Airlander marks Cardington's 'return to original purpose'
With the world's longest aircraft set to be launched in the next few weeks, BBC News takes a look at the history of a place synonymous with airships in Britain.
When the Airlander 10 takes off from Cardington in Bedfordshire next month it will be the latest in a series to be launched from Britain's biggest aircraft hangar. It will also mark the return of Cardington Sheds, a relic of World War One, to their "original purpose", said an enthusiast who runs a website for fans of two vast Grade-II listed hangars. Trevor Monk said he hopes its launch "heralds another 100 years of airships at Cardington". Airships were built in the sheds at Cardington in the 1920s. Hybrid Air Vehicles plans to launch the first of a new generation of airships from Hangar 1 in early April. It received a £3.4m government grant, a £1.94m European Union grant and a further £2.4m from a crowdfunding campaign. Mr Monk, whose grandparents owned a farm close to the sheds, said: "My earliest memory is aged three in 1981 when my father sat me down on his lap on his Class Combine and we watched a Skyship 500 fly past." But Hybrid Air Vehicles hopes to be building 10 Airlanders a year by 2021, meaning Hangar 1 would once again be used for its original purpose as a base for making airships. Mr Monk said the new airships are of a totally different construction from their hydrogen-filled predecessors. "It's like comparing modern aeroplanes with 1920s biplanes," he said. "But to have lighter-than-air aircraft back in production at Cardington is epic."