But Godzilla or King Kong it isn't.

The FujiFilm airship, the world's second largest blimp, has been using Sikorsky Memorial Airport as a staging area for the bulk of the summer.

The blimp travels from the airport to be used by the major television networks as an airborne camera platform for major sporting events and the biggest ad in the world for FujiFilm.

FujiFilm launched its first blimp in 1984 in conjunction with the Los Angeles Summer Olympics. The blimp flies 48 weeks out of every year and logs 20,000 to 30,000 miles a year -- enough miles to circle the globe one and a half times every year.

"It is a throwback to an earlier era of aviation," said Capt. Mike Fitzpatrick, the blimp's co-pilot, and a 30-year veteran pilot. "Every flight is different and it certainly never gets old. You never run out of things to look at."

The helium-filled airship, seating 13, needs about 10 acres of open field to land properly, making the local airport a convenient base of operations for travel to events in lower New England and the tri-state area.

A Connecticut Post reporter and photographer were recently given an hour-long ride in the blimp over Connecticut's Gold Coast from Stratford to the Norwalk islands.

On a sunny, warm day, the FujiFilm blimp floated about 1,000 feet above the ground and 500 feet over water.

Those used to seeing Fairfield County's landscape from the frantic, congested perspective of Interstate-95 would be shocked at the view looking down from the blimp's relatively low altitude.

The shoreline, from above, appears to be a crazy quilt of manicured lawns, sandy beaches dotted with people, swimming pools, tennis courts and lush trees. The highway slices an ugly gash across the beautiful countryside.

The blimp tends to ride air currents in the same way a boat rides the waves, said Fitzpatrick, a native of Orlando, Fla. In flight, at speeds ranging from 25 to 50 mph (with a tailwind), the airship has a gentle rocking motion.

"In a blimp you just can't be in a hurry to get somewhere," Fitzpatrick said.

Mother Nature can also be a major problem for blimp pilots. Ground crews keep an eye on the forecasts while pilots watch the skies.

In short, no blimp wants to be up during a thunderstorm. "As good as the weathermen are, they are not perfect," Fitzpatrick said.

Fitzpatrick, like other crewmembers, started off thinking that working on blimps would be a temporary thing.

But 747 commercial jets "fly by the numbers," Fitzpatrick said. "On a blimp it is like barnstorming --you are flying by the seat of your pants," he said.

Capt. John McGuirk, also a blimp co-pilot, parlayed a six-month assignment into 16 years of service.

"It is a great job. It is a great thing to fly," said McGuirk, a native Australian. "I used to fly Learjets but this is more interesting. Every takeoff and landing is different and you meet a lot of interesting people."

With regular appearances at World Series games, Super Bowls and virtually every major tennis and golf event, the blimp has become part of the fabric of American sporting life. The blimp will also be used for security and television broadcasts at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece.

"We see more of the game than [the spectators] do," said McGuirk.

The FujiFilm blimp has done more than just chronicle nearly every major sporting event in the past 20 years. Recently, the blimps have been used for police surveillance.

New York officers were aboard the blimp to provide extra surveillance as it hovered above the city during Fleet Week and Independence Day celebrations this summer.

"It gives law enforcement situational awareness, a broader picture of what is happening on the ground," said Bill Armstrong, spokesman for Airship Management Services in Greenwich, which operates the blimp.

In the past few weeks, the blimp has traveled to Cape Cod to work with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in tracking whale movements.

Although the blimp as a mode of passenger transit never really took off, Armstrong believes that if an operation came into cities like New York, San Francisco or Boston, it could do a good luxury transit business.

A blimp landing is a sight to behold. The airship makes a rapid descent and it is literally caught by the ground crews -- if they let go of the lines attached to the helium-filed balloon, the blimp would float back upwards.

The blimp is then attached by its nose to a mast truck, where it floats a few feet off the ground. Once bags of lead are loaded into the airship gondola, passengers are allowed to disembark. The lead bags replace the passenger's weight.

Spotting the airship sparks people's imagination. They wave to it when it goes by, and ask how it works when they get close enough.

Shortly after the blimp landed, a man pulled up to the field on a motorcycle. He asked if the blimp was selling rides. When told the blimp was only used for advertising or broadcast purposes, he was disappointed.

"I would love to take a ride on that thing," he said, staring at the blimp in the distance.

Captions:

Eye in the sky: Port-side line handlers Roger Lisk, left, and Sharon Suda guide the FujiFilm blimp ay Sikorsky Memorial Airport in Stratford recently. Below, the blimp’s shadow falls onto the shoreline in southern Fairfield County.