LONDON , England ( CNN ) -- `` Oh , the humanity . '' When these three words were uttered by aghast radio journalist Herbert Morrison -- as the LZ129 Hindenburg airship crashed and burst into flames in New Jersey in 1937 -- it was seen as the end of airships . The other remaining Zeppelin-class dirigible , the Graf Zeppelin II , was destroyed by the Nazi administration who felt the materials could be put to better use with more conventional aircraft . The Aeroscraft ML866 is a prototype for future cargo vehicles that could have a payload of up to 60 tonnes . But , 70 years on , could the Hindenburg-style airship be experiencing a renaissance ? There are two types of craft that are commonly called `` airships . '' The first is basically a balloon filled with a lighter-than-air gas , with an attached pod for the pilot and passengers , and tilting propellers to aid with descent and maneuvering . These are known as 'blimps ' and are commonly used for promotional activities , for filming sporting events and by law enforcement agencies for surveillance . But their limited payload make them unsuitable for other purposes . The other type of airship is the dirigible . Like a blimp , a dirigible airship is filled with lighter-than-air gas but it has an internal skeleton . This greater rigidity allows dirigible airships to carry larger payloads than blimps . See pictures of airships through the ages . » . While the Hindenburg crash dented public confidence in the dirigible airship concept , the principal cause of the disaster was n't bad design but propaganda . The Germans were desperate to show off their technical achievement . But the United States , the world 's primary supplier of the inert gas helium ( which was used to inflate and lift the airships ) , had imposed a military embargo on the gas . So the Hindenburg was filled with the massively explosive gas , hydrogen . And it exploded . Massively . In recent years the concept of the dirigible airship has been reevaluated because of the environmental need to find lower-carbon methods of freight transportation ; and the military and humanitarian need to deliver supplies to remote locations not served by airports . One failed attempt to resuscitate the airship content came from the German company Cargolifter AG in the mid 1990s . It planned a large airship , the CL160 , to be used as a transporter for large and heavy loads . A giant hangar , one of the world 's largest structures , was built in Brand , near Berlin in Germany , for storage and manufacture of these giant craft . But Cargolifter became insolvent in 2002 . The hangar was sold for a fraction of its construction cost and now houses an indoor water park . In 2005 the Aeros corporation of Montebello , CA . resurrected the airship concept . Responding to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency ( DARPA ) 's `` Walrus '' program the company was given a $ 3.2 million grant to develop : `` a very large airlift vehicle concept designed to control lift in all stages of air or ground operations including the ability to off-load payload without taking on-board ballast other than surrounding air . '' What distinguishes a `` Walrus '' craft from a Hindenberg-style airship is that it would not be lighter than air . Rather it would generate lift from a combination of aerodynamics , propellors and gas buoyancy . This would allow for a quicker descent without the expulsion of lift gas , for instance . DARPA terminated the Walrus program but Aeros is continuing to develop the technology with a view to creating an enormous civil airship utilizing a glass-fiber and carbon-fibre semi-monocoque envelope structure . The planned Aeroscraft ML866 could be the next generation of corporate transportation . With more than 465 square meters ( 5000 square feet ) of interior floor space , the ML866 's interior could house a floating boardroom or an opulent flying home . Because it would be flying at a lower altitude than a passenger jet ( 6,000 to 12,000 feet , as opposed to 25,000 to 35,000 feet ) the cabin would not be pressurized . The technological legacy of the Walrus program is the COSH ( control of structural heaviness ) system . By compressing and decompressing stored helium , the aircraft can become lighter for take-off and heavier for landing . If Aeros secure funding to develop the ML866 , it would be offered with a choice of turboprop engines ( for either greater speed or heavier payload ) . But could large airships supplement the role of large passenger aircraft ? Flight International 's technical reporter Rob Coppinger is skeptical : . `` Whether it is cargo , corporate or mass transpiration I think the issues with airships are ; can [ airships ] carry enough people/cargo between two popular destinations and do it fast enough to carry a sufficient volume of cargo/people to generate enough revenue to pay for the development , certification and running costs ? `` I think if it were easy to financially justify , they would exist already . '' Coppinger concedes , however , that airships could have potential military applications . Aeros plans to begin testing a non-rigid airship , the Aeros 40D , in 2008 to demonstrate the helium compression and decompression system . Production of a prototype Aeroscraft ML866 has begun , with a test flight planned for 2010 . ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... .. Are dirigibles just a load of hot air ? Would you travel by airship ? 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Airship concept all-but abandoned after 1937 's Hindenburg disaster . Comment: Aeros hopes to have a prototype of its `` floating boardroom '' flying in 2010 .