The world's largest aircraft has taken to the skies for its first successful UK flight since being revamped in the UK.
 
The 302ft-long (92-metre) Airlander 10 - part plane, part helicopter, part airship - loomed overhead at Cardington airfield in Bedfordshire as the sun started to set on Wednesday evening.
 
The Airlander can reach heights of 16,000 feet, travel up to 90 miles per hour, and stay airborne for two weeks.
 
These capabilities would make it ideal for surveillance, and the US military had considered using it for that purpose in Afghanistan.
 
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In the end, they cancelled this project in 2013.
 
However, the Airlander was continued by HAV (Hybrid Air Vehicles) in the UK, where the MoD may want to use it for coastal surveillance because it uses less fuel than a plane, and can carry more than conventional airships.
 
The first flight lasted for 30 minutes as it made one lap of the airfield at RAF Cardington (where the first British airships were made during the First World War).
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It is about 50ft (15 metres) longer than the biggest passenger jets, but its four engines appeared noticeably quieter than a plane or helicopter as it took to the skies.
 
Mr McGlennan, who is not a pilot but has practised flying the craft on a simulator, said it was "very simple" to manoeuvre. He said: 
"It's a very stable, benign aircraft that responds very gently in flight, we expect it to be an unusually calm flight experience."
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HAV also hopes the Airlander will eventually be adapted to transport 50 tonnes of freight.
Quelle: Forces TV