World's Largest Aircraft Completes Its First Flight (cnn.com)

The world's largest aircraft has finally completed its first flight after months of preparation and years of searching for funding. The Airlander 10 as it's called spent 20 minutes in the air on Wednesday, landing safely at Cardington Airfield north of London. CNNMoney reports: "Part airship, part helicopter, part plane, the 300-foot long aircraft is about 50 feet longer than the world's biggest passenger planes. The Airlander, made by British company Hybrid Air Vehicles, has four engines and no internal structure. It maintains its shape thanks to the pressure of the 38,000 cubic meters of helium inside its hull, which is made from ultralight carbon fiber. The aircraft was originally designed for U.S. military surveillance. But the project was grounded in 2013 because of defense spending cuts. [The team behind the giant blimp-like aircraft] said the aircraft could carry communications equipment or other cargo, undertake search and rescue operations, or do military and commercial survey work. The Airlander can stay airborne for up to five days at a time if manned, and for more than two weeks if unmanned. It can carry up to 10 tons of cargo at a maximum speed of 91 miles per hour. The aircraft doesn't need a runway to take off, meaning it can operate from land, snow, ice, desert and even open water." You can view the historic flight for yourself here (Warning: headphone users beware of loud sound).

Comments

No internal structure?

[Viol8]

Is that a good idea? Sure, it saves weight, but if it ever suffers partial deflation in the air there will be a total loss of control preventing them even attempting a crash landing as the aerofoils and props start pointing in random directions.

Re:Manned versus unmanned.

[Shoten]

Same as manned spaceflight - the glory days have gone.
This is 300 foot long. The Graf Zeppelin of 1928 was 776 feet long with a useful lift of 60 tonnes.
The Hindenberg was even bigger.

As soon as I saw the picture of it, that's exactly what went through my mind as well. They claim in the write-up that they're some kind of revolutionary fusion of different technologies...it's just a modern blimp with turbofans for thrust and some fins for directional/pitch control. Nothing new to see here, and not even very big when compared to craft of similar nature.

Even more importantly, it's a solution in search of a problem. They originally built it for the military...which means "we thought they'd buy it from us, but they just laughed so we need someone else to give us money now." Note the prominent "Invest in Us" button at lower right.

Also, 10 tons of cargo is NOT a lot of capacity for something of this size. That's 20,000 pounds...while a C-17 can carry 169,000 pounds. A lot of that cargo capacity will be consumed by holding crew and the things needed to support them, as well.

So...in short, what you have is an airship that cannot be parked outside (you would not believe what wind will do to something this big but this light), that cannot go very fast, that cannot carry very much, that probably (given the pervasive use of carbon composites and Vectran in its construction) costs a shit-ton of money to build and repair, and that is made by a company that probably won't be in business much longer. Waaaaaaa hoo.