Thermoplan
The thermoplan is a disc-shaped airship of hybrid type, currently under development in Russia. The key feature of thermoplan is its two section structure. The main section of the airship is filled with helium, while the other section is filled with air that can be heated or cooled by the engines. This design greatly improves the maneuverability, alongside with the disc shape which helps resist the powerful winds up to 20 metre per second.
The project was started in the late 1980s and the early 1990s, with the first working prototype tested in 1991. That was rather small airship, and the giant thermoplan wasn't built at that time due to the problems caused by the economy crisis of 1990s. In the late 2000s the project was revived under the name Locomoskyner (Локомоскайнер) by the Russian company Lokomosky in Ulyanovsk.[1]