My first encounter with the Spirit of Safety I came back on March 23rd, when my walk home from work took a curious turn as people appeared to flood onto the streets, eyes turned skywards into the darkness, seemingly mesmerised by a hitherto unseen object moving through the sky. Pausing Luther Vandross and Mariah Carey’s ‘Endless Love’ duet on my iPod and removing my earphones, it immediately became clear what all the fuss was about. The steady droning filling the darkness wasn’t omitted from some UFO (as if that was ever in doubt – alien invasions seldom occur outside California these days, let alone the grotty suburbs of Ilford); it was, rather splendidly, the famous Goodyear Blimp, gliding serenely overhead at an impressive rate of knots for a blimp, having seemingly navigated its way along the Romford Road before tailing off to the south-east – and who could blame them for putting their foot down really? I’d want to get out of Stratford and Forest Gate as quickly as possible too.
Calling ahead and ordering my brother to prepare my camera bag and the car, I doubled my pace to a stroll and decided that the only sensible thing to do would be to follow the blimp by road, despite not knowing where it was based, where it was going or even where it was by this point, as it had long since disappeared into the distance. Nevertheless, we quickly set off down the A12, heading roughly towards Southend. With my brother in the nav seat as spotter, we determined that we could probably outrun the blimp and cut in front of it, though at the speed we were going, we’d be in Clacton by the time we could manage that...
Having left the A12 at Upminster and soon thereafter realising that it was descending, presumably to land, we figured out by the process of elimination that it was based at Damyns Hall aerodrome in the Essex countryside. Not really knowing quite where we were in relation to the airfield, we pulled up in a lay-by some distance from Damyns and I quickly went about snapping some night photographs sans tripod, using an arm and leg to make something of an impromptu bipod. It did the trick, albeit with a success rate of one decent shot out of about 50 taken. Still, better than nothing I thought, job done, let’s go home. Not before trapping myself in a hedge and dipping my entire arm into a massive clump of stinging nettles, but what’s a wild chase without a few scars to show for your trouble?
With some rather distant photos in the bag, I couldn’t honestly say that I’d be going home happy. Why come all this way then give up with a handful of photos? It didn’t take much convincing for me to decide to up sticks and try to get on to the airfield. Having never been to Damyns Hall, I had no idea whether this would even be possible, but, to my pleasant surprise, I found that the public car park was open and access to the airfield was actually very good, with an excellent view of the blimp from the main viewing area outside the café.
Using the fence to steady the camera, I fired off dozens of shots from the few angles possible before calling it a night; I would come back tomorrow, with a tripod, to finish the job. How could you not, really? It has, after all, been 12 years since the Goodyear Blimp visited the UK and, back then, I was barely ten years old and hadn’t quite mastered photography. I simply had to see the thing this time round, if only to say that I’d seen it!
You see, the Goodyear Blimp is something of an icon, with its predecessors promoting Goodyear’s cause for some 85 years. While there’s certainly a majesty about it, the Goodyear Blimp has, as Paul Dunn told me, the ability to make you smile every time you see it. You just can’t help yourself. It really is wonderful!
Besides having the ability to make a grown man gurn with sheer childlike delight, the Goodyear Blimp has returned – perhaps a little obviously, given the hardly subtle ‘Spirit of Safety I’ moniker – to begin an important road safety campaign that sees the blimp, together with its stable mate, Spirit of Safety II, embarking on a 20-country European tour to promote the 2011 Goodyear Safety Tour. Recently, the blimps have carried out successful tours in the United States and the Far East, with this tour, lasting from March to October, being the first in Europe since 1999.
The blimp is currently leading the way for Goodyear’s road safety initiatives, providing a superb platform from which the organisation can promote its campaign in a way that is both unique and unforgettable. With a length of only 128 feet, the scale of this incarnation of the blimp is a far cry from the massive, 803 foot long Hindenburg and the other towering blimps that are long consigned to history. Nonetheless, Spirit of Safety I is undoubtedly impressive, particularly at close range, and it is fascinating to watch the process of tethering (or attempting to tether) the blimp to the ground.
The blimp is internally illuminated at night, which I’d argue is when it’s at its most awe-inspiring (that may sound cliché, but I defy anyone who spots it of an evening to not at least think to themselves, “Wow.”) and probably its most noticeable and therefore effective in communicating its message.
Linking in with the 2011 Safety Tour is the introduction of Goodyear’s Eagle F1 Asymmetric 2 tyre, with ActiveBraking technology design to increase the tyre’s contact with the surface of the road under braking conditions, resulting in a shorter braking distance which will hopefully save lives. Having recently been directly involved in the aftermath of a serious collision and seen the consequences of the combination of high speed and poor braking distance, it isn’t difficult to see the obvious life-saving benefits of such technology.
During the southern part of the tour, the blimp has been a regular sight over London and the south-east, with hundreds of people logging on to Goodyear’s Twitter and Facebook pages to register their support having spotted the Spirit of Safety I floating above the city. While it isn’t possible to buy a pleasure flight on the blimp, Goodyear has been offering flights to ‘community heroes’ who have been nominated by friends and neighbours for their help and support during tough times. They are also currently running a ‘Spot the Blimp’ challenge, details of which can be found at the Goodyear Blimp UK website.
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