Interest in airships for passengers 'growing'

Safe movement of workers offshore under increased scrutiny

The company behind plans to develop an extremely large commercial airship design has said it is attracting increasing interest in its capabilities as a passenger aircraft.

Hybrid Air Vehicles (HAV) made the comments as MPs called for a public enquiry into helicopter safety, and whether commercial pressure from offshore oil and gas companies was affecting it. In advance of the Farnborough International Airshow, where the company is expected to announce a number of breakthroughs in funding, HAV chief executive Stephen McGlennan revealed that there was an “increased focus” on the capabilities of the company's airship designs to transport people. “In terms of the attractiveness of the airship, cost, range and obviously capacity play a part – as well as safety for the offshore movement of people. We are seeing increasing interest in other passenger applications.”

The airship design, capable of carrying a payload of 60,000 kg, is based on a hybrid military airship developed by Northrop Grumman and Hybrid Air Vehicles and subsequently bought back from the US defence firm. The aim is to get the prototype, which is being hangared at Cardington airfield in Bedfordshire, back flying by the end of the year. The ultimate commercial design, the Airlander, would begin manufacture in 2016.

McGlennan said HAV was “increasing its level of activity”. He added that the company's biggest commercial arrangements yet were expected to be announced shortly but would probably not be finalised in time for the airshow.

The Transport Select Committee also want a full examination into the role of the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) in helicopter safety. The recommendations are contained in a report which follows the 2013 crash of a Super Puma helicopter near Sumburgh Airport in Shetland, which killed four passengers. The accident was the fourth of its kind in five years.

Committee chairwoman Louise Ellman said this week: “Despite work by the CAA, serious questions remain unanswered about offshore helicopter safety in the competitive commercial environment of the North Sea.”