Server: Netscape-Enterprise/3.0 Date: Thu, 18 Dec 1997 05:05:20 GMT Content-type: text/html About Goodyear - Blimp Information - Super Skytacular


Super Skytacular®

Technology Sheds New Light On Blimp’s Night Sign

For nearly 30 years the Goodyear blimps have utilized a technology called "Super Skytacular" to light up the night sky with the company’s name, inform the public with safety messages and promote charitable causes.

Recently that technology underwent a radical change on the Spirit of Akron, ushering in a new era of light and movement that revolutionizes the way it looks as well as the way it is accomplished.

The new sign not only increases the night sign resolution and brilliance, but it also affords the blimp a daytime message application.

"Goodyear thought long and hard about changes before moving to this new system," said Tom Riley, manager of global airship operations. "When you have a highly successful operating system like the ‘Super Skytacular,’ you don’t want to change it unless there is an appreciable improvement."

Riley maintains that the key to accepting a new night sign technology was in its performance and reliability.

"We needed a system that would be perceived as a great leap forward and yet be able to withstand the rigors of airshipping," he said. "With the blimp sitting or flying outside in all types of adverse weather, it is necessary that the new sign repel rain, snow, wind and ice, as well as deflect the damaging heat and rays of the summer sun."

To address that, the light boards are heavily coated with a protective substance that Goodyear prefers to keep secret.

Technicians and operations personnel for the airship program were looking for increased resolution, easily obtainable replacement parts and decreased weight.

Brian Krause, airship engineering supervisor, believes that is exactly what they have received from the developer, Independent Digital Consulting (IDC) of Norton, Ohio. Krause has monitored the project from its beginning three years ago and enthusiastically promotes its advantages.

"We gained about 200-300 pounds of lift per side with the new sign over the old," Krause said. On the Spirit of Akron, the old sign required seven pieces of equipment to be installed for each excursion. The new sign uses only one piece -- a small, hand-carried laptop computer.

One side of the blimp displays 3,780 light boards, each one 2x3 inches in size and comprised of 12 light-emitting diodes (LED) equally divided into red, blue and green.

This is in contrast to the old sign’s 4,375 individual incandescent lights with colored lenses.

The intensity of each LED board can be adjusted, in effect changing their mix to create a pallet of 256 possible colors, an option not available on the ‘Super Skytacular.’

Programming the new sign also is made easier. Where the old system might require a technician to spend hours recreating freehand style animations such as those found in Goodyear’s most recent advertising campaign "Serious Freedom," such items now simply can be scanned into the computer.

Riley, who oversees the blimp program, claims it was necessity that invited the Mother of Invention to come up with the new sign.

"With new airship envelopes coming on line, we wanted an updated sign that had a daytime capability, and the LED system made that possible," he said.

As part of the 3,780 light boards, 740 are equipped with an additional 36 high-intensity, red-orange LEDs producing enough light to make messages visible during the day.

The day sign, though quite capable of running text messages, cannot run the popular animations that have become a hallmark of the Goodyear blimps’ nighttime shows. "This is a nice addition to our sign abilities," said Riley, "and is used primarily for specific projects where we know the audience and the place we want to flash the message."

For now the new sign appears only on the left side of the Spirit of Akron, which will be adding another type of sign to the right side in the near future. "More experimentation is on the way for the Spirit of Akron," he said. "We have another system coming to us for observation."

Riley explained the right side will be a completely different type of sign, from a different company, with different applications, but not necessarily in competition with the left side.

"Thus far we are happy with the results from IDC, but in development we had two systems coming at us at once and we will be giving both a fair look," he said.