Goodyear retiring blimps, rolling out new cigar-shaped craft

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The fabled Goodyear Blimp is retiring. But don't fret. The cigar-shaped thing most people have seen floating over sports events will still be there. It just won't be, technically, a blimp. The nation's three Goodyear blimps are being replaced by larger semi-rigid dirigibles. Goodyear's Priscilla Tasker says its brand new design. Such a craft differs from a blimp in that the big, helium-filled balloon that carries it aloft won't go flat when the gas is drained. The company's Southern California-based Spirit of America blimp was retired earlier this month. That was about a year after Ohio-based Spirit of Goodyear left the fleet. Goodyear's last blimp, Florida-based Spirit of Innovation, is coming to California next month. It will cover for Spirit of America until a replacement semi-rigid dirigible is built.