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INNOVATIVE SPIRIT: Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. Christens New Airship at Wingfoot Lake Hangar; Uniontown Resident Will Get Daylong Ride After Winning Blimp-Naming Contest

Posted on: Thursday, 22 June 2006, 09:00 CDT

By Jim Mackinnon, The Akron Beacon Journal, Ohio

Jun. 22--Matthew Harrelson figures he will take his wife, two young daughters, family and friends along for the ride as he flies with the Goodyear blimp for a day.

It's his right, since he named the newest airship.

Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. launched a national contest to name its new blimp only to find the winner in the Akron company's own backyard: Harrelson and his family live in Uniontown.

The Spirit of Innovation was formally unveiled before at least 1,500 people at Wednesday morning's star-spangled christening at the Wingfoot Lake hangar. Despite Goodyear's efforts to keep the name a secret, it leaked Tuesday to an Akron radio station and a Cleveland TV station.

Harrelson, 35, a chemistry teacher at Hudson High School, and his wife, Kristi, 29, learned he won the contest a couple of weeks ago while they were vacationing in Virginia.

"I was pretty excited," he said.

Harrelson figures his flight will be in September at the earliest, though with the Spirit of Goodyear airship, not the one he named.

"My daughter (Kaitlin, 4) wants to fly over her preschool," Harrelson said. "Kaitlin is all excited about getting a ride in it."

= [100.0]Kaitlin's sister Kendra, who turns 2 next month, will fly, too.

Harrelson thinks he'd like to fly over Hudson High and his wife's schools in Green, a Hudson High football game, the homes of his daughter's friends, and end the day with a night-time flight in Cleveland.

"We're going to donate a couple of seats for charity," Harrelson said. He plans to make arrangements with a charity he already has in mind.

"We will be very flexible with (Harrelson). It's his day," said Scott Baughman, Goodyear's director of global airship operations. The flight will have to be worked out around the blimp's already booked television and travel schedules, he said.

Thousands of entries

Goodyear had the winning name in its grasp less than five minutes after its online-only contest started at noon on April 11 -- though the company didn't know it at the time. All told, more than 21,000 unique names were entered and eventually whittled down to 10 finalists; the contest was set up in a way that prevented people from submitting duplicate names for the recently completed blimp.

As the winner, Harrelson gets to fly with the blimp for a day, while the nine other finalists get Goodyear tires. Goodyear has not released the other nine names.

Harrelson thought it would be fun to enter the name-the-blimp contest. "The name came to me and I thought I had a chance," he said. He said he thinks of Goodyear as an innovative company.

Harrelson recalled that he was at his school during "prep time" when he logged onto a computer, pointed the browser to Goodyear's name-the-blimp Web site just minutes after the contest began and typed in "Spirit of Innovation."

His wife, Kristi, who is a special education teacher in the Green school system, thought it was a good name, too, he said. Then after she saw the other nine finalists, she thought the name had a chance to win.

The newly named blimp isn't sticking around for long.

The Spirit of Innovation leaves this weekend, weather permitting, for its new home in Florida where its first assignment is to provide aerial coverage of the Pepsi 400 NASCAR race at Daytona on July 1.

The Spirit of Goodyear, meanwhile, just returned to its Wingfoot Lake home base after its temporary assignment in Florida.

While he has yet to take flight in a blimp, Harrelson said he did get to sit in the pilot seat of the Spirit of Innovation.

"It was cool to see the name on there," he said. "(It's) something good for the kids to remember down the road."

Christening ceremony

The christening featured short speeches from Goodyear Chairman and CEO Bob Keegan and Lesa France Kennedy, president of International Speedway Corp. and a member of NASCAR's founding family. Kennedy and Keegan's wife, Lynn, christened the blimp by breaking special bottles containing club soda on the gondola's metal rails.

Keegan asked the crowd about the new name.

"You like it?" he asked.

The crowd applauded and yelled yes.

"Thank God," Keegan said, smiling.

The Spirit of Innovation's nose stuck out from the open hangar doorway as the program began shortly before 8 a.m. and was broadcast on the morning TV show Fox & Friends. Less than 20 minutes later, the ceremony was largely over.

The Spirit of Goodyear flew overhead as onlookers arrived beginning at 6 a.m., then landed before the ceremony began.

Goodyear employees wanted to move the christening along quickly because thunderstorms were moving into the region; while the rain held off until most of the crowd left, the storms kept the new blimp from flying as planned for the end of the program. Crews brought both blimps into the hangar for safekeeping.

Crowd reaction

The Spirit of Innovation name got mainly positive reviews from people in the crowd.

"It is definitely different but I think it is fitting for Goodyear. It will make for good advertising of their products," said Sinthya Calle, 28, a Florida resident.

"I think it is very appropriate. I actually also submitted a name: Spirit of Macon," said Vermilion resident Leon Cleaver.

"I think it is an awesome name because Goodyear is all about innovation and because my son loves the name," said Linda Stanek of Dublin, Ohio, who is writing a children's book, Blimp!, based in large part on the building of the Spirit of Innovation.

Still, not everyone thought Spirit of Innovation was the best choice. Some people at the christening said they preferred Freedom, one of the 10 finalists.

"After looking at the top 10 list of names, it surprised me," said Ruth Walz, 46, who drove from Pittsburgh to attend the event. She said she had been following the building of the blimp for months. "They use the same technology to build the blimp that they did 80 years ago. That's not innovative. Not that Goodyear isn't innovative but not in the building of the blimp."

The crowd of 1,500 or so appeared to be smaller than previous christenings, several people said.

"At the last christening, you could barely walk, there were so many people. I was expecting traffic and full buses for this one but the crowd is pretty small," said Maria Balogh, 50, who works in the finance department at Goodyear. "This one has been very low key (within the company)."

The chief pilot for the Spirit of Innovation will be Larry Chambers, who flew the Spirit of Goodyear from Florida to Ohio.

Chambers said he loves what he sees in the new blimp, whose assembly began last fall.

"I'm really very proud of the crew that built it," he said. "It's the best blimp I've ever seen put together. Without a doubt, it's one top airship."

Beacon Journal business writer Sarah Filus contributed to this story. Jim Mackinnon can be reached at 330-996-3544 or jmackinnon@thebeaconjournal.com

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Akron Beacon Journal, Ohio

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Source: Akron Beacon Journal (Akron, Ohio)

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