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World's Longest Aircraft

posted by janrinok on Saturday March 01 2014, @05:00AM   Printer-friendly
from the Not-so-heavy-metal dept.

Wakaranai writes:

"BBC News has a video report that a UK company, Hybrid Air Vehicles, is developing helium-filled hybrid airships for passengers and cargo.

The first prototype was 91 m long, and was built for the US Army. However, the military project was scrapped due to budget cuts, and the airship was returned to the UK. A larger vehicle is on the drawing board.

One of the companies shareholders is... err.. Bruce Dickinson from Iron Maiden!"

 
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  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by TheRaven on Saturday March 01 2014, @12:24PM

    by TheRaven (270) on Saturday March 01 2014, @12:24PM (#9072) Journal
    There's a lot of potential in airships. They lost out to jets because they're much slower, but they're a lot faster than ships when there isn't a direct ocean route. They're also very cheap to operate, per ton of cargo per mile, in comparison to other forms of air transport.

    As to helium, hydrogen isn't actually that unsafe for airships (it turns out that wrapping hydrogen balloons in parrafin-soaked rags and putting them in a high-static environment isn't so clever, but that's now a known issue.

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