Goodyear Blimp Coming To OSH12 (With Retro OSH71 Blimp Pic)
Wednesday, July 11, 2012 at 11:12PM 
(click pic to enlarge) Goodyear Blimp & N8407 Ford Tri-Motor (now EAA's) at Oshkosh 1971
The Goodyear blimp will be coming to Oshkosh 2012 and that makes me very happy! I think having an airship overhead while living the avgeek life at the greatest place on Earth is both calming and exciting. The Zeppelin NT was awesome last year and the Goodyear Blimp will be fabulous this year. Looks like it's scheduled to arrive on Wednesday, July 25th and then will be departing Saturday, July 28th.
I did a little digging thru the AirPigz family photo album and found this nifty pic of the Goodyear Blimp 'America' from way back at the second Oshkosh in 1971. The annual EAA fly-in and convention was held at Rockford Illinois before making the move to Oshkosh in 1970. I was fortunate to make the last Rockford in 69 as an 8 year old. Then I caught the first Oshkosh in 1970, and every one after that until I finally missed one in the early 90's. This year is something like my 35th Oshkosh experience... and I can hardly wait for it to start!
Another interesting part of that pic above is the Ford Tri-Motor... it's N8407, the 4-AT (slightly smaller than the 5-AT) that wound up being blown over in a wind storm a couple years later. It's the one that the EAA rebuilt and has at Oshkosh every year. Pretty cool seeing it way back in the day here. It's especially cool for me because my dad and I got to know Chuck LeMaster really well about a year later. Chuck flew this Tri-Motor at Oshkosh and let me take the control wheel that year when I went for the co-pilot ride! A few years later I had the amazing opportunity to travel with Chuck and his crew several times in the 5-AT N414H that he operated in the ride business thru the mid 70's. And I got to do even more of the same with them when he operated N7501V, one of only two Bushmaster 2000's built.
So I think an old 1971 pic of N8407 and the Goodyear Blimp is a perfect way to keep our eyes on July 23rd and the start of Oshkosh 2012!
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