Is there a GTA VI blimp? Goodyear's airship now flies in Vice City colours

Airships have long been part of Grand Theft Auto's skies. Five weeks before launch, a real one started flying in GTA VI's colours.

Verdict: Confirmed: Goodyear's airship Wingfoot Three (registration N3A) is flying in a GTA VI livery, with "Vice City" lettering along its sides and the game's VI logo near its nose. It took off from Goodyear's Wingfoot Lake base in Ohio on 12 October 2026, and flight tracking shows it reaching Goodyear's Florida base at Pompano Beach on the evening of 13 October. Not confirmed: who arranged it, for how long, and where it will appear. Neither Rockstar nor Goodyear has said anything about it.

The photo above is by RA Durfee, an airship photographer, taken at Wingfoot Lake on 12 October and first posted in a Goodyear airship fan group. It's the photographer's picture, credited under it, not ours, Rockstar's or Goodyear's.

Is the GTA VI blimp real?

Yes. Airship spotters photographed Wingfoot Three at Goodyear's Wingfoot Lake base near Akron, Ohio: first with "VICE CITY" on its side, then inside and outside its hangar, then at the mast and taking off on 12 October. The ship is black, with "Vice City" in white and pink script along each side, palm-tree shapes behind it, and the game's VI logo near the nose. Goodyear's own name stays on the hull too.

The photos come from several unrelated people at different stages, and flight tracking logs the ship leaving Wingfoot Lake at 8:37 that morning. A local Florida news site reported it on its way south the next day. No national outlet had photographed it themselves by 14 October, which is why this rests on spotters' photos, but there's no real doubt about what's painted on it.

Strictly, it isn't a blimp. Goodyear's current airships are Zeppelin NTs, built around an internal frame, which a true blimp doesn't have. Everyone calls them the Goodyear Blimp anyway.

Where is the GTA VI blimp now?

In Florida, as far as the tracking shows. FlightAware logs the ship flying from Wingfoot Lake to Winston-Salem, North Carolina on 12 October, on into South Carolina that afternoon, then on 13 October to Jacksonville and down the coast to Pompano Beach Airpark. The final arrival time that evening is the tracker's estimate rather than an observed landing.

Pompano Beach, north of Fort Lauderdale, is where Goodyear has based its east coast airships every winter since 1979. So the trip itself is a routine seasonal move. What isn't routine is the paint.

Is the GTA VI blimp official?

Almost certainly, but nobody has said so. The livery uses the game's own VI logo and "Vice City" lettering, on an aircraft Goodyear owns and flies between its own bases. A listed company doesn't fly another company's trademarks without an agreement. The timing fits too: the airship reached Florida two days before Rockstar's paid branding was allowed to start in Miami Beach and downtown Miami.

That's our inference, graded High, not a statement. As of 14 October 2026, Rockstar's Newswire and Goodyear's newsroom had both said nothing about it. Who paid, how much and for how long haven't been disclosed.

Will the GTA VI blimp fly over Miami?

Nobody has said. Pompano Beach is within easy range of Miami, and the city's GTA VI banners and Miami Beach's "VI" beach chairs were both allowed from 15 October. The Miami Heat play as Vice City on 18 November, the night before launch. An airship over any of those would fit. None of it has been announced, and no schedule for the airship has been published.

How does the blimp fit GTA VI's marketing?

It's the campaign's physical side getting bigger. In September a "Welcome to Vice City" sign went up on the roof of Miami's Kaseya Center, and Miami Beach and the City of Miami approved paid branding; in October the Heat announced their Vice City night and a GTA VI mural appeared in Brooklyn. Those all stay put. The airship is the first piece that moves, and the first seen outside the cities already involved. The Miami briefing covers the deals with local governments, and the campaign retrospective places every beat in order.

What changes this: An announcement from Rockstar or Goodyear, a published schedule, the airship appearing over Miami or at an event, or the livery coming off. Any of those gets logged here as what it actually was.