Iron Maiden's Bruce Dickinson has invested $450,000 (£270,465) in the 'world's biggest aircraft'. The HAV Airlander is a 91.4 metre long airship, which is 18.2 metres longer than a Boeing 747, reports Top Gear. The ship is being made by the British company Hybrid Air Vehicles and its top speed is 100mph. It weighs 38 tonnes and can in addition carry 50 tonnes of cargo. Speaking to BBC News, Dickinson said he wants to fly it around the world. "It seizes my imagination. I want to get in this thing and fly it pole to pole. We'll fly over the Amazon at 20ft, over some of the world's greatest cities and stream the whole thing on the internet." He added: "It's a game changer, in terms of things we can have in the air and things we can do. The airship has always been with us, it's just been waiting for the technology to catch up." Last year, Dickinson denied receiving a $500 million (£316 million) contract from the US military to manufacture drones. The claim had been made on the blog Dorset Eye in a post titled: 'Bruce Dickinson: Rock'n'Roll Warmonger', which took as its source an announcement on a South African conference speakers' website. In a written statement to NME, a spokesperson for the band described the article as "spurious" and said: "This is a totally inaccurate and malicious piece of writing that seems to have stemmed from an unfortunate mistake in terminology on a South African website that the writer of said blog has since used as a starting point and catalyst to go off on a flight of sheer fantasy." They clarified: "Both Bruce Dickinson and Iron Maiden's manager Rod Smallwood were early investors in, and remain great supporters of, Hybrid Air Vehicles (HAV), a company that has nothing whatsoever to do with drones, 'lighter than air' or otherwise!"
Iron Maiden’s Bruce Dickinson has invested $450,000 (£270,465) in the ‘world’s biggest aircraft’.
The HAV Airlander is a 91.4 metre long airship, which is 18.2 metres longer than a Boeing 747, reports Top Gear. The ship is being made by the British company Hybrid Air Vehicles and its top speed is 100mph. It weighs 38 tonnes and can in addition carry 50 tonnes of cargo.
Speaking to BBC News, Dickinson said he wants to fly it around the world. “It seizes my imagination. I want to get in this thing and fly it pole to pole. We’ll fly over the Amazon at 20ft, over some of the world’s greatest cities and stream the whole thing on the internet.”
He added: “It’s a game changer, in terms of things we can have in the air and things we can do. The airship has always been with us, it’s just been waiting for the technology to catch up.”
Last year, Dickinson denied receiving a $500 million (£316 million) contract from the US military to manufacture drones. The claim had been made on the blog Dorset Eye in a post titled: ‘Bruce Dickinson: Rock’n’Roll Warmonger’, which took as its source an announcement on a South African conference speakers’ website.
In a written statement to NME, a spokesperson for the band described the article as “spurious” and said: “This is a totally inaccurate and malicious piece of writing that seems to have stemmed from an unfortunate mistake in terminology on a South African website that the writer of said blog has since used as a starting point and catalyst to go off on a flight of sheer fantasy.”
They clarified: “Both Bruce Dickinson and Iron Maiden‘s manager Rod Smallwood were early investors in, and remain great supporters of, Hybrid Air Vehicles (HAV), a company that has nothing whatsoever to do with drones, ‘lighter than air’ or otherwise!”
 in the 'world's biggest aircraft'. The HAV Airlander is a 91.4 metre long airship, which is 18.2 metres longer than a Boeing 747, reports Top Gear. The ship is being made by the British company Hybrid Air Vehicles and its top speed is 100mph){kind=link}