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Aerostat (disambiguation)

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An aerostat is an aircraft that remains aloft through the use of lighter-than-air gases. A narrower and more technical meaning refers only to tethered balloons.

Aerostat may also refer to:

Types of aerostat

Airships

Airships are powered aerostats.

  • Airship, or dirigible, any aerostat that can be manoeuvred through the air using propellers, rudders, etc.
  • Blimp, an airship with no structural framework, using only gas pressure to maintain its shape
  • Rigid airship, uses only a structural framework to maintain its shape
  • Semi-rigid airship, uses a partial structural framework in combination with gas pressure to maintain its shape

Balloons

Balloons are unpowered aerostats.

Tethered

The term aerostat is sometimes used to refer specifically to tethered balloons, to the exclusion of other types. Sub-types include:

Untethered

Hybrids

Hybrids combine aerostatic buoyancy and aerodynamic lift.

Powered

Unpowered

Other uses

See also