Photos: Lockheed Martin’s LMH-1 hybrid airship

A prototype of the airship at a Skunk Works hangar in Palmdale.

Lockheed’s Craig Johnston shows the company’s airship prototype.

When fully built, the LMH-1 will be a 21 metric ton, 300-foot-long and 78-foot-tall airship that is intended to carry truck-size loads to areas that are inaccessible to more traditional modes of transportation. Above, a prototype.

A view of the airship’s tail section.

The full-size LMH-1 is expected to be in commercial service by the end of 2018. A single airship is expected to cost $40 million. Above, a prototype of the airship on display at a Skunk Works hangar in Palmdale.

One of four, six-cylinder engines that are used on the airship.

Exterior view of the airship’s gondola, which contains the cockpit, passenger and cargo comparments.

The LMH-1 could potentially be used in the oil and gas or mining industries, as well as for humanitarian relief, said Grant Cool, above, chief operating officer of Atlanta-based Hybrid Enterprises LLC, the hybrid airship’s exclusive reseller. Above, Cool shows the cockpit controls.

A Lockheed Martin hybrid airship flight simulator at Skunk Works in Palmdale.

A view from the controls in the cockpit of the gondola.

In a mock-up of the LMH-1’s 150-foot gondola, which includes the cockpit and cargo bay, 19 passengers sit in rows of two or three immediately behind two pilot chairs.

Lockheed Martin has said the airship will be able to carry up to 47,000 pounds, 19 passengers and burn less fuel than conventional aircraft.

Chief engineer John Morehead, left, and program manager Dr. Bob Boyd tour the interior of the airship’s inflatable envelope.

Dr. Bob Boyd of Lockheed Martin explains aerodynamics while standing next to the small cockpit of the airship.

A square-shaped cargo bay in the back of the cockpit was specifically designed with loading in mind.

The airship is the result of more than 20 years’ worth of research. In 2006, the company flew the P-791, the one-third size prototype currently in the Skunk Works hangar, over its facilities in Palmdale and completed all of its in-flight test objectives. Above, part of the cockpit, passenger and cargo configuration.

Lockheed Martin’s hybrid airship prototype one-third scale of a 21-metric-ton airship that will soon be available for customer orders.

Lockheed Martin said its airship will be able to carry up to 47,000 pounds, 19 passengers and burn less fuel than conventional aircraft.