Nowadays, behind Skunk Works' highly secure perimeter, engineers reportedly are working on the aviation wonders of tomorrow, including a lightweight cargo plane called the X-55A and a bizarre, blimp-like airship called the P-791 Hybrid Air Vehicle, which has special technology that allows it to take off and land just about anywhere.

CNN: Where planes go to die

Campaigners gathered at the site in Ford, near Aylesbury, to release the airship-shaped "blimp" to the turbine's 99m height.

BBC: Beds, Herts & Bucks

In 1911 American airship pioneer Melvin Vaniman built the Akron, a hydrogen-filled, Goodyear Blimp-size craft in which he and his crew intended to be the first to fly across the Atlantic.

FORBES: The long, loud history of hydrogen as a motor fuel.