The iconic Goodyear Blimps are making their final run and are being retired in-lieu of new and more advanced airships.
"It's a brand new design. It is a much larger airship. It's a semi-rigid dirigible," Goodyear's Priscilla Tasker told the Associated Press about the new fleet of aircraft replacing the company's three aging blimps – the Spirit of Goodyear, Spirt of America and Spirit of Innovation.
A semi-rigid dirigible means the aircraft will have a fixed structure holding its big, gassy balloon in place. As opposed to a blimp, which goes flat when the helium is removed, according to Fortune.
"But the most impressive features are the glass cockpit that is all fly-by-wire, the most state-of-the-art avionics in airships today," Tasker said.
In addition, the new airships will feature three engines instead of two, making them able to hit speeds of 73 mph and generate less sound while in movement, reported Yahoo! News. They'll also be more maneuverable, which Goodyear says is important when capturing the birds-eye view of events on television. They'll still be carried aloft by helium, however.
The biggest difference between the blimps and the new aircraft, will in fact, be their respective sizes: The new models are 50 feet longer than the old ones, measuring at 246 feet, and are nearly the length of a football field.
So while they're not blimps, they'll still be recognizable with the blue-and-gold Goodyear logo emblazoned across the side.
