Goodyear Type AD

The Goodyear Type AD was a small American airship of the mid-1920s, and its first example, named Pilgrim, was Goodyear's first civil airship and its first to use helium as the lifting gas. Intended for pleasure cruising, it became the first Goodyear Blimp, starting a line of promotional airships that has run for a century. Its gondola carried two passengers beside the crew. Although usually called non-rigid, it had a triangular magnesium girder keel inside the envelope, and it carried a collapsible mooring mast so it could land anywhere with a clear field of about 250 by 250 feet. It was 105 feet long, powered by a single 60 horsepower radial engine. Pilgrim retired on 30 December 1931 after 4,765 flights and 5,355 passengers.