...Longer than a soccer pitch and filled to the brim with helium, at 302 feet long, the Airlander 10 will be the world's biggest aircraft. Part blimp, part plane, part helicopter, it was originally created by British design company Hybrid Air Vehicles (HAV) for military surveillance by the U.S. Army...

 Photograph: Hybrid Air Vehicles

(CNN) - Look to the skies above London and you'll see the usual suspects -- rainclouds, planes and pigeons. But by the end of the year, you might just see something else.

Longer than a soccer pitch and filled to the brim with helium, at 302 feet long, the Airlander 10 will be the world's biggest aircraft. Part blimp, part plane, part helicopter, it was originally created by British design company Hybrid Air Vehicles (HAV) for military surveillance by the U.S. Army.

But budget cuts doomed the project and HAV bought the airship back across the pond, where it seemed set to remain on solid ground until the company received a £3.4 million ($5.1 million) grant from the UK government. Thanks to this recent injection of financing, designers and engineers are now readying the craft for first flight tests scheduled for later this year.

Read more at CNN: edition.cnn.com

AirLander
from Airlander by Hybrid Air Vehicles on Vimeo.

HAV bought the technology back and is underway with plans to lify off again thanks to a £3.4 million ($5.1 million) grant from the UK government, aimed at helping emerging technologies and job creation.