What’s longer than a football field, weighs more than four elephants, and floats? It’s a new British airship called Airlander 10. At 92 meters (302 feet) long, it’s one of the world’s largest flying machines.
The ship’s blimp-like body is filled with helium gas. Helium has a lower density, or amount of matter in a given space, than air. That’s why Airlander 10 rises into the sky. Four engines power the aircraft up to 145 kilometers (90 miles) per hour. “Without engines, it would drift like a hot-air balloon,” says Airlander 10 engineer Chris Daniels.
The ship is still being tested. Someday it could be used to deliver supplies to areas that have been hit by natural disasters.