If you’re near downtown Akron on June 3 and 4, be sure to look up.

In honor of the 100th anniversary of the first Goodyear Blimp flight, three airships will fly over the city Tuesday and Wednesday evenings.

Wingfoot One, the Akron-based airship, will join its blimp brethren, the Florida-based Wingfoot Two and the California-based Wingfoot Three. Wingfoot One will be decked out in the same black and gray color scheme as Pilgrim, Goodyear’s first blimp. 

Jerry Hissem, the chief pilot of the Akron base, said the blimps will be in the downtown sky on both nights from approximately 4 to 7 p.m.

Planning to attend Mayor Shammas Malik’s State of the City address June 3 at Lock 3? Or the Akron RubberDucks game later that evening? Both spaces will offer great views of the blimps.

Those with tickets to the baseball game, should get there early if they want to snag a freebie. The first 1,000 fans will receive a T-shirt commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Goodyear Blimp.

“For most of the Akronites around here, a lot of people have a connection to them,” Hissem said of the blimp’s popularity. “They had a relative that worked at Goodyear, or they’ve taken a ride in the blimp.”

Pilgrim, the first Goodyear Blimp, took its inaugural ride in 1925. (Courtesy of Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.)

Pilgrim was first Goodyear Blimp

Built in 1925, Goodyear’s Pilgrim was the first commercial non-rigid airship flown using helium. It sported a landing wheel that replaced bumper bags, along with the first passenger car held flush against its bag by internal cables.

Previously, blimp gondolas were suspended from their envelopes using only external cables. Pilgrim’s gondola is on exhibit at the Smithsonian Institution, where it represents a milestone in aviation progress.

The Pilgrim was also the first blimp to be used for public relations — it was decorated each December for Goodyear’s “Santa Claus Express” program.

According to the Smithsonian Institution, Pilgrim’s first flight in Akron on June 3, 1925, was with pilot Jack Yolton at the controls.

The gondola of the Goodyear Airship Pilgrim on display at the Smithsonian’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia. Credit: (Smithsonian photo by Mark Avino)

It flew with helium for the first time on July 17. Florence Litchfield, wife of Goodyear president P.W. Litchfield, christened it on July 18.

By the time the Pilgrim retired on Dec. 30, 1931, it had made 4,765 flights, carried 5,355 passengers, flown a total of 2,880 hours, and covered 153,000 kilometers (95,000 miles).

Being a Goodyear Blimp passenger is to join an exclusive club; the company said only about 1,200 people ride in a Goodyear blimp annually. The experience feels like being at sea, with the airship gently rocking in the sky. The blimp works like a submarine, displacing air like a submarine would displace water.

Also in honor of its 100th anniversary, the Goodyear Blimp will visit 100 cities in 2025. (But Akron will be the only city to feature the three airships.) For more information, including blimp history and where to spot the blimp on its national tour, visit goodyearblimp.com.

“We just want to celebrate that and let people know that blimps are still going strong,” Hissem said.

Arielle Kass contributed to this story.

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Culture & Arts Reporter (she/her)
Brittany is an accomplished journalist who’s passionate about the arts, civic engagement and great storytelling. She has more than a decade of experience covering culture and arts, both in Ohio and nationally. She previously served as the associate editor of Columbus Monthly, where she wrote community-focused stories about Central Ohio’s movers and shakers. A lifelong Ohioan, she grew up in Springfield and graduated from Kent State University.

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Zake has deep roots in Northeast Ohio journalism. She was the managing editor for multimedia and special projects at the Akron Beacon Journal, where she began work as a staff photographer in 1986. Over a 20-year career, Zake worked in a variety of roles across departments that all help inform her current role as Signal Akron's editor in chief. Most recently, she was a journalism professor and student media adviser at Kent State University, where she worked with the next generation of journalists to understand public policy, environmental reporting, data and solutions reporting. Among her accomplishments was the launch of the Kent State NewsLab, an experiential and collaborative news commons that connects student reporters with outside professional partners.