Airlander breaks up at mooring.

[Linedog]

Airlander 10 'breaks in two' and collapses at Cardington

Airlander 10 'breaks in two' and collapses at Cardington - BBC News (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-42037832)

[G-CPTN]

Probably the best solution.
I don't think that it was 'going anywhere'.

Insurance?

I believe that the project was due to vacate the Cardington premises.

[G-CPTN]

Hybrid Air Vehicles announce move from Cardington (http://www.airshipsonline.com/news/2017/HAV_Move_Announcement.htm).

[fantom]

The end is nigh, perhaps.

[cats_five]

IMHO the end has been nigh for some time following the problems on it's test flights.

[interestedparty636]

from HybridAirVehicles facebook page:

Today there was an incident with the Airlander aircraft at Cardington airfield. The aircraft was not flying at the time of the incident. Our initial assessment is that the aircraft broke free from its mooring mast for reasons that will be investigated. The aircraft has a safety system which operates automatically in circumstances of the aircraft breaking free of its mast, and is designed to rip open the hull and deflate the aircraft. This is a safety feature to ensure our aircraft minimises any potential damage to its surroundings in these circumstances. The aircraft is now deflated and secure on the edge of the airfield. The fuel and helium inside the Airlander have been made safe.

[JOE-FBS]

Company statement:

Today there was an incident with the Airlander aircraft at Cardington airfield. The aircraft was not flying at the time of the incident. Our initial assessment is that the aircraft broke free from its mooring mast for reasons that will be investigated. The aircraft has a safety system which operates automatically in circumstances of the aircraft breaking free of its mast, and is designed to rip open the hull and deflate the aircraft. This is a safety feature to ensure our aircraft minimises any potential damage to its surroundings in these circumstances. The aircraft is now deflated and secure on the edge of the airfield. The fuel and helium inside the Airlander have been made safe.
A member of HAV staff sustained minor injuries and was taken to hospital for assessment as a precaution. She has since been discharged. A separate member of staff also sustained minor injuries while dealing with the aftermath of the incident.
A number of local roads and a local footpath were temporarily closed off by Bedfordshire Police and we apologise for any inconvenience this has caused local residents.
We are testing a brand new type of aircraft and incidents of this nature can occur during this phase of development. We will assess the cause of the incident and the extent of repairs needed to the aircraft in the next few weeks.

[cappt]

Stick a fork in it.

[4468]

Bugger!

I saw it flying yesterday, and thought it looked magnificent!

Quite reminded me of International Rescue's Thunderbird 2!😀

[mothminor]

The aircraft has a safety system which operates automatically in circumstances of the aircraft breaking free of its mast, and is designed to rip open the hull and deflate the aircraft. This is a safety feature to ensure our aircraft minimises any potential damage to its surroundings in these circumstances. The aircraft is now deflated and secure on the edge of the airfield. The fuel and helium inside the Airlander have been made safe.


Potential Customers will no doubt be pleased to see it ready to go again within the hour :)

[fantom]

That re-defines the dictionary definition of an optimist.

[PDR1]

What aspect of helium needs to be "made safe"?

[Feathers McGraw]

I saw it collapsed as I drove along the A600 this morning, I must confess that I wasn't overly surprised.

Test flights = 6
Crashes = 1
Collapses = 1

Doesn't have the smell of success does it?

[eppy]

I doubt the damage is as bad as it looks. If the statement from Airlander is correct (big if I know) then this was a controlled, pyrotechnically activited deflation system that automatically activated upon the aircraft becoming loose from its moornings, tearing the fabric hull in specific places to ensure immediate deflation.

I would assume that this safety system was designed to minimise or eliminate structural damage to the aircraft, and doubt very much that it "split into two" as reported by news media.

If the safety system has worked as designed, then I would expect the straight forward fabric repairs required to be completed in a few weeks at minimal cost.

She should be flying again soon.

[Kulverstukas]

They need Elon Musk to get into the air market

[G-CPTN]

It would be interesting to learn just what are the initiators for an emergency deflation.
Initial reports suggested that it had collided with a tree.

As far as 'making safe' the helium - how do you get it back into the 'storage' tanks?

In the 1970s when the Goodyear airship Europa was built and based at Cardington:-
The parts for Europa were assembled in shed number 2, and the completed ship was first moved out of the shed on 8th March 1972 when the first flight was made.
Unfortunately, the successful first flight was marred shortly afterwards when on the 19th April, the ship tore away from it's mast, and the envelope deflated.
The ship and envelope came to rest in a tree in the grounds of a Cotton End house.

[oldchina]

It's now a limp blimp

[A Squared]

IMHO the end has been nigh for some time following the problems on it's test flights.

The end has been nigh since about the 1930's

[abgd]

Won't the helium cost a fortune? I looked into building a pedal powered blimp to lift about 120kg and we were talking in the region of 10k.

[G0ULI]

Surely the weather conditions over the last 24 hours have been extremely benign for the time of year. That doesn't inspire confidence in the mooring system or the Airlander 10. What if the deflation system deployed at altitude?

[PaxBritannica]

Speaking as SLF, it's a little worrying to wonder what would happen to us passengers if the self-prick (as it were) system kicked in before we'd got out. Would we just be spilled out into the sky along with the luggage?

[4468]

What if the deflation system deployed at altitude?
One presumes it’s unlikely to break away from it’s moorings ‘at altitude’???

[oscarisapc]

I was sorry to see that this had happened. Can anyone explain the mechanism for deflating and yet retaining the helium? Aka "making it safe". Since helium cannot be manufactured and has to be mined from finite resources, there will be a significant impact from wasting a football pitch cubed worth of helium into the atmosphere unless somehow there is a pressurizing system which is part of the "making safe" procedure. This is no doubt possible but unlikely in the event of an emergency deflation. I'd be happy to be reassured.

[TURIN]

Interesting article here on the availability and production of Helium.

http://www.madehow.com/Volume-4/Helium.html

It's a bit out of date as it states we should have run out of the stuff two years ago!

Artificial manufacture is possible but it's expensive.

[Ambient Sheep]

Link please?

And yes, I remember reading a very cross New Scientist editorial about fifteen years ago that berated the use of helium in party balloons etc., given that the world is running out of it and it's crucially needed for things such as MRI machines and other gadgets that rely on superconductivity.

So when I first read about this event, my first thought was also "what a colossal waste of all that helium".

[Ambient Sheep]

One presumes it’s unlikely to break away from it’s moorings ‘at altitude’???

No, but there is such a thing in the world as "accidental deployment" and, in the unlikely event that I were to be travelling in one of these things, this would now concern me.

[Cazalet33]

Fourteen months:
One flight;
Two crashes.

Not quite ready for a stock market flotation, methinks.

Has Allianz computed the new insurance premium yet?

Does there ever come a point when the CAA airworthiness people say "Enough is enough. Stop it!"?

[B737C525]

What a shame. Two disasters during a flight test programme. Sorry to say, but this must be the end of the road for the project. Perhaps someone will harvest some useful learning, whether about buoyancy, flight test, risk management, business, or listening more intently to history lessons...

The efficacy of oversight from the CAA is one aspect; of course, a thorough investigation into the crash might have uncovered weaknesses there, if one had taken place.

[A Squared]

Can anyone explain the mechanism for deflating and yet retaining the helium? Aka "making it safe".

Obviously, if the system tears open the envelope to make the blimp non-buoyant, then helium will be lost. My speculation is that making it safe is reference to compressed helium contained in pressure vessels as a part of on-board buoyancy controls. Anyone know if such exist on the Airlander?

[Interested Passenger]

https://scontent.fltn1-2.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/23722433_10155956245568024_2445384018280015718_n.jpg?oh=e300 a7fc583a37b70a6b41ca2a97d984&oe=5AA1786F

If the reports of it committing suicide to prevent it being a danger to the local area, or other air traffic are correct, that's great, but it really doesn't look like a realistic solution.

[A Squared]

Perhaps someone will harvest some useful learning, whether about buoyancy, flight test, risk management, business, or listening more intently to history lessons...


Good luck with that. People are still trying to invent flying cars despite a half century or so of it having been demonstrated that:

Yes, it is technologically possible.
No, it doesn't make a very good airplane.
No, it doesn't make a very good car.
No, there's not much practical application.
No, it's not a commercially viable device.

[barry lloyd]

Link please?

And yes, I remember reading a very cross New Scientist editorial about fifteen years ago that berated the use of helium in party balloons etc., given that the world is running out of it and it's crucially needed for things such as MRI machines and other gadgets that rely on superconductivity.

So when I first read about this event, my first thought was also "what a colossal waste of all that helium".

on the other hand...

https://newatlas.com/helium-source-natural-gas-fields/39038/

[Super VC-10]

Once they crack nuclear fusion, there'll be plenty of helium.

[Cazalet33]

It's customary for an elegant aircraft's shape to be incorporated into a logo or emblematic image.

The above image shows this anachronistic waste of money to look like a splodge of tuberculotic phlegm.

At first, images of the wretched thing made it look like an arse.

Then they took it outdoors and really made an arse of it.

[Feathers McGraw]

ITYM fusion...

[brakedwell]

It's now a limp blimp

Or a flaccid failure

[Cazalet33]

Once they crack nuclear fission, there'll be plenty of helium.

Ho ho ho. I see what you did there.

https://media.treehugger.com/assets/images/2016/08/flying-bum.jpg.650x0_q70_crop-smart.jpg

[Andrewgr2]

The gas inside airlander is at very low pressure. There are helium bags and air bags. As the helium bags inflate at altitude the air is let out to keep the outer balloon from bursting. On descending air is pumped into the air bags to keep the ballo

[Andrewgr2]

... balloon rigid. I’m sure emergency deflation would require venting most, of not alll of the helium and air. I m sure there is no way of compressing it. Imagine the size and weight of the cylinders! I seem to recall from my visit that the cost of the helium to fill it is about £250,000. They reckoned to replace about 10% each year. 😢 I guess they may be covered by insurance.

[TURIN]

For all of the keyboard warriors questioning the automatic deflation.

It is a regulatory requirement.

Federal Register :: Airworthiness Criteria: Airship Design Criteria for ...
https://www.federalregister.gov/.../airworthiness-criteria-airship-design-criteria-for-ze...
While the notice was not a notice of a regulatory change or requirement, the FAA is ... LFLS Section 881 (f) and ADC paragraph 4.43 (f)(g) Emergency Deflation .... if the airship tears apart behind the nose section and departs the mooring mast.

[PDR1]

For all of the keyboard warriors questioning the automatic deflation.

It is a regulatory requirement.

"The page you were looking for doesn't exist."

Of course the relevance of an FAA requirement for a british-registered airship under test in the UK is left as an exercise for the reader...

PDR

[Ambient Sheep]

on the other hand...

https://newatlas.com/helium-source-natural-gas-fields/39038/

Phew, thank you for that. We're not completely stuffed just yet, then.

Thanks also to TURIN for belatedly adding his link; most interesting to read about the extraction and storage process.

[Jhieminga]

Of course the relevance of an FAA requirement for a british-registered airship under test in the UK is left as an exercise for the reader...
The current version of EU 748/2012 does not contain any regulations about the design of airships, other than those of less than 1000 m^3 (for gas airships). But I may have overlooked something of course. The FAA does have a framework in place for certifying an airship of this size, of interest is that these regulations are based on the Transport Airship Airworthiness Requirements developed in Europe. With only a small number of airships of this size around, I wouldn't be surprised if any European or US projects are all using the same requirements, and with the FAA ones being based on the EU ones, they will most likely say the same thing about auto-deflation.

https://www.faa.gov/aircraft/air_cert/design_approvals/airships/airships_regs/
Transport Airship Requirements | The Airship Association (http://www.airship-association.org/cms/node/111)

[cwatters]

Airlander | The Lyncean Group of San Diego (http://www.lynceans.org/tag/airlander/)

In Airlander 10, helium lift is controlled much like in a conventional blimp, using multiple ballonets located fore and aft in each of the hulls. A ballonet is a gas volume that can be inflated with air inside the main helium volume of the airship’s hull. Inflating a ballonet with air increases the mass of the airship and compresses the helium into a smaller volume, with the net result of decreasing buoyant lift. Inflating only the fore or aft ballonet will make the bow or stern of the airship heavier and change the pitch of the airship. These operating principles are shown in the following diagrams of a blimp with two ballonets shown in blue.

http://www.lynceans.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Blimp-ballonet-238x300.jpg

[Lantern10]

What if animals were like Airlander. Go on have a laugh.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=56&v=yltlJEdSAHw

[G-CPTN]

"We have paused for the time being collecting any payments in respect of the current fundraising and will be back in touch once we have determined our best course of action."
The damage assessment is expected to take "weeks" according to a spokesman.

From:- Airlander 10 'will be rebuilt' after collapsing at airfield (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-42052683).

[Krystal n chips]

The lighter side (sorry )

It was possibly a rather unfortunate piece of scheduling that, on the day of the incident, the "Yesterday" channel chose to repeat an episode dedicated to the development and success of the Airlander.

Personally, I hope the venture succeeds. Feel free to show any innovative developments in aviation that have been flawless from the onset.

[Pearly White]

... balloon rigid. I’m sure emergency deflation would require venting most, of not alll of the helium and air. I m sure there is no way of compressing it. Imagine the size and weight of the cylinders! I seem to recall from my visit that the cost of the helium to fill it is about £250,000. They reckoned to replace about 10% each year. 😢 I guess they may be covered by insurance.How much does it cost to fill an A380 with JetA1?

[beamender99]

The world's longest aircraft detached from its moorings and collapsed after a locking mechanism was not inserted correctly, a report has said.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-44798529

[gordon field]

Hybrid Air Vehicles Ltd are now overdue in filing their company accounts. I wouldn't have thought that they had made many sales or purchases this last year so perhaps they are thinking how best to issue a positive statement about the future. I still think that it is not an investment for orphans or widows.