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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.
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Originally built in the 1920s, the hangars are only now being properly renovated, with tidy new green facades replacing the kaleidoscopically rusted old panels.
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The patchwork of faded, rusted, and worn out metal that covers Hangar 1 is almost artistic in its degradation.
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Welcoming visitors to the HAV offices are a number of Airlander models that make it abundantly clear what this small engineering team is building. The vast airship occupying the majority of the premises is the single focus of the entire company.
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At present, the Airlander is disassembled and undergoing testing to ensure its airworthiness. Its cockpit is at the front of an elongated storage and fuel section that attaches to the bottom of the helium-filled airship.
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The usual instrument panels and abundance of switches and toggles stand ready for the trained pilot to command. The co-pilot’s seat is set on rails and can be moved forward for a more scenic view.
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Positioned directly behind the flight deck is a service area, which links to this payload bay. It can accommodate up to 2,750 cubic feet of cargo.
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The first look at this leviathan construction leaves an inescapable feeling of awe mixed with mild intimidation.
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The rear of the Airlander is formed of three distinct bubble shapes whereas the front only has two.
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The fins in the foreground attach to the sides of the airship to help with its steering. The control gauges in the background are for measuring the exact pressure when pumping air into the air ballonets inside the Airlander and the air-filled "skids" on which it is transported on the ground.
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The Airlander is currently filled with air rather than helium since it's still undergoing ground-based testing before proceeding to its first test flight later this year.
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Four diesel-powered engines attach to each corner of the airship to provide steering and the necessary power to take off and land.
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A team from ILC Dover — an engineering company responsible for developing and testing NASA's space suits — recently completed a comprehensive set of checks on the integrity of the hull.
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At present, vertical lift is generated by directing the airflow from the propellers down, but in future versions of the AIrlander, HAV envisions being able to rotate the propeller 90 degrees so they could operate in the same fashion as on helicopters.
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The engine frames are made out of a composite material, but this is mostly standard equipment all around.
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The Airlander is designed to be marginally heavier than air. Takeoff is achieved through a combination of the helium's lift, the hull's aerodynamic shape, and the four diesel engines.
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Humans are positively dwarfed by the grand scale of the Airlander.
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Kevlar on the outside, carbon fiber on the inside. This airship's helium compartment is protected by a thin, but very durable, composite mesh.
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The high-strength material of the helium compartment was originally developed for sails used in the Americas Cup yachting race.
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Without the propellers and flight deck attached to it, the Airlander looks more like a spaceship than an airship.
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The first test flight could happen as early as this year, with passenger flights expected in 2016.
