What’s 23 ft long, 14 ft high, and 14 ft wide, and puts a smile on Milwaukee Bucks fans from 5 to 105 years old? Answer…the NEW Milwaukee Bucks Blimp!

The new Bucks Blimp which holds 750 cubic feet of helium is bigger than the previous blimp where Bango rode the blimp… instead of BEING the blimp.

Scott Fisher and his team at Blimpworks created the new blimp, and said that the new owners wanted something “big and bold, and I believe we did just that.”

According to Fisher putting together one of these blimps is no small feet, and is quite involved. Take for example the new Bucks blimp which started with 4 to 5 weeks of renderings which included 10 variations of the present design. The design was then molded into a clay model.

After a computer scans the clay model, pieces were made out of nylon and shipped off to South Dakota to be heat sealed. Bango was then shipped to Florida to be painted by creative director Vince Balistrieri and his crew. To be sealed and painted took 18 weeks (3 of those to just be painted).

The gondola or “flight package” that propels Bango while inside the BMO Harris Bradley Center was created in Jackson, Mississippi by Bob Cheesman of Airworks.

Bango’s form is  what people in the blimp community call the “Superman” pose and according to Fisher “flies extremely well, because as we all know, deer are so aerodynamic.” The cool thing according to Fisher is what he didn’t see coming, “everyone wants to fist bump Bango, how cool is that?”

Before the Bango blimp was ready for it’s maiden voyage in front of a crowd on Bango’s birthday Friday night (1-29-16), Fisher and his crew had to take it for some test flights. Crew members John Kopp, and Steve Laures along with Fisher put in close to 10 hours of prep and dry runs at the BMO Harris Bradley Center the night before the grand unviel.

Cheesman started the blimp craze back in 1990 when he invented the very first remote controlled sports blimp for the Minnesota Timberwolves.  Now he and Fisher have over 400 blimps in the air worldwide, maybe you’ve seen some of their other work, which include blimps for: Portland Trailblazers, Chicago Bulls, Orlando Magic, Chicago Blackhawks, Oklahoma City Thunder, Grand Rapid Griffins, Phoenix Suns, Atlanta Hawks, Florida Panthers, Arizona Coyotes, Columbus Blue Jackets, Milwaukee Admirals, the entire ACC, Chick-Fil-A, LA Kings, and Professional Bull Riders… just to name a few.

What sets Blimpwork blimps a-part from the rest, is that they are the only company that makes RC blimps out of nylon, everyone else uses plastic… like a beach ball.

(photos courtesy: Scott Fisher with Blimpworks and Gift of Wings. Website www.myrcblimp.com  414-425-9993)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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(photos courtesy of Scott Fischer and Blimpworks/Gift of Wings)