The gigantic helium filled airship named Airlander 10 spent 20 minutes in the air, after months of preparatory flights and landed safely at Cardington, north of London. Partly a plane, part helicopter, the aircraft is 92 meters long, which is some 15 meters longer than the largest passenger aircraft.

The Airlander 10 that was made by a British company for hybrid vehicles, is powered by four hybrid engines and no internal structure. It maintains its shape thanks to the pressure coming from a total of 38,000 cubic meters of helium. The balloon was originally designed for the purposes of the US military, but the project was halted because of the high costs.

Then, the British company Hybrid Air Vehicles managed to obtain donations and funds from the European Union and the UK government, but also from two other companies for funding.

The Airlander 10 has a substantially less carbon-emissions from other means of air traffic and the team that participated in its making wishes for the aircraft to be used for commercial purposes. It could transmit communications equipment or other cargo, to participate in the actions of search and rescue and to do surveillance for the military. The Airlander 10 does not need a runway to take off, which means it can be used on snow, ice, on open water or in the desert.

This Airlander 10 can remain airborne for up to five days if there are people in it, and more than two weeks, if there is no crew. Also it can carry a load of 10 tons flying at a top speed of 146 mph. it was built with the intention to use less fuel than a commercial airplane, but able to carry heavier loads than the ones on conventional airships. Pretty amazing, right?!

What do you think of this extraordinary creation?

Check out the first flight of this amazing aircraft in the video below.