The world’s largest airship has just released images of its interior. And they are incredibly luxurious!
Is that a bird? Or an airplane? No, it’s a hybrid airship!
The world’s largest airship just revealed its interior at the Farnborough air show last week – and there are no words to describe how “quality” it is!
The interior of the airship was designed in collaboration with Design Q.
Nicknamed the “Flying Butt” for its butt-like shape, the Airlander 10 is an aeroplane-balloon-helicopter hybrid , built by the company Hybrid Air Vehicles (HAV). It costs up to 25 million pounds ($ 33 million), is 92 meters long – about 18 meters more than the Airbus A380, the world’s largest passenger plane at nearly 73 meters long.
HAV is expected to carry up to 19 passengers on a three-day cruise aboard the Airlander 10, and it looks like these wealthy guests will have an unexpectedly great experience onboard.
The interior of the balloon was designed in collaboration with Design Q, a UK-based design consultancy.
The Airlander 10 features luxurious bedrooms with en suite bathrooms, a “sky bar” and spacious seating areas.
“Sky bar” and spacious seating area.
The most interesting feature of the interior design is the glass floor, allowing passengers to enjoy the vast sky view from nearly 5km above sea level.
Private bathroom inside the airship.
Although larger than the A380, it is certainly not as fast: the Airlander’s top speed is only 147km/h compared to the A380’s continuous cruising speed of 901km/h.
However, the Airlander is not used to get there quickly. Instead, this luxurious airship is designed to relive the joys of flight as an experience rather than a means of transport.
Luxury bedroom.
Stephen McGlennan, CEO of HAV, said in a press release: “Airlander challenges people to rethink the skies – that’s the driving force behind everything we do.”
“Air travel has become so popular that people only care about getting from A to B as quickly as possible. What we’re aiming for here is how to make the journey fun.”
However, the flights of this world’s largest airship are not always smooth.
In 2016, the giant airship crashed into a telegraph pole and crashed into the ground on its second test flight.
In 2017, Airlander 10 crumbled before take-off less than 24 hours after a successful test flight. Two people suffered minor injuries.
A broken part of Airlander 10 is seen in Bedfordshire.
The giant airship has now completed six successful test flights, but it will need to complete a total of 200 incident-free hours in the skies before it is allowed to carry commercial passengers.