Airlander, the world’s biggest aircraft, may finally get off ground
I t has cost about £140 million and has endured a crash landing, project delays and warnings from its auditors about its financial footing, but a government-backed company developing one of the world’s largest aircraft is finally close to bringing its design into production.
The Airlander 10, a hybrid of a plane and an airship designed to be the world’s most efficient large aircraft, could be in service by 2029, including regional air travel in Spain and tourism expeditions in the Arctic.
A factory in Doncaster has been lined up to produce 24 Airlanders a year, which would create 1,200 jobs and produce annual sales of about £1.2 billion a year for Hybrid Air Vehicles (HAV), the company behind a project that it hopes will “transform what aircraft can do”.
First, though, there is the small matter of raising tens of millions of pounds more to keep the government-backed company in business: it expects it will need a further £300 million over the next few years to reach break-even.
