Airbeams, inflatable spars,  inflatable wings, and tensairity-enhanced inflatable bladders provide a means to structure practical objects.
Inflatable ballute structures have been proposed for use during aerocapture, aerobraking and atmospheric entry of cubesat and nanosat satellites.  The inflatable structures for these applications may take a variety of engineered shapes including stacked toroidal, tension cone and isotensoid ballute form factors.
Inflatable space habitats have been proposed since the 1960s and one expandable space station is currently planned for launch in 2015.