The world's largest aircraft has taken to the skies for a successful maiden voyage - its first since being revamped in the UK.
The
302ft-long (92-metre) Airlander 10 - part plane, part helicopter, part
airship - loomed overhead at Cardington airfield in Bedfordshire as the
sun started to set on Wednesday evening.
Photographers and plane
spotters baked in the sun as they waited to see the aircraft, whose
bulbous exterior has earned it the less-than-glamorous nickname "the
flying bum", take off.
Crowds clapped and cheered as the craft soared above them during its
first outing from the First World War hangar where it was revealed in
March after undergoing "hundreds" of changes by Hybrid Air Vehicles
(HAV) over two years.
First developed for the US government as a long-endurance surveillance
aircraft, the British firm launched a campaign to return the craft to
the sky after it fell foul of defence cutbacks.
HAV chief executive officer Stephen McGlennan said the team had been
waiting for low winds for the launch but added the airship could
"operate very happily" in 80 knots of wind.
He said: "Think of a big helicopter, a really giant helicopter. This can
do the same thing that a helicopter can do - that's to say, provide air
transportation for people and goods without the need for a runway - but
this thing can take more over longer distances, it's cheaper and it's
greener.
"It's a great British innovation. It's a combination of an aircraft that
has parts of normal fixed wing air craft, it's got helicopter, it's got
airship."
