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Airlander 10: up close with the gigantic airship the US Army wanted

A throwback to a bygone era, built using the latest technology

An hour’s train ride away from London resides the world’s largest aircraft. Called the Airlander 10, it’s a 300-foot-long throwback to a bygone era when it was believed that airships and dirigibles would fill the skies and become the dominant means by which we moved goods and people around. Jet-fueled planes ended up fulfilling that ambition more adroitly, but the Airlander is the product of a team passionately convinced that airships still have a role to play in the modern world.

Originally designed as a surveillance and reconnaissance craft for the US Army’s Long Endurance Multi-intelligence Vehicle program, the Airlander was intended to remain in the sky for up to 21 days while carrying 2,500 pounds of communications and sensor equipment. It took its maiden flight in the summer of 2012, however budget cutbacks and project delays eventually deprived the ship of its funding and left it in limbo until the original designers at Hybrid Air Vehicles (HAV) bought it back late last year. They spent $301,000 to acquire the prototype, which was the linchpin of an investment of over $154 million from the Army.

What started life as a US Army project is turning to more peaceful tasks like covering sports

Now back in its British homeland, that same Airlander that flew two years ago is preparing to do it all over again, only with a reduced maximum flight time of five days and an increased payload of over 20,000 pounds. Its designers’ new aim is to substitute planes on short-haul cargo flights as well as helicopters for specific purposes like sports broadcasts and even police surveillance. Should the upcoming tests later this year pan out as planned, a second Airlander will be built to perform those commercial purposes. Passenger flights are another obvious application, not least because the aircraft looks like it was yanked from the pages of a sci-fi comic. Or H.R. Giger’s sketchbook.

Although it looks fantastical, the Airlander’s shape and enormous size do have a purpose. Some 40 percent of the craft’s lift is derived from its aerodynamic form, while the other 60 percent comes from the helium gas within. Four diesel-powered propellers help with steering, taking off, and landing, and there are a further four pressurized air pockets that regulate the pressure inside the main helium compartment and also assist with takeoff and landing. As to the practicality of relying on an expensive and finite resource like helium, HAV says it expects the price of the inert gas to stabilize at its current level, underscoring the extraordinary efficiency of the Airlander. Its cost of operation is apparently between 10 and 20 percent of that for a helicopter, and it only loses 10 percent of its helium per year.

A paper-thin weave of carbon fiber, mylar, and Kevlar surrounds the helium bubble, giving it the strength and endurance that the earliest airship designs sorely lacked. HAV claims that the Airlander is capable of withstanding multiple lightning strikes and can have any punctures repaired while still airborne. It will be quite a while before the hundreds of tests and validations still required for airworthiness are completed, but the Airlander 10 already has the financial backing of Iron Maiden's Bruce Dickinson and countless other fans, so support for the project is unlikely to wane this time. And if you want one for yourself, the price is already set at $40 million.

Airlander 10 hybrid air vehicle

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To house the world’s largest aircraft, you need an enormous hangar and that’s exactly what the historic Cardington Airfield in Bedfordshire provides. The Airlander resides behind the emerald-green doors of Hangar 1, which HAV shares with Warner Bros. Pictures. The filmmaking company also owns the nearby Hangar 2, where the new Peter Pan movie starring Hugh Jackman is currently being shot. Not to be outdone by the scale of their neighbors’ venture, the WB producers have apparently constructed a full-scale pirate ship for the movie.