Look, Up in the Sky!
Is it a bird? A plane? Superman? Turns out it's none of them.
Howdy! It’s Joey, back with more Fun Fact Friyay. Today’s fact is a rare sight, but first…some exciting news.
I have a story featured in the latest Chicken Soup for the Soul series! This is a series I read all the time growing up; even as an adult, I find the stories to be inspiring and motivate me to be better.
My story is about doing karaoke at a WNBA game, two activities that are very on brand for me. I even got featured on the official Chicken Soup podcast. If you’re so inclined to check out a copy, you can get Chicken Soup for the Soul: 101 Ways to Think Positive directly from the website or support your favorite bookstore through Bookshop.
There are an estimated 25 blimps remaining in existence, with only about half still being used.
If you’ve ever tuned into a major sporting event, you may have spotted a blimp puttering around, like the Goodyear one above.
But did you know you’ve likely seen that blimp that before? It turns out they are not such a common experience in the sky, mainly because they’re shockingly expensive to build and maintain.
Goodyear spent about $20 million building a blimp a decade ago, and the cost of helium ranges between about $100,000 and $200,000 per trip.
Finding a qualified pilot is difficult, too. There are only 128 people in the United States who are legally allowed to fly an airship, per the Federal Aviation Administration. And less than two dozen of those pilots fly full time.
Today, we have newer flying devices that can soar over an event: drones. While we certainly get cool views from them, some people treat drones like their own personal invitation to invade any area they want. Those drones may get shot down because they’re viewed as a potential threat. Meanwhile, a benefit of blimps are that they look friendly, like this enormous whale blimp Pokemon.
Alas, looking friendly isn’t enough, and those other factors contribute to a lack of blimps. The general consensus is there are 25 blimps in existence, with maybe 12 or 13 of them being used. So, when you look up in the sky (hopefully not directly at the sun) and spot a blimp, you’re in some pretty impressive territory.
And if you know how to pilot a blimp, please let me know immediately. I bet it would be fun to fly in one.
Growing up in Miami, we could always tell when the Goodyear blimp was flying overhead and would run outside to watch. It was the highlight of a lot of Sunday dinners during football season!