I have a love/hate relationship with my Google Assistant. It’s clearly listening into conversations I have with my kids. The other day my son was asking about heavy lift aircraft and somehow the conversation moved on to oversized cargo - specifically the Guppy and Beluga - but we also touched on the An225 acting as a shuttle carrier. And underslung loads via the Chinook, Skycrane and K-Max (admittedly, not a heavy lifter - but I just wanted to blow his mind about intermeshing rotors!).
He then asked if there are any “flatbed” aircraft like the lorries we saw on the motorway - as “they’ll surely be easier to get awkward shapes on as you’re not as limited by the fuselage”. But I drew a blank and couldn’t think of anything.
But Google was listening. And today threw this at me in my “suggestions”…
It turns out Lockheed did some research and concept work on having a flatbed aircraft to move oversized cargo by air!!!
Did an interesting visit with cadets a few months ago at the Hybrid Air Vehicles site near Bedford. They mentioned doing VVIP special tourist flights as one possible income stream.
The company had previously said that European-based Air Nostrum Group had reserved 10 Airlanders, but that number had increased to 20, for delivery by 2027.
