Hybrid Air Vehicles has developed an innovative low-carbon aircraft. Airlander can fly for weeks and take-off from land, water, or ice. The market has been independently validated at $50 billion and the company is supported by the UK Government. This British SME aims to lead the world in ‘lighter than air’ aviation. Join investors including PLC Chairmen, experienced business angels & investment professionals to prepare Airlander for take-off.
Our Vision
We believe in a new vision for air transport. That new vision is called Airlander. Hybrid Air Vehicles’ goal is to change the world of aviation through Airlander.
Airlander takes the best of aeroplanes, helicopters and airships and puts them together with the latest innovations in aerospace materials to create a truly exciting aircraft. The Airlander gets up to 40% of its lift from the aerodynamic wing shape of the aircraft, and 60% due to the helium fill – it is therefore inherently more cost and fuel efficient than other forms of air transport.
It uses the very latest high-tech fabrics to maintain its shape and based on our research HAV has a 2 to 3 year lead over our competition.
Airlander has flown before under a US Government programme, but is now being developed for commercial purposes, such as freight, remote access, aid distribution, advertising, surveillance, communications and luxury passenger transport.
Airlander aims to revolutionise transport and travel by:
We will focus initially on Airlander 10, which has a 10 tonne payload, and ultimately could produce a range of hybrid aircraft capable of carrying up to 1000 tonnes.
Strategy
Our strategy is to be the global leader in the design and manufacture of hybrid aircraft and to capture a major portion of the independently validated $50 billion market. Our near term objective is to fly our existing Airlander 10 aircraft and to demonstrate it to commercial and governmental customers around the world. Our planned programme of demonstrations should bring the Company to break-even and lead to aircraft sales. We have quotes for demonstration programmes totalling over $40m under consideration by engaged customers. We have undertaken a paid scoping study for a potential demonstration programme for the UK Ministry of Defence. We are working with Selex ES, part of the Finmeccanica Group, on this programme and to develop further trials and demonstration opportunities globally. Via another partner, OceanSky, we aim to demonstrate wind turbine blade movement for the Swedish Departments of Energy and Transport. There are many other demonstration proposals being developed and considered by customers. Our business plan is to use these demonstrations to sell six or more Airlander 10s per annum. This would generate revenues of £150 million per annum at a margin of more than 20%.
Our History
Hybrid Air Vehicles is the continuation of 40 years of innovation and investment in aircraft design, and can boast of numerous “firsts” in its history. Our 35 staff have over 200 years of experience in lighter-than-air. The original hybrid aircraft design was patented in 2001. A 13-metre scale demonstrator hybrid aircraft was built in 2002. In 2007 the company’s new Airlander concept was sufficiently well developed to focus its entire efforts on this entirely new approach which overcomes the limitations of traditional lighter-than-air technology. We currently own all the Intellectual Property of the Airlander, and hold numerous patents. In 2009 the USA’s Department of Defense launched its Long Endurance Multi-Intelligence Vehicle (“LEMV”) programme. In June 2010 the Company and Northrop Grumman won the contract, against competition including Lockheed Martin. More than $90 million (£60 million) was paid to HAV to design, manufacture and assemble the first of type Airlander 10. This programme allowed the Company to take its 45 feet long concept demonstrator and develop it to a full-sized, 302 feet long, prototype. This full-sized hybrid air vehicle flew successfully for the first time in August 2012. In February 2013, due to reasons including the US budget sequestration and a more rapid withdrawal from operations in Afghanistan, the LEMV programme was cancelled. In the summer of 2013, the US government offered the flight tested Airlander 10 for sale. The aircraft had been disassembled by the US Army and was exported at the Company’s expense to the UK.
The Company took delivery of the prototype Airlander 10 in late December 2013 and at the same time secured a lease on one of the two historic and purpose-built Cardington airship hangers near Bedford, England. This purpose-built facility has been the home of the UK’s airship industry for around 100 years and is currently undergoing a major refurbishment. The Company considers itself to be well placed to grow its business at this site and drive hi-tech job creation in the region through the reassembly and return to flight of Airlander 10 under EASA approval, when secured. The Company has active support from the Bedfordshire community and local government.
Market
The aviation market has been seeking alternatives to overcome the limitations of existing technologies. Helicopters are expensive to run, and are limited by their existing lift capacity and range. Aeroplanes don’t have an ability to fly at a wide range of speeds (which is useful for surveillance tasks), and typically need costly infrastructure at airports. Unmanned Air Vehicles have limited range, endurance and/or payload capability and many are constrained in their use by regulation. The operating performance and low cost of Airlander 10 means it can fulfil roles in surveillance, communications, advertising and filming, remote resupply, leisure & tourism. The airborne surveillance market (covering communications and other forms of survey, search and rescue, maritime patrol etc) is estimated to be worth $19.23 billion. The luxury tourism market is worth in excess of £2 billion. The annual cargo market has been calculated by Boeing to be 200 Billion Revenue-Tonne-Kilometers growing to over 500 biliion RTK’s by 2030. Industry estimates for the value of aircraft deliveries to military and commercial customers annually are in excess of $400 billion. This gives an indication of the size of the aerospace markets which the Airlander can enter. To calculate the likely share of this market for Airlander 10, over the last few years, there have been 4 market studies on hybrid aircraft – 3 of which have been independent, and all of which have put the market at between 500 and 1000 aircraft. The most recent independent market study, commissioned by an Aerospace major and the Company, was by Renaissance Strategic Advisors (RSA). RSA is a leading independent consultant to the aviation industry. RSA validated potential demand for 556 hybrid air vehicle platforms between 2015 and 2035 worth over $50 billion and identified an upside of a further 100+ aircraft. The early adopters of Airlander are likely to be military and governmental agencies interested in border control, maritime surveillance, force protection and search & rescue. There is also strong potential for early adoption from the luxury leisure and tourism market. The RSA report stated that Airlander 10 has multiple civil applications including tourism/leisure flights with associated advertising, oil and gas people movements and pipeline security, commercial sensing e.g. geological surveys in support of the mining industry, remote logistics e.g. for wind turbine blade movements and communications relay.