Airship Hulls
 

Here are some airship hulls,with position of maximum cross-section aligned,and normalized to a constant cross-section with the lower table,noses aligned with the first.They're all streamline bodies of revolution.None of them 'cheat'.They maintain the classic streamline form.
http://i1271.photobucket.com/albums/...ntitled1-1.jpg
http://i1271.photobucket.com/albums/.../Untitled3.jpg
The bottom airship of the lower table would have the lowest drag of all the ships.It would not necessarily be the 'best',as it would be prone to giving the crew airsickness.Longer ships are preferred as a camera,electronics, or weapons platform.

What do you think about this from Hybrid Air Vehicle UK. They brought back to UK a working unit that was supposed to see action in Afghanistan with the US military.

http://hybridairvehicles.com/images/range.jpg

I always like the idea of an inflatable pedal powered aircraft. Using a lighter than air gas, for inflation, would reduce the effective weight of the plane-pilot combo, but it would probably not be practical in any wind conditions.

regards
Mech

I think there was an electronics packages such as EMP generators that never lived up to expectations. It has propulsion units sitting aft which means it sucks air right from the ...er...end.

Military Surveillance - Hybrid Air Vehicles Ltd

An earlier tri-hull airship was the progenitor of the Aeron 26.

https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/i...e2kMUlJzJgppmr

It was destroyed in ground test when a crosswind sent it @ss over teakettle. Here's the Aeron itself, the 'Deltoid Pumpkinseed':

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/i...nC_v4QEihJpRBa

Old Mechanic -- When the comedian Gallagher demoed a pedal power airship he did it inside a theatre (in 1985).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3D63PK2IyJ4

Anyone ever hear of the Bussman Biplane?

Google sez "Did you mean: Busemann Biplane ". A supersonic biplane?

Here's another indoor blimp, with rotors similar to the Aeromodeller2 in an airship hangar:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-c9xUVjfcZM

I stand corrected.

I was always intrigued by the amount of actual science that I learned from science fiction, although I was never quite certain of all of it, but that was from some novel that I read years ago.

The idea was that you could exceed the speed of sound without creating a sonic boom if you did not have wings and in order to fly, you needed a dirigible, so you basically had two circular airfoils inside of each other, filled with helium.

Sounds complicated! :D

A supersonic zepplin? Sounds complicated.

I'd go will a tensegrity dome for the zepplin hull with pure steam as a lifting gas and a blimp bag inside filled wih hot hydrogen at a slight vacuum.

I read one novel where a guy floated using a sphere filled with vacuum. I am going to guess that it was powered by a tiny stable black hole.