2. Stratospheric airships

2.1 Technologies and main components

A number of experiments have been carried out on the automatic piloting of large balloons, using ascension devices and adapted control surfaces. All these experiments with lighter-than-air (LTA) aircraft, carried out for different purposes, are helping to enrich our knowledge of this activity.

Numerous projects are underway, both in France and abroad, some of which have benefited from CNES support. The American group Lynceans has identified more than 240 models of these new Zeppelins undergoing testing.