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The Ride of a Lifetime Aboard the Hood Blimp

Kellie Speed

Last week, my husband, Will, and I had the opportunity of a lifetime to take a ride aboard the Hood blimp. We met with senior airship pilot Terry Dillard at the Beverly Municipal Airport and took a near two-hour tour of the beautiful coastline north of Boston.

The blimp is owned and operated by Van Wagner Airship Group and is filled with nearly 70,000 cubic feet of helium. This year, the Boston Red Sox contracted with the Hood blimp to fly over Fenway Park for 22 Red Sox home games through Labor Day. (While in Mass, the blimp featured the Hood logo on one side and Red Sox logo on the other).

Hood has been partnering with the Red Sox for more than a decade in support of the Red Sox Foundation, the official charity of the team. Hood even has a line of Red Sox Champions Ice Cream for fans, which includes six flavors – Green Monster Mint, Bosox Brownie, Grand Slam Vanilla, Peanut Butter Nation, Fenway Fudge and Comeback Caramel. Now through the end of baseball season, Hood will donate $1 from the sale of each carton of the Champions line to the foundation.

We weren’t quite sure what to expect but were pleasantly surprised when we reached an altitude of roughly 1,300 feet where Terry smoothly sailed around the coastline at just 22 miles per hour (the maximum speed is 40 mph). When the blimp was not in flight, it was stationed at the airport under careful 24-hour supervision of three full-time guardsmen. Dillard and his crew have since left Boston to fulfill more sponsorship contracts throughout the country.

 

For more information, visit www.hood.com.

Kellie Speed
Kellie Speed
Kellie Speed
Kellie Speed
Kellie Speed
Kellie Speed
Kellie Speed

Kellie Speed

Kellie Speed is a freelance writer with more than 20 years' experience writing for a variety of publications, including US Veterans magazine, DiverseAbility and BestReviews. She also contributed to Moon Metro's Boston guidebook published by Avalon Travel Publishing and can be reached at kkspeed@aol.com ...(Read More)

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