Airship developers dare to return to the skies

In a hangar at Cardington airfield, on the outskirts of Bedford, a team of British engineers tests the engines of what they hope will be the first of a new generation of airships.

Many attempts have been made to revive the airship after it fell from favour in a series of accidents in the 1930s including the Hindenburg disaster but most have failed. Some industry experts are sceptical they have a role in modern aerospace.

But Hybrid Air Vehicles of the UK is one of several companies betting that airships have significant commercial uses, most notably in cargo transport - by harnessing new technology.

HAV has designed the 300ft Airlander 10, which is part airship and part hovercraft and is a far cry from the cigar-shaped aircraft pioneered by Ferdinand von Zeppelin and used in the first world war.

The body of the Airlander 10 is designed to generate lift, and a mixture of non-flammable helium and air provides buoyancy. The airship, which is powered by four engines that swivel to help it manoeuvre, does not need a ground crew to tether it down. It can also be fitted with hover cushions that allow take-off and landing almost anywhere.

"We believe the hybrid air vehicle will become a mainstream aerospace product," says Stephen McGlennan, chief executive of HAV. "In the past no one really found a way to make airships a practical and economic product for people that buy aircraft."

Mr McGlennan admits airships are unlikely to rival conventional aircraft or trains for passenger services but insists there are applications elsewhere.

The most obvious is moving cargo, particularly objects that are too bulky to go by air freighter but need to be delivered quicker than by sea. A capability to remain airborne for weeks at a time could also make them suitable for military surveillance operations.

HAV, a privately owned company founded in 2007, expects to start test flights in the first quarter of next year and is about to finish a £2m crowdfunding campaign to add to the £12m it needs to finish the airship. About half of this amount has already been raised through UK government grants and European funding.

The Airlander 10 needs to clock up 200 hours of flying to secure regulatory approval, and HAV will then move to trials with potential customers, among them Ocean Sky, a Swedish-backed group, to move wind turbine blades.

HAV plans to sell the Airlander 10 for about $40m - a price similar to a large private jet or helicopter. Mr McGlennan says a hybrid airship can carry heavier payloads for a longer period and at a lower fuel cost than conventional aircraft. While its first model would carry 10-tonne payloads, HAV's technology could allow it to build bigger airships capable of carrying up to 1,000 tonnes, he says.

HAV is not the only company working on a hybrid airship. Lockheed Martin, the US aerospace and defence group, has been developing a cargo airship for more than a decade and expects it could be operational by 2018.

"We believe our hybrid airships will offer large-capacity transportation capability with significant fuel economy and reduced operating costs," says Lockheed Martin.

Gregory Gottlieb of the Airship Association says the craft are a good option for the environment and do not need large airports.

But with speeds of up to 100 miles per hour, he agrees they cannot compete with jet aircraft. "They will never replace planes because they just don't go fast enough," says Mr Gottlieb.

Among companies that failed to get their airships off the ground as commercial ventures is Advanced Technologies Group, the predecessor to HAV. ATG ran out of money and went into administration in 2005 having produced only one airship, the SkyCat.

HAV was formed after acquiring the assets of SkyCat Group in 2007, which had previously bought ATG's operations.

Some transport experts believe airships are likely to remain a very niche area. "You can come up with these lovely ideas, and then there's a deafening hush from the marketplace," says David Learmount, consulting editor at Flightglobal, an aviation magazine.

Mr Learmount argues that drones would be more useful than airships for surveillance purposes. "They [airships] are slow and vulnerable to bad weather," he says. "New technology has no answers to bad weather."

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