Probably not, but a study to examine the case for introducing Airlander 10 aircraft, a large electric airship, for passenger and freight transport in the Highlands and Islands has been launched by Hybrid Air Vehicles.
As the Highlands and Islands step up efforts to create a more sustainable future for aviation and support for Scotland’s more remote regions in their transition to net zero, an interesting new concept study has been released.
A study, paid for by the company, to examine the case for introducing Airlander 10 aircraft, a large electric airship, for passenger and freight transport in the Highlands and Islands has been launched by Hybrid Air Vehicles. The project, which should take three months to complete, will focus on finding out how Airlander 10 might assist regional sustainable travel while also increasing connectedness for communities throughout the Highlands and Islands.
For travel in the Highlands and Islands, an area where the firm say that “air travel is a necessity rather than a luxury”, Airlander 10 might considerably reduce emissions. To be operational by the end of the decade, HAV is now developing an all-electric version of the Airlander that will emit no carbon dioxide.
Previously, a prototype was used to conduct test flights in England. With a length of 302 feet (92 metres), it was the longest aircraft in the world and achieved six successful test flights.
The ability to land on the water
A group of organisations, including Orkney Island Council, Highlands and Islands Airport (Hial), Highlands and Islands Transport Partnership (HITRANS), Highlands and Islands Enterprise, and Glasgow-based airline Loganair, are supporting the new study, which will compare emission reductions with current transportation options and examine opportunities to operate at locations other than airports by utilising the aircraft’s water operation capability.
The project will also take into account the ability of Airlander to transport freight using a multipurpose model of the aircraft. Airlander 10’s 10-tonne payload could improve regional passenger connectivity and logistics.
Green short-haul flights
Inglis Lyon, Managing Director, HIAL, was quoted as saying:
“HIAL’s aim is to become a net-zero carbon regional airport group. To achieve this, we need to investigate innovative solutions for sustainable air travel. This collaboration allows us to explore the potential use of Airlander 10 as part of the region’s transport network. A network that provides essential and lifeline services to some of Scotland’s most remote regions.”
Tom Grundy, CEO, Hybrid Air Vehicles, was also quoted:
“Hybrid Air Vehicles are changing the way we think about regional travel and sustainable aviation. This is particularly the case for sometimes hard-to-reach regions such as the Highlands and Islands. This study will, I hope, pave the way for a revolution in green short-haul flights in this wonderful, beautiful, if sometimes inaccessible, part of the world, boosting connectivity and the local economy as we do so.”
Ronald Robertson, Partnership Director, HITRANS, added:
“HITRANS are delighted that this study is being undertaken. It offers an opportunity for us to understand the potential offered by Airlander 10 as part of the region’s journey to net zero aviation. Airlander offers an opportunity to provide low carbon transportation of passengers and freight with the potential to develop new routes where journey time savings can be realised on current modes of travel including road and ferry.”
A reliable and sustainable future for island communities
More generally, the intention is to improve transport links in the area, isolated settlements will be better connected, attracting more visitors and inhabitants, as well as offering an economic boost for the area.
A project to use drones and hybrid electric planes to establish a low-carbon aviation zone in the Highlands and Islands received over £9mn in financing earlier this year. There have already been examples of drone deliveries, which might potentially reduce the need for lengthy car trips in rural and inaccessible areas.
These less expensive aircraft represent the future of air travel in Scotland, in the light of net zero targets, declining reliability of ferry services and the high expense of flying.
The big question, what is the max wind strength it can cope with at take off, landing, for ground handling or flying into headwinds?
Scotland isn’t best known for its windless, calm days
its the same as a most commercial airliners around 30 knots of cross wind…commercial flights don’t land with more than 35knots of cross wind. one
Speed wise it’s 130kms an hour so you’re not going to get any headwind issues unless you dive it into a hurricane …endurance is five days so you will not have any fuel issues….
basically air lander is being certified to fly in any of the same weather conditions as any other commercial aircraft.
Well, the one that was just sat tethered, got blown away and crashed rather easily….. Putting money in to this project is akin to putting money in to Thrust 2 …… where did all that money go ????…. just like “Vulcan to the sky”….
If I remember correctly, it was the mooring mast that failed not the aircraft, which has been redesigned since. This is a commercial enterprise which already has an order book not a go faster lark without any hope of making money (no matter how much fun it looked).
Cross wind don’t really affect has doesn’t need runway, so can always land into the wind? just needs big circle around mooring point
No. Don’t be stupid.
But no doubt the SNP will give it a go and waste millions doing it.
Add a zero to the wastage –
‘This isn’t just waste, it is SNP waste’
With apologies to M&S for mangling their strap line.
Why it’s funny 🤣
Or the Carley Simon Bond theme “No body wastes it better, none lies twice as much” etc etc
We are on firm today!
I’m not sure why you think it’s a bad idea, one commercial carrier has ordered 20 of these for operations in the Mediterranean islands and mainland links.
Would be sad if we sell loads of theirs to Europe nations but turn our noises up at our own manufacturers base.
Read the article, the project is funded by Hybrid Air Vehicles, no gov money spent. Otherwise yes, it would be a waste.
Interestingly a Spanish company has ordered 20 Airlander 10s to provide services across western med and islanders….it’s ability to land on the sea and U.S. any flat air seems to be very good islands.
“it’s ability to land on sea and U.S. any flat air seems to be very good islands”….. Mate…… just WTF did you actually try to write there ???? 😂
F@cking Apple phone spell thingy…should have been it’s ability to land on sea and use any other flat area.
😂
To be fair, I’d like to see some more trials (or tribulations) before writing ‘dirigible’s’ off completely.
In this day and age, I can see how a ‘balloon’ could provide its own energy, using solar, and maybe a wind turbine or some type or another. Experimentation in these ‘fields’ could then help to offset some of the cost of operating them.
Airships have come a long long way over the past 100+ years, and will find their own niche area’s I am sure, in due course.
Airlander has actually been ordered in large numbers ( 20) for commercial operations in the med.
Sounds like Airlander are getting desperate….. Might be OK in still winds but Scotland ? Heck…. and blow that for a lark.
Not really they actually have an order for their first production runs…20 ordered.
The body design is basically a wing. The shape generates lift. Been following this for 15 years now. The Airlander 50 concept has some really exciting remote operations potential. 50 mt cargo w/ 50 passengers no passengers and 60 mt cargo.
At 1 stage they had a ‘200’ concept…but they have gone silent on that recently.
If the Faroes can manage it why don’t they seriously look at tunnels to some of the islands. Only thing that will not be affected by the weather.
Airlander is doing very well all told, with an order for 20 of the Airlander 10 to provide island to island and island to mainland links in the western med…we should see commercial airship flights starting around the med in around 5 years provided by British airships, with the first of the commercial 100 passenger models coming of the product line for 2026…. For the med island hopping they are developing the sea landing options. The same airline company is also now partnering to create the Airlander 50…with five times the payload at 50 tons ( which is twice the… Read more »
Totally agree. I think the UK government has helped in the past, but supporting this new industry with military roots should definitely be on the cards. Airlander 50 could have a payload greater than a A400M, able to take an Ajax. They are a bit pricey to start off with, but I’m sure the price will drop.
Airlander was partnered with Lockheed Martin for extended us military trials about 12 years ago before money was diverted to other projects.
Concept has fantastic potential for remote resources exploration .
Incidentally, I was discussing Airlander on this site yesterday. It seems to me that a very long-ranged, very long-endurance high payload volume aircraft would be highly useful to the Navy. Not only could one lug Crowsnest around for a week without refuelling, the cargo capacity and long range means that it makes inter-theatre easier with the payload of a Chinook only slightly slower over nearly twice the range.
Most importantly, it would look great painted grey and with “Royal Navy” on the side.
They are already looking at a 50 ton payload as well.
Yes, but that isn’t supposed to be available until 2030. Thay variant has a shorter range but would still compete with a Globamaster exchanging speed for near-vertical landing.
I remember speaking with some of the senior staff at Airlander about the idea of using it for Crows Nest. It seems from the discussion that it is possible and with a few extra EW pods, with five days endurance, although originally designed for 21 days and unmanned. I did ask about turbulance cross winds etc from my understanding it can handle just about everything an airliner can. Yet I wonder, although the Searchwater 2000 of Crowsnest is a straight forward fit possibly the Erieye sytem of the Swedish GlobalEye would be better. Well withing the 10 ton range. One… Read more »
Yes, that is where my previous conversation was. Thanks for the well-explained reply. Is the new figure of 5 days manned or unmanned? I think it came about due to a switch to electric power, so might not make a difference. Your summarisation of the potential deployments makes sense. However, I would suggest that one of the most useful places for an Airlander AEW would be a CSG. A QE’s flight deck should just about be able to take an Airlander 10 for refueling and crew swap. It is only once a week, after all. The airship is amphibious due… Read more »
They could moor onto a mast for refuelling, and RPAS/autonomy can’t be that difficult. They could also land on the sea, in clement sea states.
However, I like the idea of a combined Heavy Lift and AEW combined, if it’s not too expensive. Airlander 50 bringing goods, crew, mail, possibly weekly, then spending a week in the air as AEW, finally refueling and heading home, rotating with the next incoming airship. Can then function as a backup AEW, maybe a bit further away from trouble.
Any AEW with 50t of disposable payload available is going to be a chunky piece of kit; a Wedgetail weighs only 77 tonnes fully loaded and 46 empty. Yes, some weight would be for power generation and extra fuel for that, but you’d probably be not far off slinging Artisan or even Sampson underneath with 50t, for theatre-wide AWACS stuff. I think using Airlander 10 for AEW would be more realistic, with the 50 only used, say, to lift a couple of F35s home for overhaul (something well within that envelope). In that case it would probably live on/floating around… Read more »
That’s a good question about hybrid. I don’t know. If it’s effectively STOL, that changes everything. There’s another technology that might come to the rescue. It’s possible to expand and compress the helium inside the airship to alter bouyancy. Perhaps having extra bouyancy when landing and less drag when moving will be the way it will go in the future. I don’t think HAV use this at the moment.
The hybrid means that it effectively takes off at an angle from a point like a bird. The forwards thrusters can be tilted to provide the necessary lift while speed builds up. That’s why Airlander isn’t marketed as an airship but as a “hybrid aircraft”: you still need clearance around the landing site to allow horizontal takeoff, even if that area isn’t actually touched by the craft.
Of the two available versions, Airlander 50 is probably the more useful design. The reason for this is is two fold. The 50 can carry more weight, so it will have more potential for future growth. The other is duration, it can do about 2000 miles at max load. It would be very easy for Airlander to become an AEW platform. The helium filled envelop is a perfect environment for a radar. But as importantly, Airlander has the capacity to carry the Wedgetail’s MESA radar. Where the “top hat” antenna array can provide 360 degrees of view. The Erieye does… Read more »
You mention the helium envelope. Does that mean the radar would be carried internally, making landing easier? I’d rather the Navy had their own first-tier AEW than the RAF get two platforms, due to Airlander’s amphibious capability and near-VTOL in non-enclosed spaces. One could live near a CSG as outlined above and even if it can’t land on a ship due to increased size, would still be able to be maintained and supplied by accompanying RFAs. I would enjoy a Thunderbird 2 Airlander or flying aircraft carrier that carries 2 or 3 Protector slung beneath and does refuelling and Comms… Read more »
Yes, the MESA radar would be inside the envelop above the cabin. This will give it protection from the elements. The smaller X/Ku band could be in either the envelop or mounted to the sides of the cabin, as the panel arrays are much smaller. But if its expected to land on the water, its probably best to also put them in the envelop. The Airlander has a broad range of possibilities. Which I believe raises more questions that need to be debated. For instance, could it be considered in the same light as a small ship, rather than an… Read more »
I’ll just remind everyone about Airship Industries in the 1980’s and the big plans with Westinghouse for a large Skyship 5000 stationed mid Atlantic for one week endurance with a big internal AWAS radar fit as part of a huge US Navy defence contract Again ground-handling is the issue. Also needs to be brought inside during a storm so just leaving at the mast is not an option. The prototype 500 type was destroyed at a mast during a storm at Cardington so that it would not break free into the airlanes. I still think airships are possible, but the… Read more »
I’ve looked up Skyship, and it appears to be simply an enormous blimp and therefore subject to all of the handling issues with true airships. Airlander, as outlined above, works differently. It is actually heavier than air and is shaped so that it can be operated in similar conditions to the limits for commercial airliners (40mph crosswind) and maybe past that due to lack of runway. HAV have also thought about ground handling. Under each side of the envelope (split in two halves) visible on the picture above are the two inflatable landing pads. These can either act like hovercraft… Read more »
I wish HAV well, and I have faith in airships. However, I think you may need to do some more research into Airship Industries and their Skyships – especially the $18Billon US Navy defence contract where they teamed up with Westinghouse for a big AWCS system. T The Skyship series were not “blimps.” (Blimp = non-steerable balloon). The Skyships were dirigibles. Were state of the art at the time. 10-years ahead of Boeing and Goodyear. Had the worlds largest kevlar structure and used modern materials for the envelope which was filled with helium. State of the art avionics inc. military… Read more »
…that should read AWACS and of course the Skyships all had vectored thrust.
Not sure about how easy turning into the wind and trying to do dipping sonar would be for a 90m airship, though winch capacity for the dipper would likely be extravagant.
Yes, small island bases would be ideal for Airlander in the AEW and surveillance roles. Less so Akrotiri given the regular visits by aircraft with similar capability but the Falklands would certainly benefit from their own capacity for AEW and long-range surveillance.
Yes, the sonobuoy capacity on Airlander would be frankly extravagant. DaveyB has suggested that an Airlander 50 could carry a significant number of the new 11m MCM boats, providing them most mobile minesweeping/ASW force on Earth. It would only really be useful in the littoral but the transit speed would more thanake up for that
If you think what I have written is “Taking the time” then try a conversation with daveyB!
Anyway, I do like the idea of the “reverse aircraft carrier”, if only for the novelty factor.
I can see passengers ending up in Scandinavia.
That’s fine. The Shetland Islands want to be part of Scandinavia.
Not sure why this is pitched for Scotland here. Surely it’s an excellent HS2 replacement: London to Birmingham. Fifty Airlander 10s, one leaving every five minutes, similar time to conventional train (about eighty mins), tiny infrastructure, green, no nimbys. Cost less than £3bn. Leeds-Manchester-Manchester Airport looks attractive too.
If HAV can get the speed up (and I think they can), it becomes an even better proposition.
Excellent idea. But how can the tories fund spare luxery yachts for their rich mates without HS2?
I love that Airlander is out there – doing something different.
With airheads ruling over us, why not!
Blimps are awesome. Hope someone will make them work.