Iron Maiden's Bruce Dickinson helps launch zeppelin

A British manufacturer associated with Iron Maiden’s Bruce Dickinson is officially launching 10 hybrid airships after receiving its first order.

Hybrid Air Vehicles (HAV) has confirmed that European-based Air Nostrum Group has commissioned 10 Airlander airships for delivery from 2026.

Around 1,800 jobs could be created when HAV begins building the Airlander airships in South Yorkshire. The Airlander was developed at Cardington airfield in Bedfordshire.

HAV claims that Airlander airships will significantly reduce emissions by up to 90% when Air Nostrum starts short-haul flights in Spain.

Iron Maiden legend, qualified pilot and keen aviation enthusiast, Bruce Dickinson, is a shareholder in Hybrid Air Vehicles (HAV).

In 2014, he posed for photos with the world's largest aircraft, the Hybrid Air Vehicles Airlander 10, at its unveiling at Cardington Hanger:

Air Nostrum's president Carlos Bertomeu said the deal for the 10 floating vessels was signed as the airships would "drastically reduce emissions."

Explaining what Hybrid Air Vehicles are, the company write on their website: “A hybrid aircraft derives its lift from a combination of aerodynamic lift (like an aeroplane), lifting gases (like an airship) and vectored thrust (similar to a helicopter).”

They add: “Airlander generates up to 40% of its lift from aerodynamics by the passage of air over the hull and the remainder from buoyant lift from the helium.

“At lower speed and closer to the ground, vectoring engine power is used to provide additional lift and manoeuvrability for take-off, landing and ground handling.”

Bruce Dickinson penned the 18-minute epic ‘Empire of the Clouds’ for Iron Maiden’s 16th album ‘The Book of Souls’ on 2015, and it details the story of the ill-fated British R101 airship, which crashed in northern France on the 5th October 1930 during its maiden voyage.

48 of the 54 passengers died on board - a greater toll than the better-known Hindenburg disaster seven years later in New Jersey.

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