The Allplane Podcast #78 - the comeback of the airship era, with Tom Grundy, CEO of HAV

Today’s podcast guest is leading a firm that is truly unique in the aviation world.

Tom Grundy, CEO of Hybrid Air Vehicles (HAV) will possibly chastise me for talking about the airship comeback.

The Airlander, the world’s largest aircraft by some measures, may look, from the outside, like one of those classical airships of the pre-War era, however, as listeners of this episode shall soon learn, it presents some notable differences as well, the result of almost a century of progress in aerospace and materials sciences.

The airship, as we all know, fell out of favour decades ago, what’s different this time, then? In our chat, Tom explains some of the amazing capabilities of present day hybrid air vehicles like the Airlander: very low fuel consumption, almost no infrastructure needs, long range and super long endurance. Even the low speeds it is capable of can also be an advantage at times, like when it is used for luxury air tours or loitering reconnaissance missions.

The Airlander 10, the first model that HAV has developed has already announced its launch customer, Spanish airline Air Nostrum, but Tom’s team area already working on a much larger version that will meet the needs of freight operators operating in areas of the world with limited land transportation options.

I am sure many of you, just like me, can’t wait to see these giant Airlanders flying around…in the meantime, tune in for a fascinating conversation with Hybrid Air Vehicles CEO Tom Grundy!