[NoCmpromiz]

they could have made an even more swollen and bulbous aircraft, that wouldn’t have to come down at all!

Something like this with wings?

Or closer to his attempt at copying the flying castle up in Montreal?

[moose07]

[NicknamedBob]

The Montreal effort.

Buckminster Fuller realized that at a certain level of size, a geodesic dome would hold a considerable tonnage of air.

By simply exhausting a small amount of that air, in effect losing ballast, the whole shebang would become lighter than the volume of air it occupied. Whole cities could be lifted up in a supportive atmosphere.

Of course, just floating around is not a good idea. You have to control where you are going. To that end, I would add some very large and somewhat self-supporting wings to flap, like those of a Manta Ray.

Properly articulated, such a contrivance could hover, or direct its motion even against a mild wind. Certainly it could move along with the wind and go where it was directed.