By Rosa Duarte
WSLS10 Reporter
Published: May 6, 2008

The Goodyear blimp has been in our area since Sunday and leaves Wednesday morning.  During its visit over four thousand school children got a close up look of the blimp.
Monday night, 10 On Your Side’s Rosa Duarte was invited to go up in the sky and get a “blimp’s eye view” of the New River Valley. 
Pilot Greg Poppenhouse says on average, the aircraft goes about 35 miles an hour at an altitude of one thousand feet. An experienced pilot, Poppenhouse says the blimp is a cross between flying a plane and a helicopter. He controls the altitude by releasing air from the blimp and steers it with two foot pedals and a steering wheel. 
The 45 minute flight took the blimp across Pulaski County to Claytor Lake. Upon return, more than a dozen crew members helped pull the blimp to a full stop on the run way of the New River Valley Airport.
Wednesday morning, the crew will head back to Akron Ohio, the Sprit of Goodyear blimp’s hometown. Goodyear’s blimp fleet has four blimps total, three of which are stationed in the U.S and one in China.