Photo: Hybrid Air Vehicles
UK-based airship firm Hybrid Air Vehicles Ltd (HAV) will establish a subsidiary in the US as it looks to meet growing demand from a range of sectors, including cargo.
HAV USA will be led by John Schumacher, who previously served as a naval officer and led NASA’s work on a new vision for US space exploration as well as working to strengthen US missile and space capabilities.
The company said the move would position HAV closer to its customers in the region, in particular the US Government, aerospace primes, as well as commercial passenger and cargo transporters.
HAV chief executive Tom Grundy said: “Establishing a presence in the US marks a new chapter in our international journey. We’re excited to bring our vision to new audiences and forge deeper partnerships across borders.”
Schumacher added: “Airlander brings to the US an aircraft whose roots and future are British and American – it embodies an unsurpassed combination of trans-Atlantic aerospace innovation. Airlander will provide capabilities vital to US national security and commerce.”
HAV is in the final stages of planning for the production of Airlander 10, its first commercial aircraft.
The airship has a modular payload design that is capable of transporting over 100 passengers, a 10-ton payload of freight, or alternatively providing surveillance, reconnaissance and communications for national security, commercial, or disaster response.
“The Airlander design scales easily into larger variants that could carry up to 200 tons over long distances,” HAV said in a press release. “Airlander, particularly larger variants, is well suited to providing logistics to remote or disaster response areas globally because of the aircraft’s unique ability to land on any relatively flat surface with no need for prepared runways.”
Cargo is playing a key role in the development of the airships. Earlier this year, HAV announced that Kuehne+Nagel had joined its Airlander Futures Network to look specifically at Airlander’s potential to fill the gap between “fast, carbon-intensive airfreight and cheap but slow surface transport”.
And last year, in an interview with Air Cargo News, HAV commercial business development director George Land said cargo is playing an increasingly important role in the future development of the airship market
