Scientists in New Mexico creating a 'vacuum balloon' that can travel 'as fast as a commercial airliner' with the goal to carry humans, drop deliveries and spy

They're balloons – but not as we know them. Scientists at New Mexico's Los Alamos National Laboratory are working on a'vacuum balloon' with a hard shell that could eventually carry humans and travel'as fast as a commercial airliner'. Miles Beaux, a physicist at the lab, told DailyMail.com in an exclusive interview that if his experiments are successful the craft could be used for transport, surveillance, and even for parcel delivery drones. Beaux and his chemist colleague Chris Hamilton have been making small, hollow spheres out of a super-lightweight material called aerogel, then sucking the air out of them in an attempt to create a solid ball that is lighter than the surrounding atmosphere – allowing it to hover. The'vacuum balloons' would trump traditional helium or hydrogen balloons, which slowly lose their lift, and could potentially carry objects in the air indefinitely.