Another aircraft, the 'CL 75 Aircrane' transportation balloon prototype, of similar size (61 m in diameter) and height (87 m) to the CL 160, was built but destroyed in a storm in July 2002.

The technical complexity (something akin to designing an airliner with less vetted technology) along with limited funding (a fraction of the funding typically available for the development of new airliners), and short development timeline meant that program challenges were underestimated, making the project relatively risky.Ī small manned prototype named 'Joey' was built in order to test project concepts on a reduced scale. The first CL 160 airship was never built, though a considerable amount of design and development work was undertaken. After the company bankrupted, a tropical theme park was opened there. The hangar was also equipped with a 180 m cutting table to manufacture the airship's envelope. The hangar (360 m long, 220 m wide and 106 m high), a technological marvel in itself, is a freestanding steel-dome 'barrel-bowl' construction large enough to fit the Eiffel Tower on its side. The hangar for production and operation of the CL160 and engineering team facilities were built on the former Soviet Air Force base at Brand-Briesen Airfield, acquired to enable development and operations. A public stock offering took place in May 2000, and the resulting shareholder structure was characterized by a high proportion of small investors, attracted by substantial press coverage of the new breakthrough technologies being promised. Cargolifter AG was created on 1 September 1996 in Wiesbaden, Germany.

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