SUFFIELD TOWNSHIP, Ohio -- Goodyear's newest blimp is an intricate update of technology that has been around for more than a century, but the innovations are not readily apparent.

It was unveiled and presented to the news media today at Goodyear's Wingfoot Lake hangar in Suffield Township.

Scott Rogers, Goodyear's chief marketing officer for North America, called the new blimp "our next-generation airship."

He said the company will have a naming contest for the airship and asked for the public to share suggestions.

Goodyear has contracted with a Zeppelin subsidiary for three of the airships, with each valued at about $20 million, according to a news release from the German firm.

The casual observer would note that the new airship has three engines instead of two, and three control surfaces instead of four.

What could go unnoticed, especially from the ground, is that it has fly-by-wire flight controls in which a computer decides how to implement a pilot's commands. It can hover like a helicopter. And the engines can be moved – vectored is the technical term – to hasten ascent or descent.

Assistant Pilot in Charge Michael Dougherty explains instrumentation inside the new Goodyear blimp at the Wingfoot Lake Hangar. (Marvin Fong / The Plain Dealer)

Michael Dougherty, assistant pilot in charge at Wingfoot Lake, said the new ship "is much more like a helicopter, with virtual vertical take-off and landing ability.

"With the old ships, if you didn't have air (flowing) over the wings, you didn't have control," Dougherty said. There is a third engine in the tail, and there is a tail rotor that allows the ship to spin in place like a helicopter.

Traditional blimps had two engines that were mounted on the passenger-bearing gondola because it was the only hard surface that could support their weight.

Two of the engines on the new airship hang off the sides of the envelope holding the helium that makes it lighter than air.

This is possible because they are attached to triangular open-web trusses that run inside the envelope for its entire length. They are made of carbon fiber and aluminum, according to the website of Zeppelin Luftschifftechnik which came up with the basic design and worked with the Akron company to build it.

The three trusses mean that the new airship is semi-rigid. As such it is not a blimp, which is defined as non-rigid with the pressure of air and helium the only things maintaining the shape of the envelope.

But Goodyear's newest airship will still be called a blimp.

"The term Goodyear Blimp is so universally recognized that the company is proud to have it continue, regardless of any technical difference," said Goodyear spokesman Doug Grassian.

Interior view of the gondola on the new Goodyear blimp under construction at the Wingfoot Lake Hangar in Suffield Twp., OH. (Marvin Fong / The Plain Dealer)

The new, yet-to-be-named Goodyear airship has another detail that differentiates it from other Akron-made blimps: a walk-in bathroom with a window of its own.

Goodyear's Grassian said the new ship will be 52 feet longer than that one it replaces, and can go 73 mph, a 20-mph upgrade, which means the latest blimp can cover more events and go farther in a day.

A Zeppelin spokesman said in an email that the German company made 119 airships of its own or for the German military, ceasing production in 1938.

Goodyear has made 304 – mostly blimps – more than anyone else. At one time the tire maker and Zeppelin started a separate Akron company called Goodyear Zeppelin Co. The partnership ran from 1923 to 1940.

As irony would have it, most of the Goodyear blimps were for the U.S. Navy, which used many of them to hunt German submarines off the East Coast during World War II. The company said today that Goodyear-made blimps escorted 89,000 ships during the war without the loss of a single vessel.

The last Navy blimp was retired in 1962. Goodyear, which stopped making its own blimps only in the last decade, made around 40 for itself, to promote the company.

The blimps were almost an afterthought. Grassian said the company initially made them just to train pilots and ground crew for the large, rigid-hull airships that Zeppelin specialized in.

But every nation that put its faith in the rigid hulls suffered bitter disappointments. Goodyear made two – the Akron and the Macon, both of which crashed. So did the Shenandoah which was American, but not a Goodyear product. Only the Zeppelin-built Los Angeles survived to be decommissioned in 1932

The fiery crash of the Hindenburg at Lakehurst, N.J., in 1937, pretty much ended rigid-hull programs. It was also the end of aviation for Zeppelin until 1993.

That was the beginning of the new airship line and the Zeppelin subsidiary that began making them in the same German town where it all began about 50 miles from Zurich.

Dietmar Blasius, head of special projects for Zeppelin Luftschifftechnik (ZLT), said the firm built five of the new airships, and three are now owned by ZLT subsidiary Deutsche Zeppelin Reederei. Of those, one has been dismantled, and the subsidiary continues to fly the other two.

Construction of Goodyear's newest airship began in early 2013. In August, work begins on Goodyear's second new airship.

The Spirit of Goodyear is retired, but it covered the Daytona 500 last on February 23. It was in service 14 years, setting a Goodyear fleet record.

The Spirit of Innovation is the newest of the remaining blimps, being rebuilt in 2006. Spirit of America is the oldest, and was built around 2000. Both will be retired when the new Zeppelin-designed airships join the Goodyear fleet.

The new ship currently has a German-registration tail number (D-LZGY, the GY stands for Goodyear). It also carries the German national flag on the tail, but that will be painted over and it will be renumbered N1A, when it is christened in July

Goodyear will not sell rides the way Zeppelin does, and the mission of the new blimps will be much the same as before: Promotion and camera platforms at special events.

The new airship did not fly today, but is expected to begin test flights this month. Today's event was well attended by the media, including national automotive, aviation and tire-dealer media outlets, as well as ESPN.