Hybrid Air Vehicles, the organisation behind the Airlander lighter-than-air transport, today announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to explore financing opportunities with the South Yorkshire JESSICA Urban Development Fund to invest in the Airlander production facility at Carcroft Common, South Yorkshire.
JESSICA (Joint European Support for Sustainable Investment in City Areas), which was once part of an EU initiative, provides effective development debt funding for commercial property and regeneration projects in South Yorkshire at commercial lending rates. HAV and the SY JESSICA Fund will focus on enabling economic growth through sustainable development in South Yorkshire; enhancing long-term growth prospects and competitiveness of the region through enterprise, employment, regeneration and sustainability; providing the infrastructure required to generate jobs; and working closely with public sector partners to draw in and leverage private sector capital.
Earlier this year, Hybrid Air Vehicles announced the site location for its production programme for Airlander 10, at Carcroft Common, an opportunity area in the South Yorkshire Investment Zone. Here, Hybrid Air Vehicles will begin developing its flagship facilities for Airlander 10’s production, testing and certification operations, with the goal of scaling up to a production rate of up to 24 aircraft per year at the site.
Hybrid Air Vehicles Ltd (HAV) is a UK-based leader in sustainable aircraft technologies and the company behind Airlander, a family of ultra-efficient aircraft capable of delivering zero emissions flight across travel and tourism, logistics, regional mobility, and communications and surveillance.
HAV’s first production aircraft, the Airlander 10 is capable of 100-seat passenger mobility, a ten-tonne payload of freight transportation, or any combination of the two. Airlander 10’s production at a purpose-built factory in South Yorkshire will begin in 2024 and will be the centre of a green advanced manufacturing boom in the region, creating over 1,200 long-term jobs across the UK as HAV works towards a production rate of 24 new aircraft per year.
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