Cyclocrane

ToughSF directs us to this blimp which, like Oregon, didn't make it out of the 1980s: the Crimmins-Doolittle Cyclocrane. The notion is to get off the ground with its lighter-than-air gas and "red wings". Then it could move forward using "blue wings".

"Chris" commented in the YT that it hoped to compete against heavy-lift helicopters before loads got very heavy.

Maybe there was a niche for this in 1980-82, when oil prices were high. But then Reagan's oil prices ... weren't so high. Helium prices stayed as high as ever. Perhaps for something that might float higher and move for longer...

As for other planets, this all looks like something for where metals are expensive, gravity is low, and air is dense. With the moving parts I'd not want it for dust-storms. So, the usual suspects: Venus or Titan.

RECHARGE 5/28/23: these things do more than just float; they need turbines. ToughSf points to: solar-and-batteries. I'd add that if the buoyancy was hydrogen we might leech off some of that . . .