The past three Super Bowls were all in domed stadiums. So I assumed once the Super Bowl returned to an open-air stadium, as it will this season, that we'd see a familiar sight.

 

A blimp.

 

I was wrong. For a couple reasons. For one, a little digging would've revealed that since 2001, no airship has been permitted to fly over the Super Bowl. The other reason is that because of the cold weather and the physics of how a blimp works, flying one in a New Jersey February is simply a dealbreaker.

 

"February in New York is not friendly for blimps," said Doug Grassian, a senior communications manager for Goodyear. "The cold weather and potential of freezing rains create a scenario that is too dangerous to bring the blimps into."

 

Say that freezing rain accumulates on the blimp's envelope (the blimp part of the blimp), building up tens of hundreds of pounds of mass on top of the aircraft? That's a bad thing.

 

I went up for a ride on the blimp earlier this month. The section of the tarmac we were landing on was a little warmer than expected, causing our captain Corky Belanger to tell us to "best brace yourselves," in preperation for a tactical landing that at one point had us at what felt to be a 70 degree angle (nose down) from the ground.

 

The lesson? Blimps are fickle creatures greatly affected by the environment. So no blimp at the Super Bowl.

 

But there will be blimps at numerous sporting events in the coming weeks and months. You'll see aerial shots from the Chick-fil-A Bowl, Orange Bowl and Rose Bowl, and the Rose Bowl Parade. 

 

Here are some items to know about the airships that provide those lovely skyline and various overhead shots we've so become accustomed to.

 

1. Those scenic overhead shots you see on say, Monday Night Football? They're called "beauty shots."

 

2. The camera used for those beauty shots? It costs around $1 million. We had it demoed for us, and the operator was able to zoom in on a lighthouse roughly four or five miles away. If you had been standing on that lighthouse waving, we would've seen you perfectly, in HD.

 

3. Goodyear has three blimps in operation, one of which is based in Pompano Beach, Fla. The others are Akron, Ohio and Carson City, Calif. Blimps get from event to event by flying there. Sounds obvious, but it took a dozen or so crew members to launch the blimp and receive it on our trip. It's not like landing a plane; there's a pretty sizable crew that goes along wherever the blimp goes.

 

4. The first ever event covered by the Goodyear blimp was the 1955 Rose Bowl. Ohio State beat USC 20-7 in that game. Ohio State went on to split the national title that year with UCLA, which was the first time that had ever happened.

 

5. Metlife is probably the other blimp you'd be able to identify. The name of the stadium hosting the Super Bowl? MetLife Stadium. Still, no blimp for the Super Bowl as airships are restricted in the airspace three hours prior to kickoff.

 

6. Goodyear created its first blimp nearly 100 years ago (1925). It also built blimps for the U.S. Navy in the 1930s, where they were used as surveillance airships, protecting merchant ships and early warning radar stations through the 1950s.

 

7. The Goodyear blimp weighs just under 13,000 pounds, has a cruising speed of 30 MPH and tops out at 50 MPH.

 

8. Most famous movie about a blimp? Black Sunday with Bruce Dern trying to blow up the Super Bowl with one. One of my favorite blimp scenes? No ticket!

 

9. You've probably heard the term Zeppelin before with regards to a blimp. That term comes from Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin, the German who is considered to be the father of rigid airships (think Hindenburg). He launched his first airship in 1900.

 

10. Where's a blimp live when it's grounded? In a pretty massive hangar that's more than 10 stories tall.