The World's Largest Aircraft Maiden Flight

[IanHenry]

The title says it all really, it took to the air yesterday. See this page for the video:

http://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/worlds-largest-aircraft-the-airlander-makes-maiden-flight-in-uk/ar-BBvL0rK?li=AAdeCd7&ocid=spartandhp


Ian

[sixstrings5859]

Looks like a flying butt. LOL!

[IanHenry]

Looks like a subsequent flight didn't go as planned!
http://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/airlander-10-the-worlds-largest-aircraft-crashes-as-it-attempts-to-take-to-the-sky/ar-BBvZxuX?li=AA59G2&ocid=spartandhp


Ian

[n4gix]

I wouldn't call that a "crash" at all. It's more like an uncontrolled nose first soft landing. It doesn't appear that any damage occurred. :encouragement:

[Tom Clayton]

There was damage to the flight deck and from one photo, it looked like damage to the infrastructure leading to the right-front engine. I'll have to see if I can find those.

Edit: https://londonpress.org/2016/08/24/the-worlds-longest-aircraft-airlander-crash-landed-england-on-a-test-flight/

[n4gix]

Oh, I see there was some very minor damage to the forward section of the cockpit. Still, it could have been much worse. Probably more embarrassing than anything else.

[Tom Clayton]

Probably!

The developers were very quick to point out that there were no injuries. They say that when you're in a crash, it seems like everything happens in slow motion. In this case, how much slower could it get!?