Blimp

Worldwide Aeros Corp., a Montebello developer and maker of blimps used for surveillance, advertising and transport, is celebrating 25 years of building “lighter than air” aircraft. The company was founded by Igor Pasternak, 47, in 1987 in the Ukraine. He immigrated to U.S. in 1993 and continued to built the business in Southern California. Later this year, the company expects to complete and demonstrate its most ambitious project yet: a new cargo aircraft being built for the Pentagon using technology that would enable multi-ton shipments to be transported via a blimp-like craft.

If you looked up into the Los Angeles sky this past weekend, you may have spotted a slowly moving blimp emblazoned with the mammoth image of a one-eyed yellow creature. The 165-foot-long craft, which is slated to fly over Phoenix on Thursday, displays the image of a "minion" -- one of the jabbering, pill-shaped beings featured in Universal Pictures' "Despicable Me" franchise. Universal and Van Wagner Communications, the owner of the airship, are calling it the "Despicablimp. " The 55-foot-tall dirigible is scheduled to tour the United States over the next six months to promote the upcoming release of "Despicable Me 2. " PHOTOS: Hollywood Backlot moments The film, produced by Illumination Entertainment -- the main supplier of family movies to Universal -- is set to come out July 3. Van Wagner, a New York-based outdoor advertising company, got into the blimp business last year when it acquired the Lightship Group, a blimp advertising operator, and the American Blimp Corp., the designer and manufacturer of Lightship's blimps.

The gig: Igor Pasternak, 45, is the founder and chief executive of Worldwide Aeros Corp., a Montebello-based developer and maker of blimps used for surveillance, advertising and transport. Childhood: Pasternak grew up in Lviv, a Ukrainian city of 700,000 near the Polish border in the former Soviet Union. It was his childhood dream to become an airship designer after he saw pictures of blimps in a magazine. "It was something that I fell in love with right away," he said.

Not since the waning days of World War II have the mammoth wooden blimp hangars at the former military base in Tustin seen as much airship manufacturing work as they do today. Inside the 17-story structures that rise above southern Orange County, Worldwide Aeros Corp. is building a blimp-like airship designed for the military to carry tons of cargo to remote areas around the world. "Nobody has ever tried to do what we're doing here," Chief Executive Igor Pasternak said of the 265-foot skeleton being transformed into the cargo airship.

China's first blimp, the 99-foot-long "Bee Six," will make its debut today in Peking's Purple Bamboo Park, the official New China News Agency said Wednesday. The blimp was built by the ultra-light airplane research section of the Peking Aeronautical Engineering Institute and has a carrying capacity of 660 pounds.

Worldwide Aeros Corp., the Montebello developer and maker of blimps used for surveillance, advertising and transport, opened a 45,000-square-foot engineering facility to house work underway on a mammoth 66-ton rigid airship. The company is expanding in part to build the blimp-like aircraft, which would travel at about 120 mph and could take off and land vertically. The idea is that the airship will ferry multi-ton cargo loads back and forth for the military. The new facility, adjacent to Aeros' headquarters and dubbed the Center of Innovation, opened Tuesday in a ceremony attended by state politicians.

Navy Secretary John F. Lehman Jr. has authorized construction of a prototype blimp for tests to determine whether the giant airships return to service, officials said Friday. The officials, who agreed to discuss the matter only if they were not identified, said the Pentagon would probably announce Lehman's decision next week. They said Lehman had accepted the findings of an evaluation board that concluded that modern blimps could enhance the fleet's radar and communications capabilities.

A blimp crashed in a wooded area in Manchester-by-the-Sea when the pilot lost rudder control shortly after takeoff and tried to make an emergency landing on a beach, authorities said. The 90-foot-long blimp, which advertises dairy products, became ensnared atop trees about 30 feet off the ground near an elementary school. Pilot Leigh Bradbury was alone and was not injured, authorities said. Rescuers used a harness to lower him to the ground.

When most people think of blimps, they imagine gently floating giant balloons advertising everything from tires to film to soft drinks. The Department of Defense has another picture: protector of warships, able to remain nearly invisible to radar while providing early warning of approaching enemy aircraft. Blimps played this role in World War II, but the Navy abandoned its airships as outdated in the early 1960s. Days Without Refueling Now, the Pentagon has ordered construction of a 425-foot-long blimp that will be the largest non-rigid airship ever built, more than twice as long as a conventional blimp.

Don Conniff, Sales manager, Simi Valley Nissan Simi Valley says (a giant balloon can be used) twice a year, 30 days at a time. In fact, our permit just expired on the 3rd, so Godzilla was brought down. Under the current law we're aware that it's six months before we can do it again. I think that twice a year is insufficient and many, many cities in Los Angeles allow a lot more usage than that. But, again, this is the city we live in, this is where we work, so we're going to follow the ordinance.

'The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp' Where: Samuel Goldwyn Theater, 8949 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills When: 7:30 p.m. Wed. Tickets: Admission: $3 general; $3 for academy members and students with valid ID Info: http://www.oscars.org

Worldwide Aeros Corp., the Montebello developer and maker of blimps used for surveillance, advertising and transport, opened a 45,000-square-foot engineering facility to house work underway on a mammoth 66-ton rigid airship. The company is expanding in part to build the blimp-like aircraft, which would travel at about 120 mph and could take off and land vertically. The idea is that the airship will ferry multi-ton cargo loads back and forth for the military. The new facility, adjacent to Aeros' headquarters and dubbed the Center of Innovation, opened Tuesday in a ceremony attended by state politicians.

Worldwide Aeros Corp., a Montebello developer and maker of blimps used for surveillance, advertising and transport, is celebrating 25 years of building “lighter than air” aircraft. The company was founded by Igor Pasternak, 47, in 1987 in the Ukraine. He immigrated to U.S. in 1993 and continued to built the business in Southern California. Later this year, the company expects to complete and demonstrate its most ambitious project yet: a new cargo aircraft being built for the Pentagon using technology that would enable multi-ton shipments to be transported via a blimp-like craft.

The 33-acre grassy airfield in Carson doesn't appear much bigger than a postage stamp when pilot Jon Conrad begins steering the 12,840-pound Goodyear blimp in for a landing. "It looks a little different from this vantage point, doesn't it?" he says with a chuckle. "That doesn't seem like much room when you're landing an aircraft that's comparable to a Boeing 747. " The tight squeeze will get a little tighter in the coming years with this month's announcement that Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. will once again replace its helium-filled fleet of three silver, blue, and gold blimps with bigger, faster ones.

Ten years ago, Elizabeth Schneider, the doyenne of produce writers, called for "a cucumber revolution" in her definitive book, "Vegetables From Amaranth to Zucchini" . Denouncing the standard American slicing varieties, she implored, "Refuse to buy pumped-up, tasteless, seedy blimps with greasy, thick, nasty skin masquerading as cucumbers!" Around the United States, coarse, watery commercial varieties still predominate, but they have largely been displaced at Southern California farmers markets by wondrous Persian cucumbers.

The Goodyear Blimp hangs over Staples Center like a Phil Jackson thought-bubble, plump full of helium and carrying a goodly jigger of airline fuel for its two six-cylinder engines. Down below, LA Live is lighting up, the biggest bangle of cubic zirconium you ever saw. Obviously, I'll go anywhere for a marginal story. I love L.A. — especially from a distance. In this case, we're 1,700 feet up in what is possibly sport's most recognized icon. It is also, in my odd quest for weird ways to watch a game, the ultimate nosebleed seat.

The welcome mat has been pulled out from under the blimp now carrying sightseers over the San Francisco Bay Area because, some say, it's too noisy. "It's noisy, it's obtrusive and we want to get rid of it," Oakland City Councilman Dick Spees said. Several councilmen reported receiving many complaints from city residents about noise and the blimp's advertisements. The 190-foot-long airship, powered by two engines, has been flying out of Oakland International Airport since May 6.

I was crazy. I forgot about business. I couldn't see the forest for the trees. Temporary insanity. I looked for substance when I should have known better. I was cheated and I didn't even buy the thing. The marketing genius of the century did it again, and together with the power and support of Time Warner tricked a nation out of some $25 million. She's amazing. What a performer. What an artist. But "Sex"? What an artistic em-bare-ass-ment. Madonna, who made The Times' list, is undeniably great, but this project is A-1 hype devoid of art. Well, one good thing did come from the experience.

The gig: Igor Pasternak, 45, is the founder and chief executive of Worldwide Aeros Corp., a Montebello-based developer and maker of blimps used for surveillance, advertising and transport. Childhood: Pasternak grew up in Lviv, a Ukrainian city of 700,000 near the Polish border in the former Soviet Union. It was his childhood dream to become an airship designer after he saw pictures of blimps in a magazine. "It was something that I fell in love with right away," he said.