George Andrew Rankin Spyrou (14 April 1949 – 27 February 2010 [1] [2] ) was a Scottish businessman. Spyrou was the president of Airship Management Services (AMS) and had affiliations with other airship companies.
Born in Glasgow, Scotland, Spyrou attended private schools in England and Connecticut before he entered Harvard University. He obtained his law degrees from Christ's College, Cambridge, and specialized in international and maritime law. He was admitted to the English Bar (Inner Temple) in 1980. He worked for law firms in New York City then as a corporate counsel in Monaco.
Spyrou began work for Airship Industries Ltd. (AIL) in 1982, and he moved to the United States to head international operations for AIL's commercial clients in 1987.
AIL went into receivership in September 1990 under heavy financial pressure, and its assets were eventually obtained by Northrup Grumman. Spyrou founded AMS three months later, with the financial support of Sojitz, Fujifilm, and TCom.
AMS is headquartered in Greenwich, Connecticut, and has a FAA repair station and technical facility in Elizabeth City, North Carolina. The company specializes in airship advertising campaigns, and has run successful campaigns for several corporate and government clients. [3] [4] [5]
Spyrou was a member of Inner Temple, the Airship Association (UK), the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and was active in Harvard and Christ's College affairs.
A blimp, or non-rigid airship, is an airship (dirigible) without an internal structural framework or a keel. Unlike semi-rigid and rigid airships, blimps rely on the pressure of the lifting gas inside the envelope and the strength of the envelope itself to maintain their shape.
An airship or dirigible balloon is a type of aerostat or lighter-than-air aircraft that can navigate through the air under its own power. Aerostats gain their lift from a lifting gas that is less dense than the surrounding air.
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The Goodyear Blimp is any one of a fleet of airships or dirigibles operated by the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, used mainly for advertising purposes and capturing aerial views of live sporting events for television. The term blimp itself is defined as a non-rigid airship – without any internal structure, the pressure of lifting gas contained within the airship envelope maintains the vessel's shape.
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