Company Will Focus On 'Production-Ready' Aircraft Going Forward

Hybrid Air Vehicles will not be rebuilding the prototype Airlander 10 airship after six flights and two incidents.

The 302-foot long aircraft was slightly damaged in 2016 on its second flight when it bumped into the ground during a landing attempt. In 2017, the hull of the prototype automatically deflated as designed when it came loose from its moorings, sending a female employee of the company to the hospital. The damage was considered "very significant" and HAV's insurer agreed to pay about $26 million, which was well below the $41 million HAV told its shareholders was the "maximum insured value" of the aircraft.

That second incident led the company to drop its plans to use the prototype as a "test bed and sales demonstrator," according to a report from The Guardian newspaper. Instead, the company will be focusing on developing a "production ready" variant of the aircraft following the grant of Production Organisation Approval from the CAA. HAV says the POA places it in a "strong position" to launch production and it hopes to have a new Airlander flying in the early 2020s.

HAV said that the prototype had done its job, successfully completing final testing and providing reams of data that will help in the development of the production aircraft.

(Image from file)

FMI: Source report