been working with blimps so long

Eric Risberg / AP. Courtesy of the Chicago Tribune.

from today’s briefing in the ny times:

Goodyear, the U.S.-based tire multinational, retired the last of its blimps this month. But the replacements, semirigid dirigibles, will also be called blimps.

“Because a Goodyear Semirigid Dirigible doesn’t roll off the tongue,” Eddie Ogden, the company’s airship historian, said about sticking with the term. …

As the helium was let out of the last blimp from the original fleet, Spirit of Innovation, in Los Angeles recently, the Goodyear employees watching the deflation let out some emotion, too.

“There were a couple tears because they’ve been working with blimps for so long,” Mr. Ogden said.