Bruce Dickinson-backed Airlander 10 crashes on 2nd flight

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Aircraft part funded by Iron Maiden frontman Bruce Dickinson sustained damage to its cockpit

A picture of Bruce Dickinson in the cockpit of the Airlander 10
Bruce Dickinson in the cockpit of the Airlander 10 (Image credit: Getty)

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.”

HAV hopes to be building 10 Airlanders a year by 2021.

You can now play Iron Maiden's Legacy Of The Beast game on your mobile

Stef Lach

Stef wrote close to 5,000 stories during his time as assistant online news editor and later as online news editor between 2014-2016. An accomplished reporter and journalist, Stef has written extensively for a number of UK newspapers and also played bass with UK rock favourites Logan. His favourite bands are Pixies and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Stef left the world of rock'n'roll news behind when he moved to his beloved Canada in 2016, but he started on his next 5000 stories in 2022.