The 'Vice City' Goodyear blimp: what it is, where it's flying and how to track it

Vice City now has its own airship. One of Goodyear’s three American Zeppelins is flying in a black Grand Theft Auto VI wrap with “Vice city” in white and hot-pink script along the hull, and it is on its way to South Florida five weeks before the game’s Nov. 19 release.

The aircraft

The ship is Wingfoot Three, tail number N3A, owned by the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company. Goodyear calls it a blimp, but it is technically a Zeppelin NT, a semi-rigid airship with a light internal frame. Only six of them fly anywhere in the world: three with Goodyear in the U.S. and three in Germany (GTA BOOM).

The new livery keeps the Goodyear wordmark and the yellow tail fins and covers the lower half of the envelope in black, with the game’s “Vice city” logo across the middle. Airship fans first saw it in the hangar, then on the field, and the first photos in flight came from Roger Durfee in the Goodyear Blimp Fan Club group on Facebook (GTAVice.net).

The route south

According to FlightAware data reported by GTA BOOM, N3A left Wingfoot Lake near Akron, Ohio, at 8:37 a.m. on Oct. 12, bound for Smith Reynolds Airport in Winston-Salem, N.C., about 343 miles away at a cruise of roughly 66 mph. Posts from airship watchers say it is repositioning to Pompano Beach Airpark in Broward County, Goodyear’s permanent Florida airship base since 1979. Neither Goodyear nor Rockstar has published a route, and the trip runs over several days with overnight stops and a ground crew following.

On Oct. 13 the GTA 6 Countdown account on X said the airship had arrived in Florida; Gamenguide reported the claim without confirming it (Gamenguide).

Part of the Miami push

Rockstar has not commented on the blimp. It lands in the middle of the game’s Miami campaign: the $975,000 “Welcome to Vice City” sign on the Kaseya Center roof, the Heat’s Night in Vice City on Nov. 18, an “In for VI” touchdown graphic at Hard Rock Stadium during the Dolphins game on Oct. 11, and a city banner window downtown that opens Oct. 15.

How to spot it

Search “N3A” on FlightAware to see where Wingfoot Three is right now.

What we don’t know yet

• When, or whether, it will fly over Miami itself.
• How long it will wear the Vice City livery.
• Who is paying for the campaign, and what it costs.