Thermoplan

[1] This design, based on the concept of a "rozière", greatly improves the manoeuvrability compared to an all-helium type.

[2] The disc shape is also intended to improve manoeuvrability and to help resist winds up to 20 m/s (45 mph; 39 kn; 72 km/h).

[3] The project was started in the late 1970s in the Moscow Aviation Institute by a small team of students led by Yury Ishkov under scientific direction of Sergey Eger [ru].

In the second half of 1980s with a help of then MAI rector Yuri Ryzhov they obtained support from Gazprom for the start-up Design Bureau "Thermpolan" and first scaled prototype ALA-40 was constructed at the Ulyanovsk Aviation Production Complex and rolled-out in 1992.

That was a rather small airship, and a full-scale model was not built at that time due to the economic crisis of the 1990s in the USSR.