(mid-tempo chimes)

There's experimental airships now

that they're looking to use, similar to a zeppelin,

to move cargo to remote areas of the world.

Then that could be used for anything from food

to construction materials.

So they're looking at things like that.

I know the government, military,

they look into a lot of different types

of uses for airships.

I've heard some of the larger airships

that have been out there in development

for carrying heavy cargo, and trying

to be able to stay up in the air

for long periods of time.

[Chris] Those are the kinds of things that I see,

on an airship like this being able to be used for.

We started off with the collaboration with zeppelin

in the early 1900s, and now we're back again.

So it's kind of project full-circle for us.

[Chris] The old ships are called GZ20s,

and GZ stands for Goodyear Zeppelin.

Zeppelin was leading the build.

They're the manufacturer,

but we were the technical support team.

(uptempo music)

Zeppelin was the first company to really have

a true airship airline.

[Doug] You look at it and say,

wow that's really a part of American history.

Goodyear started their airship history

in about 1911, with building

the first envelope for the Akron Vaniman.

These would've been hydrogen-filled airships at the time.

Our current airships are all helium-filled.

This also shows a pretty good look at the gondola here

and how it's attached with cables away from the car.

Because the hydrogen gas was flammable,

so they wanted anything that had spark

to be away from the envelope.

1925 was our first blimp, it was the Pilgrim.

This was the first helium-filled airship.

(jubilant music)

We're involved in emergency response

and relief plans for several different cities.

We do a lot of stuff with the National Park services,

or the US Wildlife folks,

and things like that up and down the coastline.

There could be opportunities

for maybe some scientific missions,

maybe some ability to do atmospheric studies.

[Chris] The new Goodyear blimp

is a whole new chapter in airship operations.

There are some versatile uses with airships,

so I hope they do become mainstream.

(exuberant chime)