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[Narrator] There are lots of new features

in the new Goodyear blimp.

The old airship was built on 1930s technology, was redone

in the '60s, but the new ship

is more like an airplane.

Flying experience in this airship versus

the old one is almost 180 degrees out.

The old one being old technology,

force-feedback controls, literally cables

that go out to the fins.

Where you have a wheel on the side,

you have rudder pedals that you're pushing.

[Michael] so this one, where it's almost

like a big video game, with the joystick controls,

all electronic feedback.

With the old airship,

you have basically 20 people running at you

trying to get the airship on to the ground and stabilize it.

Then they pull the airship into the wind,

so that it can get on the mast and sit there for the night.

And the older ships, they travel with 22 people,

it's gonna be five pilots, and 15 to 16 crew members.

Now with the newer airship, we're going to be able to travel

with a little bit less crew, probably around 14 or 15.

We have five pilots on each operation,

about 15 pilots in the company.

With those five pilots, only two can be in the airship.

So the other three are monitoring weather,

any sort of changes in the weather,

and anything that may pop up.

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In order to be a good blimp pilot,

you have to have patience.

Once you're in the air, you aren't going anywhere fast.

We take off, we could be in the air

from anywhere from six hours all the way to 14, 15 hours.

The max endurance on this airship is 48 hours in the air.

The blimps are certified to fly up to 10,000 feet,

but generally we fly about a 1,000 to 1,500 feet

above the ground, depending on the operation.

Speeds between 30 and 40 miles an hour.

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One of the things that's really unique to the airship

is the truck and the connection point to the ground itself.

The mast truck is the only thing

that's really attaching it to the ground.

The really unique part about an airship

versus a regular airplane, helicopter, something else,

is that when it gets on the ground, it's still flying.

And because of that we have to be really careful

how we treat it, even when it's hooked

to the ground support equipment,

because any kind of a wind shift or a movement

and that thing is gonna wanna move with the wind.

Flying the blimp

isn't really like flying any other aircraft.

It's more like flying a boat really.

There's really no numbers that you fly

like you would in an airplane, or a helicopter.

Weather conditions, and wind

and everything impacts the airship so much

that you really have to literally feel

each take off and each landing,

and actually fly the aircraft.

(exuberant chime)