World's Largest Aircraft Unveiled England

World's Largest Aircraft Unveiled - and it Floats!

Thu, Mar 2, 2016

Airlander 10 combines airship design with fixed-wing technology to produce what its designers call a hyper-efficient aircraft.

                                          

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The world just got its first look at the revamped Airlander 10, the longest aircraft in the world. The behemoth is 302 feet long and has a 1.3 million cubic-foot compartment for helium, roughly the volume of 15 Olympic swimming pools, making it incredibly cost-efficient to fly for long periods of time.

Hybrid Air Vehicles' Airlander 10 was originally going to be a U.S. military surveillance vehicle, but budget constraints forced the Pentagon to abandon the program in 2012, shortly after a prototype of the half-airship-half-airplane took its first flight in 2012. Since then, the British government has refunded the program with hopes of using the massive blimp-plane for commercial and civilian uses. The overhauled Airlander 10 still has to go through months of testing on the ground at the U.K.'s biggest aircraft hangar in Bedfordshire, but it is slated for first flight sometime this summer.

The hybrid aircraft can achieve lift like a fixed-winged airplane and also uses helium to float. The Airlander 10 is silent and has zero emissions. It can stay aloft in one spot for three whole weeks, and when it needs to land it can do it pretty much anywhere, including on water, using its pneumatic skids. The aircraft can even stay in the air with bullet holes in it. David Burns, the chief test pilot of the Airlander 10, told The Guardian a missile could rip right through the triple-weave composite material of the airship without bringing her down.

The applications for the plane are broad, such as transporting cargo, performing surveillance operations, or simply to carrying super-rich tourists through the skies over London. The Guardian reports that two potential uses are monitoring refugees crossing the Mediterranean and acting as a mobile communications network at large sporting events.

The Airlifter 10 won't be of much use transporting passengers over long distances, as the four engines can only propel it to a measly 92 mph. But Chris Daniels, Head of Partnerships at Hybrid Air Vehicles, told the BBC that passengers will be able to open the windows of the flight deck during flight due to the low altitude and speed.

Hybrid Air Vehicles hopes to scale up production and build 12 Airlanders a year by 2018, but they'll need to prove the merits of their first airship to secure orders for more.

The Airlander 10 is one part plane, one part airship, and over 300 feet long.​​