Periodic Reporting for period 2 - ACEP (Airlander Civil Exploitation Project)
Berichtszeitraum: 2016-04-01 bis 2017-07-31
This project creates a civil regulatory framework in conjunction with the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), and upgrades the prototype vehicle to EASA required standards. It then supports further flight demonstration of the vehicle, driving down customer risk and provides a clear path to production orders.
The Airlander Civil Exploitation Project (ACEP) Key Objectives are the:
• Development of a recognised civil regulatory standard for this unique vehicle type under EASA control,
• Upgrade of the first of type vehicle hardware to meet civil (EASA) regulations and support customer demonstrations/trials,
• Reduction of customer risk via the development of high quality civil purchase and operating cost information,
• Enhancement / optimisation of performance for the civil variant.
The project activities have successfully supported satisfaction of these objectives. These objectives result in a significant reduction in risk for prospective commercial customers. The Company is now in a position to build an order book for a commercial variant of the Airlander 10.
We have completed numerous vehicle upgrades including tailfins, propulsor battens, mission module, fuel module, ground support equipment, flight control network and the hull to meet the EASA standards and facilitate customer demonstrations.
We have built a flight training device on site which greatly helps with researching, testing and pilot training.
Our documentation and procedures have gained us authorisation from EASA to fly within civil regulated airspace. The project highlight is exercising these authorisations in the successful completion of the initial phase of flight testing.
The combination of these successes puts the aircraft and the company in a fantastic position to take the next step towards production sales.
HAV expect the flights to lead to commercial orders creating hundreds of jobs in Europe, reducing the cost and environmental impact of air travel.