AIRLANDER 10
The largest aircraft currently flying uses innovative technology to combine the best characteristics of fixed wing aircraft and helicopters with lighter-than-air technology to create a new breed of hyper-efficient aircraft. It can stay airborne for up to five days at a time if manned, and for over 2 weeks unmanned. It will fulfill a wide range of communication, cargo carrying and survey roles in both the military and commercial sectors all with a significantly lower carbon footprint than other forms of air transport.
Hybrid Air Vehicles formed in 2007, a privately held British owned company and World leaders in LTA (Lighter-Than-Air) and hybrid technology. The company is into design and manufacture of the world’s most innovative, practical and commercially useful hybrid aircraft – the Airlander is the continuation of 40 years of innovation and investment in lighter-than-air design, and can boast of numerous “firsts” in its history.
More recently, the team at Hybrid Air Vehicles has re-examined the basic principles behind lighter-than-air science and applied modern technology and materials to create new capabilities and efficiencies.
Hybrid Air Vehicles has created a new mode of air transport that offers major improvements in safety, operating costs, environmental impact and operational flexibility.
The result is the Airlander – the world’s largest aircraft and a revolution in aviation capability.
Airlander 10 is underpinned by the company’s numerous patents vested worldwide. From the latest materials technology, to the aerodynamic effects of its shape, it is full of innovation. There is no internal structure in the Airlander – it maintains its shape due to the pressure stabilisation of the helium inside the hull, and the smart and strong Vectran material it is made of. Carbon composites are used throughout the aircraft for strength and weight savings.
Hybrid Air Vehicles designs and builds Airlanders. For the first few, they will also operate them, maintain them, and train up the pilots needed to fly them. They have a world-leading team who have designed and built the Airlander 10 to the highest specification in record time.
They start with CAD designs, make small scale demonstrators and then do further wind tunnel and computational fluid dynamic testing to ensure we have the optimal designs. Then we construct the Airlanders using the very latest materials available. We have a supply chain of some 40+ (mainly British) companies who supply the different parts of Airlander 10 to order.
They believe in a new vision for air transport. That new vision is called Airlander. Hybrid Air Vehicles’ goal is to change the world of aviation through Airlander. Their believe that aircraft should be able to land and take-off anywhere, should be able to fly for weeks at a time, should be low cost and should pollute as little as possible.
Airlander takes the best of aeroplanes, helicopters and airships and combines them with the latest innovations in materials to create a truly revolutionary aircraft. The Airlander is a “hybrid” of an aeroplane and an airship – we get 40% of our lift from the aerodynamic wing shape of our aircraft, and 60% from the helium fill – it is therefore inherently more efficient than other forms of air transport. It uses the very latest fabrics to maintain its shape and is technologically years ahead of other aircraft. Airlander has flown before under a US Government programme, but is now being developed for commercial purposes, such as freight, remote access, aid distribution, advertising, surveillance, communications and luxury passenger transport.
Airlander aims to revolutionise transport and travel by and has a 10 tonne payload, and ultimately could produce a range of hybrid aircraft capable of carrying up to 1000 tonnes.
It is one of the lowest carbon emissions aircraft in the world,having game-changing endurance (it can stay airborne for weeks rather than hours), providing significantly lower delivery cost for airborne freight and being able to land anywhere (water, land, desert, ice) thus opening up new point-to-point routes to previously inaccessible areas.
Hybrid Air Vehicles has won a string of awards, including:
•The Sir Barnes Wallis Medal, “inrecognition of an exceptional and innovative contribution to aviation”
•Popular Science’s, “Best of What’sNew Award Winner” in the Aerospace Category
•London Stock Exchange’s “Top 1000companies to inspire Britain”
•UK Government’s “Greatbusiness”campaign, 2014
•EEF’s Smart Product Award, Regionaland National Award Winner for SE England
•Nominated for Milton KeynesBusiness Achievement Award, 2015
Airlander company feels honoured and delighted to gain these validations from government and industry experts that we’re innovating. We don’t actively chase these awards; in fact in three of the four awards we’ve recently received, we discovered we’d won when we took the call! The awards endorse our technology, product and great workforce, past and present. With just 40 employees, we have taken on the world and created a ground-breaking aircraft that is one of the largest and greenest in the world – all this, years ahead of well-known competition. Our recent award successes reflect this remarkable achievement, won through dogged entrepreneurial determination and private investment over the last 40 years.
