Unmanned airship flies 95,085ft above ground to set world record

The airship was lifted to 80,000 feet by twin helium balloons.

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An unmanned airship has set a new altitude world record after flying more than 95,000 feet above the ground.

The Tandem airship was lifted to 80,000 feet by twin helium balloons,and then two six feet-long propellers specially designed to operate in a near vacuum then lifted the craft to 95,085 feet,just short of 29km.

It was for the first time,a craft was floating high in the atmosphere on the edge of space.

The record attempt cost less than 20,000 pounds.

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The unmanned craft was manoeuvred by

Americas other space programme team through a remote control from the Nevada desert in the US.

The airship then released the balloons and returned to Earth dangling from five parachutes.

The big aerospace firms have been trying to do this for decades,spending hundreds of millions of dollars, Sky News quoted President of volunteer space collective JP Aerospace,John Powell as saying.

Weve spent about $30,000 and the past five years developing Tandem.”

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The group believes airships could be a ladder to space,lifting cargo and passengers to sub-orbital Dark Sky Stations parked at 140,000 feet.

These would be jumping off points for another vehicle that flies to orbit.

It would use the same combination of buoyancy and electric propulsion to steadily accelerate over several days to hypersonic speeds that would allow them to reach orbit.

The team says that the airships would be far cheaper and safer than using rockets to reach orbit.