CHAPEL HILL – The Goodyear Blimp made quite the entrance when it landed at Horace Williams Airport Tuesday evening.

The blimp made several circles around Chapel Hill, all in preparation for its appearance at Zero Dark Thursday, when the Tar Heel football team will take on the Miami Hurricanes.

WCHL’s Jim Heavner was on hand as the blimp circled above.

“Well, it was supposed to have been more or less a quiet arrival, but the word gets around,” Heavner said. “It’s hard to hide a blimp!”

Fire trucks were on scene as the blimp maneuvered through the sky, and about two dozen people looked on.

Manager Kimble Wallace said the blimp will be anchored at the airport until Thursday.

“The chief operator [of the blimp] called me about two months ago, and he was looking at us on Google Maps, and he wanted to be somewhere closer in proximity to the ball game,” Wallace said. “He asked if we would have a problem with it if they landed. I said, ‘No, we’d love to have you.’”

Kick-off for Zero Dark Thursday is set for 7:45 p.m.

You can tune in to 97.9 FM WCHL’s pre-game coverage starting at 4:30 p.m, or live-stream the action on Chapelboro.com.

You can tune in to 97.9 FM WCHL’s pre-game coverage starting at 4:30 p.m, or live-stream the action on Chapelboro.com.

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