Does this Blimp make me look fat?

One of Corilynn's preschool friends is now our favorite person.  His dad is one of only 12 pilots in the US who fly the Goodyear Blimp.  He was able to get us a private tour of the blimp and its docking station and warehouse.  

 Impressively, this is the only structuring within the blimp.  These are spare nose pieces.

 Whenever the blimp goes anywhere (and there are two east of the Mississippi River to service this half of the country) it has to take a whole entourage.  There are over 20 people who come too (tech people, mechanics, people who help it park etc).  They have to bring the docking stations to wherever they go and set it up ready for the blimp to land.  Also, if the weather goes bad, they have to find appropriate airports with enough space to land it and dock it at a moments notice.  The blimp goes about 40-50 miles per hour (but not always) and can fly for up to 72 hours if I remember right.  Though he said they never go that long anymore.  It used to be used occasionally in previous wars and was considered part of the Navy.  The Hindenburg accident was due to the fact that the US has 95% of the world's helium deposits and for whatever reason they could not get access to them (maybe because of the impending war) and they knew that hydrogen would be dangerous but did it anyway.

 Hanger for the blimp.

 Cabin - currently being outfitted with HD cameras because the next day the blimp was going to fly to South Carolina to cover a NASCAR race.

 Most interesting part for me: the nose of the blimp has one little needle like mettle bit that sticks out 4 inches and when they have to park the blimp - the pilots have to fly the blimp down and aim and exactly put that needle in the hole of its dock (yellow metal triangle pictured in left of the photo).  It is a blind landing in that they cannot see that needle or where they are.  There is a man who stands at the top of the dock and pulls a lever to lock the blimp in place once the needle is in place and from there the blimp can be tethered down or depending on weather conditions allowed to float even vertical.  The pilot said that he can tell where he is at and can stick the needle in the right place based off of looking at other parts of the blimp in comparison to the dock.

 At home, the little tour sparked some chalk creativity in Lyman.