HAV proposes Airlander production moves to Yorkshire

The company behind the world's longest aircraft said it proposes to go into production at a new site.

Hybrid Air Vehicles (HAV) said it hoped Airlander 10 would be built in South Yorkshire, while the firm's headquarters would remain in Bedford.

Since its move from its former site at Cardington airfield in 2018, it has been looking for a manufacturing base.

Nick Allman, from HAV, said it had a "bright future" and had identified "three customers".

The craft, when built, will be about 320ft (98m) long.

Its previous prototype, which was 302ft (92m) long and cost £32m, carried out six successful test flights between 2016 and 2017, before being retired after breaking its moorings and self-deflating in November 2017.

Mr Allman, HAV's chief operating officer, said it had worked with the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority (SYMCA), Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council, and other stakeholders on the proposed move.

The exact location, or when work could start at the new site, has not been revealed.

"We've spent a few years really focusing on how how we're going to make the company significantly larger and build an aircraft on a scale that hasn't been seen for years, or ever, in terms of hybrid aircraft," said Mr Allman.

Mr Allman said the company had looked around Bedford and the rest of the country and it had now "worked out a place that looks really suitable".

"We see a very bright future. We need a really solid plan and we need to deliver that and that's what we're working really hard to do," he said.

The engineering and management team would remain in Bedford with the production and testing moving to South Yorkshire.

HAV said it was working with customers all over world and "the first three aircraft - we have the customers identified", Mr Allman confirmed.

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