An aircraft part funded by Iron Maiden frontman Bruce Dickinson has crashed on its second flight.
The Airlander 10 was damaged when it took a nosedive during a flight from Cardington Airfield in Bedfordshire, UK. Billed as the world’s longest aircraft, the £25 million aircraft sustained damage to its cockpit in the crash at around 11am GMT today.
Aircraft enthusiast Dickinson announced last year that he was investing £250,000 in the manufacture of the Airlander 10 – which is described as part plane, part airship. It measures in at 302-feet long and can stay airborne for five days.
HAV, the craft’s developer, tells the BBC all the crew are “safe and well”.
A spokesman adds: “The flight went really well and the only issue was when it landed.”
HAV has denied claims from a witness that a line hanging down from the vehicle hit a telegraph pole about two fields away from its landing.
Dickinson previously said the Airlander 10 could be used as a hospital in Africa or a “global conveyor belt.”
He added: “With these vehicles, you could drop off a 20-ton slab of water that is clean, drinkable, to an African village. It’s astonishing what you can do that you just can’t do with anything else. Shit, you can do that with it? Wow, you can do that with it? Seriously fantastic.”
HAV hopes to be building 10 Airlanders a year by 2021.
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