World’s largest aircraft lands

British Hybrid Air Vehicles has announced the completion of the Airlander 10 prided as the largest aircraft in the world.

Airlander 10 produces low noise, low pollution, and is environmentally-friendly, according to its makers.

According to the company, the gigantic new Airlander 10 airship which was unveiled fully assembled in a giant hangar north of London on March 21 has ultra-long endurance, and a point-to-point cargo-carrying capacity. It can also take off and land in a short distance from unprepared sites in desert, ice, water, or open field environments.

The company also revealed the multi-use cabin, which according to it, will permit demonstrations of the wide range of roles the Airlander can undertake, including surveillance, monitoring, communications, cargo delivery, aid delivery and passenger roles.

David Burns, Chief Test Pilot says that “I am extremely excited and looking forward to taking Airlander on what I am sure will be a very successful First Flight,”

Although Hybrid Air Vehicles says it is not announcing a date for first flight at this stage, the Airlander now undergoes ground testing phase before roll-out of the Hangar and first flight. “We will fly when the all ground testing is complete and Airlander is ready to fly”, the company says.

According to them, after the first flight which will be from and to Cardington Air Field, near Bedford, the remainder of 2016 will see an extensive Flight Test Programme consisting of 200 hours of test flights over a number of months, then a series of trials and demonstrations with prospective customers.

The Airlander 10 is designed to stay airborne for up to five days at a time to fulfill a wide range of communication and survey roles, as well as cargo carrying and tourist passenger flights.

The company also said the completion  of the Airlander 10 was timely and within budget, revealing that it was able to achieve this much within 10 months after concluding a ‘record-breaking’ £2.1million crowdfunding together with a UK Government grant and an EU Horizon 2020 grant for highly innovative SMEs.