Airlander progresses through Flight Test Programme with another successful Flight
Airlander continues pioneering test flight programme with another successful flight
Hybrid Air Vehicles will be attending the Paris Airshow within the UK pavilion run by ADS – Hall 2b Stand H178
Airlander significantly expanded upon its previous flight test envelope and reached an altitude of 3700ft and velocity of 37 knots
Hybrid Air Vehicles’ own preview to the Paris Airshow next week took place in the skies above Bedfordshire yesterday evening (13 June 2017). Airlander continued its pioneering test flight programme by successfully completing another flight over Bedfordshire, UK. This is the Airlander 10’s fourth flight and second in 2017. Each flight sees Airlander pushing its envelope a little further and increasing our understanding of this innovative new aircraft.
“It was great to be airborne again and we enjoyed a really successful test flight. We gathered a lot of data during the flight which helps us to optimise and define the performance of this magnificent aircraft.” – Dave Burns, Chief Test Pilot
These capabilities include unprecedented endurance of up to 5 days manned, carrying up to 10 tonnes of payload with unprecedented electrical power. This will transform military surveillance, coastguard and border control and is increasingly finding other applications such as telecoms, geo-survey and geo-intelligence and home security.
The Airlander was taken off its mooring mast at 6.10pm and took off at 6.12pm. It flew for a total of 3 hrs 23 minutes before landing at 9.25pm and was secured safely on the mast at 9.33pm.
Today’s Test Objectives revolved around further expanding the flight envelope and further testing of the flight characteristics. We reached 3700 feet altitude and 37 knots speed and these are close to the maximum limits we will go to during our initial test flights whilst we calibrate all data on Airlander. We expect to expand this envelope significantly in a few flights once the basic handling has been fully tested.
The next few flights will be scheduled one or more weeks apart in order to give time for a full analysis of the data collected on each flight, and plan, prepare and train for the next flight.
A significant number of flight objectives were accomplished before Chief Test Pilot Dave Burns, accompanied by Experimental Test Pilot Simon Davies, safely landed Airlander back at her base on Cardington Airfield.
At the Paris Airshow, the team from Airlander will be talking about her capabilities at Hall 2b Stand H178, within the UK zone run by the trade body ADS.
About Hybrid Air Vehicles Ltd
Founded in 2007, Hybrid Air Vehicles is the company behind the innovative Airlander range of hybrid aircraft. They utilise new aerospace technology that combines the best of the characteristics of fixed wing aircraft and helicopters with lighter-than-air technology to create a new breed of hyper-efficient aircraft, with a significantly lower carbon footprint and operating cost than other forms of air transport.
Airlanders are low noise, low pollution, and are environmentally-friendly. They have ultra-long endurance, and a point-to-point cargo-carrying capacity. They can take off and land in a short distance from unprepared sites in desert, ice, water, or open field environments. Hybrid Air Vehicles has been awarded both UK and European grant funding to support the Airlander project. In addition the company has carried out two ‘crowdfunding’ rounds and is proud to have more than 2000 shareholders without whom return to flight would not have been possible. Hybrid Air Vehicles Ltd was recently accepted onto London Stock Exchange’s ELITE programme for high growth companies looking to seek a listing on the Stock Market.
The Airlander project was selected for funding through a dedicated SME Instrument of Horizon 2020, which the European Commission uses to invest in and support high growth and highly innovative small businesses. The technology is also fully in line with activities under the Smart, Green and Integrated Transport Societal Challenge of Horizon 2020, which aims to boost the competitiveness of the European transport industries and achieve a European transport system that is resource-efficient, climate-and-environmentally-friendly, safe and seamless for the benefit of all citizens, the economy and society.
Airlander 10 is designed to stay airborne for up to five days at a time to fulfil a wide range of communication and survey roles, as well as cargo carrying and tourist passenger flights.
Please visit http://www.hybridairvehicles.com/about-us/invest-in-us for more details about investment opportunities.
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