A team led by Southwest Research Institute® (SwRI®) successfully demonstrated powered flight of the HiSentinel stratospheric airship at an altitude of 74,000 feet. The development team of Aerostar International, the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) and SwRI launched the airship on November 8 from Roswell, N.M., for a five-hour technology demonstration flight. The 146-foot-long airship carried a 60-pound equipment pod and propulsion system.

“There are a number of stratospheric airship programs being promoted around the world, but this is the first of these programs to successfully fly a real airship in near-space,” says William Perry, assistant director of Space Systems in the SwRI Space Science and Engineering Division.

Very little public info about the propulsion, skin construction, etc.. Looks cool. “Near-space” certainly is the right term.