AEREON's Monroe Drew and John Fitzpatrick employed German physicist Jürgen Bock, formerly of the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics, Heidelberg, Germany, and the U.S. Army's Aberdeen Proving Ground, to develop a list of parameters that would be fed into a computer at the General Electric Space Center, Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, in order to determine "the optimum configuration for enclosing maximum volume without too much penalty of drag.
[4] According to a paper delivered to the Interagency Workshop on Lighter than Air Vehicles in 1974 by AEREON president William Miller, the 26's shape—dubbed an "aerobody"—was "a lifting-body [sic] of deltoid planform, elliptical cross-sections, and a fineness ratio of 4:5.
This second propeller was a "virtually unique" example, made of lemonwood, that had been used by Igor Bensen in an unsuccessful attempt on the autogyro speed record.
Subsequently, the aircraft was transported by road to the National Aviation Facilities Experimental Center (NAFEC) near Atlantic City for flight testing.
[17] The 26 made its first flight, piloted by John Olcott (later president of the National Business Aviation Association), at NAFEC on September 7, 1970.
Addressing the Interagency Workshop on Lighter than Air Vehicles in 1974, William Miller said the test program indicated that performance was as had been predicted, the 26's stability and control and handling qualities were "good," the aircraft was "docile and acceptable...within the limited scope of the tests," and the concept had been shown to be feasible, with the program potentially forming a basis for "realistic studies of much larger such aircraft.
Powered by four 5,500 horsepower (4,100 kW) Rolls-Royce Tyne turboprop engines, it was claimed to be capable of carrying intermodal containers or semi-trailers, operating slightly heavier than air.
[26] A patent for "[a] cargo-carrying air ship [sic] compris[ing] a gas-filled, low aspect ratio deltoid wing" was granted in 1969; according to this patent, "extremely large ships, having lengths in excess of 1,000 feet (300 m)" and capable of economically transporting "large payloads, ranging up to 1,000 long tons (1,000 t) or more" over long distances, were feasible.
[27] In 1974, Miller described three "hypothetical Dynairships": Versions of the configuration that would, like the 26, have lacked lifting gas and operated heavier-than-air at all times were also proposed.