The world's largest aircraft in the hands of Iron Maiden singer

This huge aircraft they see in the photograph is not a dream or a distant and unattainable project. It takes years behind the scenes, and you can definitely fly before the end of 2014. Your name: Airlander. Size: 92 meters long, 18 meters higher than the Airbus A380 and Boeing 747-8 (also bigger than the Antonov An-225, a plane that measured 84 meters, manufactured by the Soviet Union in the 80s). And, as icing, a surprise among investors of the project is  Bruce Dickinson, singer of Iron Maiden (say one of the best vocalists in the history of heavy metal), pilot and entrepreneur. The history of Airlander (known in his early days as HAV304) has some bizarre.Until recently it was owned by the United States Army , who envisioned it as a perfect and durable surveillance machine (can be on the air five days without fail).Program was part of the Long Endurance Multi-Intelligence Vehicle (LEMV), but the vehicle was finally rejected after only a test flight conducted in August-2012 - due to budget cuts. The Pentagon has invested in the project about $ 300 million. Become military waste, which was sold for only $ 301,000. "We learned a lot of technology," explained an army spokesman. "In the end, it was decided not to proceed." The  Airlander, a mixture of air cargo airship, has returned to Cardington hangar, the largest in England, where it was assembled between 1929 and 1930, the R101 airship , manufactured by the Royal Airship Works for overseas travel. In Cardington working to give a new focus to use freight to areas where conventional aircraft would be difficult to access and humanitarian aid missions.The project also fits with the idea of the British Government to bet means quieter and less polluting transport. "is a 70% greener than a cargo plane, and only two people are needed to make it fly," he has told the BBC the lead singer of Iron Maiden. The renamed Airlander has a carbon fiber structure, and its balloon is filled with inert gas helium . It is designed to fly at 16,000 feet (4,800 meters), about 150 km / h, powered by four diesel 4 liter V8 engines. Moreover, lands on any reasonably flat surface (either land, snow, water, ice ...) and off almost vertically (as flexible as a helicopter).