It’s hard to imagine keeping secrets about an aircraft so spectacularly huge that the Guinness Book of Records is believed to be just days away from rubber-stamping its entry.
But until the vast new Airlander 10 airship was unveiled fully assembled in a giant hangar north of London on March 21, it still had a few to reveal.
“Last time I flew this in 2012,” says test pilot David Burns, gesturing at the cockpit controls of the aircraft he’ll soon take to the skies in its latest incarnation, “no one was allowed to take photographs of this.”
The controls are not entirely different from those of an ordinary plane but include extra switches and gauges that govern gigantic balloons pumped full of helium.
Back in 2012, they were secret thanks to the aircraft’s previous life as a U.S. military project that was grounded due to defense cuts.
After further development, it’s now literally back afloat.
So much so that, at its grand unveiling, Airlander could be seen straining at its moorings and drifting, ever so slightly, a few meters off the ground, apparently ready for action.
Soon, after extensive ground testing, it’ll be leaving its hangar to begin the 200 hours of test flights it needs to complete before being offered to prospective customers.
It may still have a military role — the UK government thinks so and has stumped up cash alongside $3 million of crowdsourced funds — but Hybrid Air Vehicles, which revived the project, envisages plenty of civilian uses.
Nick Allman, HAV’s program director, says it has the potential to change aviation forever.
“We see it as the future,” he told CNN. “It’s going to be cheaper, it’s going to be greener, we’re going to be able to go to places we can’t go to and from now.
“It’s going to be a whole revolution in how we use air transport.”
Part airship, part helicopter, part plane, the 92-meter-long Airlander 10 owes its buoyancy to 38,000 cubic meters of helium.
The pressure of the lighter-than-air gas helps maintain the aerodynamic shape of a hull made from carbon fiber, Kevlar and Mylar.
CNN
