DirecTV Blimp Spotted Over North Escambia

November 23, 2008

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The DirecTV blimp was spotted over North Escambia about noon Saturday.

It’s real name is the DirecTV Starship (not blimp). It is operated by the Lightship Group, a company that operates almost every non-military blimp in the country except for the three Goodyear blimps.

The Starship is equipped with the world’s largest screen at 30 feet by 21 feet. That’s 2100 square feet, 33,600 pixels, of football bliss, if you are counting. It’s the largest blimp screen in the world, capable of displaying full motion TV quality video day or night. It is 30 feet longer and 40% larger in volume (Helium content) than the Goodyear blimp.

At 178 feet long, the Starship is filled 170,000 cubic feet of purified helium. It has no steering wheel, just two foot pedals for up and down.

The blimp is equipped with a high definition camera for sporting events.

The Starship was headed west toward Baldwin County.

These photos were taken from Highway 97A near Enon School Road. The blimp was about two to four miles away when the photos were taken.

Pictured above and below (scroll down to see all photos): The DirecTV blimp over North Escambia Saturday about noon. NorthEscambia.com exclusive photos, click to enlarge.

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Comments

3 Responses to “DirecTV Blimp Spotted Over North Escambia”

  1. Chuck on November 22nd, 2008 9:14 pm

    You would have to kick up the ad budget for that and we like N.E like it is. The Met Life blimp has come over a few times, they have a cool blimp. Who could hate snoopy?

  2. William on November 22nd, 2008 7:47 pm

    Chuck…keep in mind that the photos were taken from several miles away, so it’s not going to look so great. But it is still not that great.

    But a 30×21 screen would make up for a bad paint job. Now if I could have just gotten “NorthEscambia.com” plastered on that screen, it would have looked so much better.

  3. Chuck on November 22nd, 2008 5:48 pm

    They spared no expense with that logo. Looks like it was painted on with flat white walmart spray paint.