Designed and built by the British company Hybrid Air Vehicles, the Airlander 10 is a hybrid airship that gets its lift both from the helium gas it carries and the shape of its hull.

The Airlander was built in Lakehurst, New Jersey (the site of the 1937 Hindenburg crash), and took its first flight there on August 7, 2012. Then called the HAV 304, the airship was meant to serve as a reconnaissance, surveillance and intelligence vehicle for the US Army.

But its military life ended abruptly just six months later when the Army canceled its Long Endurance Multi-intelligence Vehicle program following budget sequestration from the Budget Control Act of 2011.