Hybrid Air Vehicles has passed an important milestone with the European Aviation Safety Agency awarding the Airlander 10 Design Organisation Approval (DOA) certificate.

Being granted a DOA gives HAV the ability to undertake a full flight test programme towards the type certification of Airlander 10.

HAV previously operated the prototype under both CAA and EASA permission, and DOA is a critical step towards type certification.

HAV safety and airworthiness engineer, Nikky Pittkin says: “As an organisation, we have worked hard to make sure that we were thoroughly prepared for every step of the DOA process. As a result, we have succeeded in securing our DOA.

“Now we are working with EASA specialists to establish the certification basis for our aircraft so that we can work towards type certification of Airlander 10.”

HAV executive director, Nick Allman adds: “Working directly with EASA, we have made excellent progress on developing the appropriate regulations for an aircraft like Airlander. Having our DOA will support our preparation for a type certification programme as we move ahead with the production aircraft.”

HAV expects to have type certified production Airlander 10s in service with customers from the early 2020s, with the order book open to both organisations and individual purchasers.