Goodyear Blimp: Airship Base - Carson, California
DETAILS:
Location: 19200 S. Main Street, Carson, CA 90248
Hours of Operation: TBD.
Please see their schedule page to view flyover appearances. The blimp usually takes off 30-90 minutes prior to the scheduled event, depending on wind conditions and travel distance required. If you’re going to make the effort to watch a liftoff, I recommend arriving 90 minutes prior to be safe.
Parking: Free parking lot on site.
Cost: Free!
Time Commitment: 30 minutes to 1 hour.
Miscellaneous:
A covered observation deck w/benches is available to watch from. They do have bathrooms, but the doors were locked the day of our visit.
Flyover requests can be made via their website, provided below under “resources”.
Tour requests can be made via their website, provided below under “resources”.
You can also technically request a ride on the blimp, via their website, but I’ve heard only celebrity, dignitary & press requests are the kind they respond to. But you never know unless you try, right?
Most of your time will be spent watching the blimp prep for takeoff, but once it does, it flies off pretty quickly.
If there’s an important event happening in the United States, chances are you’ll see the Goodyear Blimp flying above it. Airships like these have been lifting off ever since Henri Giffard built the first one in 1852 and it didn’t take much longer after that for The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company (founded in 1898) to launch its own fleet of blimps all the way back in the 1920s, thus becoming one of the most recognizable corporate marketing tools in history.
Technically no longer a “blimp” since its current fleet of three airships each possess a rigid frame (blimps, by definition, do not have an internal structure), the Goodyear Blimp has seen numerous technological advances throughout the years that has made it safer, faster, and more efficient. All these changes ensure that the Goodyear Blimp will remain a constant in our lives and hopefully for generations to come.
Dubbed Wingfoot 1, 2, and 3 - these three blimps are respectively stationed across the country in Ohio, Florida, and right here in Southern California at Airship Base: Carson, which was established in 1968. On days that Wingfoot 3 (the newest blimp in the fleet, built in 2018) is scheduled for an appearance, visitors are welcome to watch the blimp takeoff from the base’s observation deck. To see the blimp up close is quite the spectacle since its almost the length of a football field. And while it weighs close to 20,000lbs without its lifting gas, once it’s inflated with helium, its weight is reduced to only 100-200lbs (minus fuel, payload, and ballast) which makes for a very graceful take off. And not to be confused with a hot air balloon, Wingfoot 3 will quickly dart off to its destination once it reaches its cruising altitude thanks to a top speed of 73 mph. You can hardly reach that speed most days on the 405! Suffice it to say, I hope everyone takes advantage of this unique and majestic experience.
RESOURCES:
Goodyear Blimp website
