Aircraft part funded by Iron Maiden frontman Bruce Dickinson sustained
damage to its cockpit
An aircraft part funded by Iron
Maiden frontman Bruce Dickinson has crashed on its second flight.
The Airlander 10 was damaged when it
took a nosedive during a flight from Cardington Airfield in Bedfordshire, UK.
Billed as the world's longest aircraft, the £25 million aircraft sustained
damage to its cockpit in the crash at around 11am GMT today.
Aircraft enthusiast Dickinson
announced last year that he was investing £250,000 in the manufacture of the
Airlander 10 – which is described as part plane, part airship. It measures in
at 302-feet long and can stay airborne for five days.
HAV, the craft's developer, tells
the BBC all the crew are "safe and well".
A spokesman adds: "The flight
went really well and the only issue was when it landed."
HAV has denied claims from a witness
that a line hanging down from the vehicle hit a telegraph pole about two fields
away from its landing.
Dickinson previously said the
Airlander 10 could be used as a hospital in Africa or a "global conveyor
belt."
He added: "With these vehicles,
you could drop off a 20-ton slab of water that is clean, drinkable, to an
African village. It’s astonishing what you can do that you just can’t do with
anything else. Shit, you can do that with it? Wow, you can do that with it?
Seriously fantastic."
Credits: teamrock.com
