Posted on 08/17/2016 3:36:00 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
LONDON (AP) — A blimp-shaped, helium-filled airship considered the world's largest aircraft flew for the first time Wednesday with a short but historic jaunt over an airfield in central England.
Engines roaring, the 302-foot (92-meter) Airlander 10 rose slowly into the air from Cardington airfield, 45 miles (73 kilometers) north of London.
A hybrid of blimp, helicopter and airplane, it can stay aloft for days at a time and has been nicknamed the "flying bum" because of its bulbous front end.
(Excerpt) Read more at yahoo.com ...
Holy Cow, looks like my mother in law’s rear end...
OMG that thing is so ugly and funny looking. lol
It would appear that no one can see to the sides of it.
Only down.
Feh.. whats the point ?
Also, still quite a bit smaller than the Hindenburg.
My ancient mother (age 98) remembers seeing the Graf Zeppelin when she was a girl in New Jersey. Can’t imagine what that must have looked like.
Speed 150km per hour?
Wow! That’s all of 93 Miles per hour!
They better hope these things do better in foul weather than they did the last time they tried this.
This is helium correct, NOT Hydrogen, which made the Hindenburg burn so quickly...
Might be better this time around...
Kristol needs to stop breathing in the ballast for this airship.
A great ASW platform.
Just to point it out. That first pic you posted is another something or a different time. No other pics show round fans on the bottom.
Just to remark to all the snarks: this idea has been going on for a long time. My dad helped some in some early airship development for mil purposes.
There are always advantages. They don’t try this without some kind of good reason.
Hell of a target.
Google USS Akron and USS Macon. They were also Helium filled but were unable to survive foul weather. After the USS Akron and USS Macon crashed in foul weather and lost their entire crews, the USS Los Angeles was grounded and never flew again.
Today’s radar and electronics would definitely help avoid bad weather. Flying it into a battlefield under small arms fire sounds pretty exciting though.
good catch. ;-) futuristic ..
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.