Chris Daniels, head of partnerships and communications at HAV, said: "These do something nothing else does. There's two variations - the ones that can stay in the air for a long period of time which can be used for things like communications and covering sports events.
"They also have a pseudo-military use. Rather than having a police helicopter which are noisy and can only stay up for a limited period of time, these can stay airborne for a long time and be as overt or not as people want."
The latest hybrid, which cost about £30 million to make, will be used for communications but the company is set to start making an even larger version later this year which will be able to transport up to 50 tonnes of freight and passengers. It hopes the industry could eventually create around 1,000 jobs.
Mr Daniels said because of the way helium is used to power the ships, every time the length is doubled they can carry up to eight times as heavy a load. He hopes this will mean they can eventually make crafts capable of carrying up to 200 tonnes.
However he said he cannot see the ships replacing railways used to transport freight, but instead said the hybrid machines would be suitable for transporting very heavy loads in hard to reach areas like Canada and Africa.He added: "The climate change issue around ice roads in Canada mean another solution is needed, whereas with the security issue in Africa, this could solve part of the problem."
