World's Longest Aircraft Gets Full-Production Go-Ahead (bbc.com)

The Airlander 10 -- the world's longest aircraft -- is set to go into full production with the model designed to take its first passengers. "It comes after the prototype Airlander 10 -- a combined plane and airship -- was formally retired following successful final testing," reports the BBC. "As a result, Bedford firm Hybrid Air Vehicles (HAV) has been given Production Organization Approval from the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA)." From the report: An eyewitness said the aircraft appeared to "break in two" after breaking its moorings and deflating, in November that year, less than 24 hours after completing its sixth successful test flight. The firm was given Design Organization Approval from the European Aviation Safety Agency (Easa) in October. Stephen McGlennan, HAV's chief executive, said 2018 had been very good, with Easa's backing a "huge highlight." He said the firm had changed its focus last year towards the production of Airlander 10 as a commercial aircraft for customers. "The prototype served its purpose as the world's first full-sized hybrid aircraft, providing us with the data we needed to move forward from prototype to production standard," he said. It is now hoped the full commercial model will take to the skies with its first paying passengers "in the early 2020s." Approval from the CAA and Easa now puts the firm in a "strong position to launch production."

Comments

Longest *current* aircraft

[Anonymous Coward]

It's 92m long, which may make it the longest currently [soon] in production, but the Zeppelins were 235m long back then.
Also, would not have hurt to put the length in the summary, would it?

Re: Longest *current* aircraft

[Anonymous Coward]

Eh, so is the jet engine, rockets, atomic bombs, jerrycans, Fanta (drink) and the Volkswagen Beetle.
However, you are wrong about the Zeppelin:
"Zeppelin's notions were first formulated in 1874 and developed in detail in 1893". ... yes, I know you were joking :)

Re:Longest *current* aircraft

[Anonymous Coward]

As none of the Zeppelins exist anymore,

Zeppeliners exists and fly today. Made by the same company that made the old Zeppeliners too. Google "Zeppelin NT" for more data, and where you can book a flight with one of them. They are only 75 meters though, so not the longest aircraft around. Nice trips, although expensive.

Re:Longest *current* aircraft

[Sique]

The Zeppelin NT is not made by the same company, that made Zeppelins of the 1920ies and got the name from its founder Count Zeppelin. The company which made the Zeppelin NT was founded as Metallwerk Friedrichshafen GmbH in 1950, and only later renamed into Zeppelin-Metallwerke GmbH.

As the Zeppelin NT is a semi-rigid airship, it is not even a Zeppelin airship from a technical point of view. Count Zeppelin's constructions were rigid airships, and of those, none has survived. The Zeppelin NT has just a famous name attached to it without living up to its legacy.

Re:Helium

[Rob Lister]

Contrary to certain media scare-mongering, helium is fairly abundant. Extracted natural gas contains as much as 7% helium.

Re:Helium

[Anonymous Coward]

There's a lot of it in the universe, but not that much (relatively speaking) on earth. And we don't know how to produce more of it economically.

There's a lot of it under our feet, not too easy to extract. We usually get it as a byproduct of natural gas extraction. Other than that, a lot of it naturally seeps from the rocks up into the atmosphere, but quickly goes up and gets lots into outer space.

Known reserves will last some 50 to 100 years an current consumption rate (party baloons are not a major factor). After that we need to learn how to extract it from rocks, or perhaps by then we can just swoop it from Jupiter's atmosphere as He3.