Airships

[nightstalker]

Some of you might be Interested but some not, well I used to up till sept 2013 live in Bedford right in front of the Famous Cardington Sheds now moved to Northamptonshire.
This is where uk had built 2 of the largest Airships in the Uk the R100 & R101, these sheds are massive and been used for many films like Batman Begins to the new Batman film the Dark Knight Rises. even James bond films and Star Wars ect also built many more smaller Airships.


Well us Airship Buffs have been hoping one day airships will return in mass. Well the dream has come true, A Company called Hybrid Air Vehicles Ltd (HAV) Based at Crainfield Bedfordshire have been developing a Hybrid Airship for many years.

They made a radio controlled model and it flew perfect and the United states army want it and bought the full size.

So they did and test flew it and flew perfect but due to Pentagon cut backs they scrapped the testing and Hybrid Air Vehicles Ltd (HAV) bought her and she was packed up and shipped to the uk where she turned up 18th December at Cardington sheds in Bedfordshire.

This colossal move involved 15 large containers, containing 70 tonnes of equipment. The largest container was a specially constructed 25m long x 4.5m wide x 3m high wide box containing the deflated hull envelope. It took four days and the use of a 50- and 100-tonne crane to unload this equipment.

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Now some of you might think ok so its just an airship so what!!

Well its not just an Airship is the Largest flying Aircraft to be flying in the world she is 91 m (300 ft) long, 34 m (113 ft) wide and 26 m (85 ft) high

She will be Air inflated very soon and hoping in the summer she will get full cert to fly, so the UK will again dominate the skys again with the Largest Aircraft in the world.

Hybrid Air Vehicles are an innovative new technology that combines the best of the characteristics of fixed wing aircraft and helicopters with lighter-than-air technology to create a new breed of hyper-efficient aircraft, with a significantly lower carbon footprint than other forms of air transport.

The HAV304 is designed to stay airborne for up to three weeks at a time to fulfil a wide range of communication and survey roles, and this will lead to the development of the Airlander 50, which will transport 50 tonnes of freight and burns around a quarter the amount of fuel of a typical aeroplane doing the same job.

Hybrid air vehicles produce less noise, less pollution, a lower carbon footprint and have longer endurance and better cargo-carrying capacity than other aircraft. They can take off and land vertically and operate from a range of austere environments including water, desert, ice and fields.

Here are some pictures of her and il try and keep this post open with updates and the first uk flights

Cardington Sheds, Shed 1 being Restored

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This is the Model of HAV304 all radio controlled

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The Test flight of the model

[url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mu2glpmRXIs]Hybrid Air Vehicles Prototype Airship in Flight - YouTube[/url]

HAV304 full size

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Full nose up test

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First Test flight

[video=youtube;z72GPZ3MI2M]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z72GPZ3MI2M[/video]

[video=youtube;pOIEO6h1fy0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOIEO6h1fy0[/video]


Thanks for reading

[buzzbird]

Having read your post, they were trialling Goodyear airships there as recently as last year. I believe they built two, one crashed (in Germany, I think) killing the pilot. But the other one is still going strong, so airships aren't quite dead.

What's interesting is something similar to the Hybrid Vehicle you show was announced (again in Germany) about a decade ago. A huge hangar was built for it, and then funding for the project dried up. The huge hangar is now an indoor watersports centre.

I certainly can't wait to get some shots of the behemoth if it does get to roam the skies.

[pgkevet]

My old man was stationed at RAF Cardington for 6/7 yrs when i was a kid and many a time went to see him in his office in the hangar. I knew one of the r101 survivors whose house was across the way from our Prefab in the mid 50's when we first moved there.. but for the life of me I can't remember his name. He was reticent to talk about the crash itself though - just his gardening.

Apart from goodyear type blimps for advertsiing and photo platforms the history of airships doesn't inspire me to think this will be anything but yet another concept and failure much as i wish otherwise

[Ismithies]

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Tahoma, Calibri, Geneva, sans-serif]Interesting post. Not long ago I'd read about the [URL="http://www.airships.net/hindenburg"]Hindenburg[/URL] disaster at Lakehurst and was amazed to learn just how many flights had actually taken place before the disaster, extract from web site "New Jersey on May 6, 1937 brought an abrupt end to the age of the rigid airship. After more than 30 years of passenger travel on German commercial zeppelins (during which tens of thousands of passengers flew over a million miles on more than 2,000 flights without a single injury) the era of the passenger zeppelin came to an end in a few fiery minutes."
Previous air ships had internal passenger decks sleeping up to fifty persons, with dining room, lounge including mini grand piano, bar and incredibly a smoking room. Web site shows some interesting internal photos.

With these new hybrid air ships I wonder if passengers travel inside the ship itself or suspended below.

Ian



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[nightstalker]

[QUOTE=buzzbird;1095201]Having read your post, they were trialling Goodyear airships there as recently as last year. I believe they built two, one crashed (in Germany, I think) killing the pilot. But the other one is still going strong, so airships aren't quite dead.

What's interesting is something similar to the Hybrid Vehicle you show was announced (again in Germany) about a decade ago. A huge hangar was built for it, and then funding for the project dried up. The huge hangar is now an indoor watersports centre.

I certainly can't wait to get some shots of the behemoth if it does get to roam the skies.[/QUOTE]

Yes you are correct about the good year airship but what we all wanted to see was these being made again at cardington. The good years was only stored there and have since been deflated and no longer in the UK. Last time used was for the Olympics 2012.

But it has been almost 10 years if not more since a airship was built at cardington.

The HAV304 was only going to be used for military use for the yanks but now the brits have her back she can be used for the purpose they really designed her for.

[Mark_T]

[QUOTE=pgkevet;1095208]Apart from goodyear type blimps for advertsiing and photo platforms the history of airships doesn't inspire me to think this will be anything but yet another concept and failure much as i wish otherwise[/QUOTE]

I'm in much the same state of mind, I'd love for these to succeed where previous attempts have failed, but it is difficult to see that they will ever have a role beyond the specialized and limited scientific market.

They don't compete with current freight aircraft on cargo capacity or speed and they don't compete with ships on cargo capacity or cost leaving them in a place in the freight market without an obvious demand.

I'd still love them to succeed, I just can't see how ...

[Rich23]

Hi night stalker

I used to work up at those hangers during the filming of the batman films. I might have some pictures from inside hanger one before it was shut down for refurb. If memory serves me I think there were quite a few models of airships and a one man airship. I will go through my pictures and if I have them I will post them up for you.

Rich


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[nightstalker]

[QUOTE=Rich23;1095231]Hi night stalker

I used to work up at those hangers during the filming of the batman films. I might have some pictures from inside hanger one before it was shut down for refurb. If memory serves me I think there were quite a few models of airships and a one man airship. I will go through my pictures and if I have them I will post them up for you.

Rich


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD[/QUOTE]

Hi rich we may have even met as I was a extra on the batman film lol. There was a guy that flew his Rc heli on the airfield. Yes there was couple of models one was a high flyer that would fly around almost edge of space for telecommunications. But never went any further than the model.

[Rich23]

You had one of the better jobs on site. I was with MEMS supplying the generators for the films. I think we had 6/7 1000Kva generators on site for the lighting and workshops. The only time I was on site while they were actually filming was when they filmed the joker burning all the money in the second film. I was stood outside the hanger doors watching some people cut up a bat mobile with a jumping frame on it.

We also had a small generator powering the office/portacabin of hybrid air and they gave us a small tour when things were quiet. Very fascinating stuff.

Rich


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[Rich23]

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Found these two. Excuse the picture quality.

Rich

[ShaggyRS6]

My dad used to aways tell me about the training courses he went on at Cardington. He was always amazed by the size of the hangers.

[Rich23]

[QUOTE=ShaggyRS6;1095304]My dad used to aways tell me about the training courses he went on at Cardington. He was always amazed by the size of the hangers.[/QUOTE]

Hi Lee good to see your all settled and getting back into flying. They are huge inside and inside hanger 2 there is a permanent 12 story structure which is used to make sets. Its unreal the stuff they had inside for the film work.

Unfortunately I can't find the pics of the airships but found a load of pics from the batman sets.
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Sorry to go off topic. No more batman pic's but I will keep looking for the airship ones and post them up if I do find them.

Rich

[ShaggyRS6]

Great pictures :)

[pgkevet]

[QUOTE=Rich23;1095246][ATTACH=CONFIG]70218[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]70219[/ATTACH]

Found these two. Excuse the picture quality.

Rich[/QUOTE]

Classy urinal!