H2020 supports airship project with €2.5m

Hybrid Air Vehicles has been awarded significant funding from Horizon 2020 to further its development of the ‘Airlander’ hybrid air vehicle.

Funding worth €2.5m will be directed towards helping create a regulatory framework to allow this type of vehicle to be used in Europe. In particular, there will be a focus on receiving certification from the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) for hybrid airships and transferring the technology to civil from military use, for which the Airlander was originally built. Such steps will be undertaken by the Airlander Civil Exploitation Project.

Currently under development, the Airlander is considered particularly efficient compared to current, standard aircraft and is designed by Hybrid Air Vehicles. A new form of aircraft, the airship’s advantages include 33% lower fuel burn and reduced reliance on infrastructure and intermodal transport. Airlander also incorporates an amphibious landing gear technology that can be used across multiple terrains as well as inert lifting gas and vectored thrust. A full scale prototype took to the skies for the first time in 2012 in the USA.

The financing from Horizon 2020 is drawn from the ‘Smart, green and integrated transport’ Societal Challenge. Innovate UK has also provided £2.5m (~€3.5m) in funding to the project, in addition to money from other private sector companies and UK universities. Hybrid Air Vehicles is also raising money on the crowdfunding platform ‘Crowdcube’, where it has a target of £2m.