2011 Independence Airship Invitational NYC

A brief look at the July 4th 2011 Independence Airship Invitational. Three blimps (DirecTV, Hangar 1 Vodka, and Horizon) raced up the Hudson River this afternoon as seen from my living room window in Queens. As a bonus, I added a couple of minutes of footage from the last NYC blimp race which took place in 1986.

www.airshipal.com

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• Airship
• blimp
• race
• AirshipAl
• DirecTV
• Horizon
• Hangar
• Lightship
• NYC

[hertzfire]

so you flew the mcblimp?

[Airshipal]

@hertzfire I was on the McBlimp flight crew. The ship also flew for SeaWorld & MetLife (the 1st Snoopy blimp!).

[lebronjamesgd23]

Great shot

[dodgersvideo]

Great vid its a blimpton!

[IloveNYC7]

Nice I like it bro!! I love blimps so much!! everytime i see one i get all cazy

[Jjames763]

@Airshipal

Say, the news said that these three blimps only reached 25 mph. That's less than half the a-60+'s top speed. I don't know about the a-170. What gives? Wasn't this supposed to be a race?

BTW They're lucky the Eureka wasn't in the race. She can hit 78 mph! Not as good as the Aeros-50, but I don't think any of those are flying anymore.

[Jjames763]

@Airshipal

Say, the news said that these three blimps only reached 25 mph. That's less than half the a-60+'s top speed. I don't know about the a-170. What gives? Wasn't this supposed to be a race?

BTW They're lucky the Eureka wasn't in the race. She can hit 78 mph! Not as good as the Aeros-50, but I don't think any of those are flying anymore.

[Jjames763]

That Horizon blimp was a real darkhorse. I thought that the a-170 was supposed to be faster than the a-60! It's top speed is what, 50, 55 miles per hour? That DirecTV blimp should have won!