Shark blimp lands at Cape Cod Airfield, no bite scares yet

MARSTONS MILLS — It was an average, nearly cloudless Tuesday at Cape Cod Airfield. Except among the clouds was a blimp — and not just any blimp, but a Shark Week blimp courtesy of the Discovery Channel.

The blimp, complete with a great white shark decal and bright white letters spelling out “SHARK WEEK,” holds 69,000 cubic feet of helium and is more than 130 feet long, about 34 feet wide and 40 feet tall.

The shark decal itself weighs about 250 pounds, said crewman Steve O’Brien, who is one of 13 crew members involved with the maintenance, flying and upkeep of the blimp.

Blimp celebrates Shark Week

While Shark Week officially begins on July 24, since July 1, one blimp in the east and one in the west have been traveling up and down the coasts in competition to see where the most “sharkadelic” fans are located.

The popular shark-based block of TV programming debuted in 1988 and is now television's longest-running programming event. Last year, 21 million viewers tuned in, Discovery reports.

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The blimp travels around 250 to 300 miles each day and is flown by two pilots, O’Brien said, with two Rotax motors that run at 85 horsepower each. This is the second year the shark blimp has traversed the coast, but the first time it has visited the Cape. Back in 2006, the same blimp donned a Hood Milk logo and landed at the airfield, but hasn't returned until now.

"This is an open airport, and we only stop at a few of these along the way, so folks normally don't get this close," O'Brien said. "Getting to interact with folks like this is nice, especially for the kids, they can get out here and really see how big the ship is."

Visit Shark Blimp at airfield

The blimp will be flying around the Cape on Thursday, landing that evening back at the airfield, and taking off to its next destination of Hartford, Connecticut, on Friday, weather permitting.

O'Brien said as of about noon on Tuesday, about 40 visitors  had seen the blimp up close. As he spoke, more curious visitors arrived to check out the scene. Some visitors had driven by and stopped to check it out, or seen the airport's social media post about the blimp, like Katie Beatty from Marstons Mills. Beatty arrived with her three children and their friend, decked out in their Cape Shark shirts observing the blimp from the watchman trailers.

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Other visitors, like Jennifer Villano of Sandwich, saw a post about the blimp on Facebook and decided to check it out and take a picture of it with her oldest and youngest sons.

People are welcome to visit the Shark Week blimp. The crew and airfield staff ask that visitors walk behind the buildings of the airfield to see it. If they choose to go further onto the field, visitors must stop at the white trailers and speak with the watchman on duty.

This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Blimp touting Discovery Channel's Shark Week draws curious onlookers