Giant hybrid airship takes off for first time

The helium-filled aircraft has been nicknamed “flying bum”

The Airlander 10 makes its maiden flight at Cardington Airfield in Britain on Wednesday.

A blimp-shaped, helium-filled airship — considered the world’s largest aircraft — has flown for the first time with a short but historic jaunt over an airfield in central England.

Engines roaring, the 302-foot Airlander 10 rose slowly into the air on Wednesday from Cardington airfield, 73 kilometres 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.

The stately aircraft performed a circuit of the area watched by hundreds of local people who had parked their cars around the perimeter of the airfield before touching down about half an hour later as dusk fell.

The Airlander is designed to use less fuel than a plane, but carry heavier loads than conventional airships. Its developer, Hybrid Air Vehicles, says it can reach 16,000 feet, travel at up to 148 kmph and stay aloft for up to two weeks.

“It’s a great British innovation,” said chief executive Stephen McGlennan. “It’s a combination of an aircraft that has parts of normal fixed-wing aircraft, it’s got helicopter, it’s got airship.”

The aircraft was initially developed for the U.S. military. The U.S. blimp program was scrapped in 2013 and since then Hybrid Air Vehicles, a small British aviation firm that dreams of ushering in a new era for airships, has sought funding from government agencies and individual donors.

The vast aircraft is based at Cardington, where the first British airships were built during and after World War I. That program was abandoned after a 1930 crash that killed almost 50 people.