HIADs have a Viking-era genesis; developed by engineers at the NASA Langley Research Center as a possible system for crewed reentry.

However, HIAD development ceased in the mid-1970s when it was shown disk-gap-band supersonic parachutes were suitable for the Viking, Pioneer Venus and Galileo mission environments.

[5] More recently, the need to enable robotic and crewed missions with larger payload mass has generated new investment in HIAD development.

Two successful NASA Langley Research Center led sub-orbital flight demonstrations of HIAD technology have occurred; Inflatable Reentry Vehicle Experiment 2 (IRVE-2) [7] and IRVE-3 [8] were flown in 2009 and 2012 respectively.

It is formed from 7 inflatable tori (6 wide and one narrow), with a flexible woven silicon carbide black ceramic fabric[10][11] thermal protection layer on one side.