Aereon 26 lighter than air craft.

Whilst I was digging about through articles for my hypersonic thread I came across a couple of references to a manned lighter than air fighter sized concept craft, that supposedly died because of lack of funding, but that may have evolved (in the black world) into some type of stealthy manned recce airship LTA vehicle used over Soviet territory hunting down mobile ICBM launchers. The single solitary picture I can find of any manned LTAC that 'died through lack of funding' is this; The Aereon 26. has any one ever heard of it or has more pics? I would love to see them!

Aereon 26

AEREON 26, a least-cost, least-size manned model to demonstrate aerodynamic feasibility, performance and handling qualities, was field-tested in 1970 and flight-tested in March 1971. The AEREON 26 was a dynamically scaled model of the much larger sized DYNAIRSHIPand was the shining success of Project TIGER. Achieving flight through aerodynamic lift alone, the 26 was not a hybrid; rather it was used to test the aerodynamic qualities of the aerobody. These tests confirmed the feasibility of the design and resulted in AEREON’s board voting unanimously to press on toward the development of a full-orbed, semi-buoyant prototype DYNAIRSHIP, for commercial cargo service. Because capital markets in the 1970's extinguished most new venture funding, major financing was not obtained for the DYNAIRSHIP program. The DOD Office of Force Transformation told Mr. Miller in February, 2003 "You were 30 years ahead of your time!" Very recently OSD interest in lifting-body airships finally opens serious potential for this radical form of air-lift.

Aereon.com

Thats all I can find on the entire web. 1 picture. After reading how this vanish when there is a 'budget cut', I would not be at all suprised if this was turned into some weird and wonderful surveillance craft for the NSA/CIA.

[edit on 16-7-2008 by Dan Tanna]

Look at www.aereon.com and also look for the book "The Deltoid Pumpkin Seed."