from the crash unharmed, with no injuries reported on the ground and minimal structural damage to Coral Springs Mini Storage, 12001 NW 35th St., authorities said. The downed blimp hit a concrete utility pole during its descent, causing about 1,400 homes near Sample Road and Coral Ridge Drive to lose electricity.

"not a good week to be in the air, I would say" or better yet on the ground under these guys"

[Hawkeye6]

Well, don't they say that any landing you can walk away from is a good one?

[Aim to maim]

It's not been a good week for flying machines in your area. Don't let your guard down just yet, some believe these things happen in 3's. Lets hope that's not the case this time.

[gumpokc]

The sky is falling, the sky is falling :P

[TreeDoc]

I always figured one of those things would just bounce off of whatever they hit! :D Did it pop like a balloon and zip across they sky before going flat and landing? That would have been a ride! :eek:

Speaking of rides, when I was 8 years old my Dad was able to procure a trip on the Goodyear Airship Columbia out here at their airship operations in Southern California. He scooped all 5 of us kids from school on a moments notice and we were up on an aerial tour of Long Beach, the Naval Shipyard, the old Long Beach Pike Roller Coaster and back to Carson, CA where they maintain the airship. It was the absolute first time I had EVER been in the air in anything and it actually scared the hell out of me! Back in that day the "blimp" which was one of only 3 in the USA was a noisy SOB and when they took off the ground crew of about a dozen burly guys would bounce it off the ground and it would then pitch up to a VERY steep angle, power up full throttle, and power darned near straight up making a ton of noise. I remember being petrified but once we were straight and level the view was pretty cool. I have to find those old 16mm films my Dad took of that trip, heck, it was only 35 years ago.

Nowadays there's a zillion airships around, anybody been on one?

[Rocky Raab]

Nope, but I'd love to.

Been up in a hot air balloon, which is a real hoot - until you lean out of the basket a bit to look down, and suddenly realize it's quite possible to fall out of the thing!

Had a chance this week to take a 40-minute flight in a B-17, but couldn't afford the $200 ticket at the start of my slow sales season.

[TreeDoc]

Wow, Rocky! That's big on my list....the B-17. Every year we have a Boeing B-17 (The "909") and a Consolidated B-24 fly into one of my two local airfields (SBP-San Luis Obispo or SMX-Santa Maria). The aircraft are owned and operated by the Collings Foundation out of Massachusetts. I have sworn a ride in each of them to the tune of $400 bucks a pop so that makes your deal pretty darned good! Every time they come through it seems there's something going on with work that prevents me from being able to pony up the dough.

This year they snuck in without my knowledge that they were coming. I missed the article in the paper a few days before and much to my surprise I was made aware of their arrival while out on a job with my crew when both lumbered over the jobsite, side by side, at about 1000' AGL! My God those things give me goose bumps just listening to them! I can't even imagine what it must have been like to see and hear them when the sky was full of them from horizon to horizon back during the war.

I think I'm going to catch the B-24 first though. Last I heard this B-24 is the last operational B-24 IN THE WORLD!! There having a hell of a time procuring parts for it so I'm guessing it won't be too long before it's just not economically feasible to keep her in the air.