Russia to build Aerostat "flying saucers"

How can something that looks like that carry 600 metric tons?

The company, however, plans to produce aircraft with a cargo-carrying capacity of up to 600 metric tons or a passenger capacity of up to 11,000 people. I do hope there was a mistake in translation there.

It is a blimp, I think they are going to build a bigger one to carry big loads, but I don't know about the loads they are talking about.

The U.S. wanted to build one, but the Air force didn't want it. From: http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2010-01/ex-officer-says-air-force-failure-deploy-airships-cost-lives Herlik says that both the Space Command and Air Combat Command ignored orders from the U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff back in 2003 to develop and deploy airship technologies. Such airship technologies have now reached the point where it's just a matter of engineering, as opposed to being pie-in-the-sky or "DARPA hard." "At that point, and just as that chief of staff retired, an air force general wrote a cease and desi... [More]

It is a type of blimp. Lockheed/Martin has already built something along these lines only theirs is something of a square shape, quite strange looking for an aircraft. These have actually been talked about in various science magazines, both popular and specialized, for a number of years. I don't know about being able to build one that could carry 11,000 people but the weight lifting capability of these craft is surprisingly large and since their speed is quite low they don't really have to be streamlined in shape.

The Dod in the USA will be announcing the results of a competitive bid to build a UAV based on airship principle, this may. They are to commission an airship capable of carrying several different payloads on uninterrupted missions of 21 days, supported by a ground support station/s with full Command and Control capability. The leading design is British and will be 304 feet long will carry a fuel load of 17 Imperial tons and be deployed to Afghanistan within 18 months. The company in UK also has plans to build a larger version with a payload capacity of 1000 tons. Google "HAV", and "Condor 304"... [More]