Aerostat

An aerostat (From Greek ἀήρ aer (air) + στατός statos (standing) through French) is a craft that remains aloft primarily through the use of buoyant lighter than air gases, which impart lift to a vehicle with nearly the same overall density as air. Aerostats include free balloons, airships, and moored balloons. An aerostat's main structural component is its envelope, a lightweight skin containing a lifting gas to provide buoyancy, to which other components are attached. One of the most recent deployments of an aerostat was seen at the opening ceremony of the nineteenth 2010 Commonwealth Games, held in Delhi, India. The aerostat used in the ceremony was the largest in the world.

Aerostats are so named because they use "aerostatic" lift which is a buoyant force that does not require movement through the surrounding air mass. This contrasts with aerodynes that primarily use aerodynamic lift which requires the movement of at least some part of the aircraft through the surrounding air mass.

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