As I understand it Northrop is whom one should ask how the money was spent. It's not clear at all what HAV received but they did have to build the vehicle, pay suppliers for one-off production runs and to cancel any other work they were doing so that this project could be done quickly. I would imagine that they also had to order parts for the 3 airships they were to build and what happened when that had to be cancelled?
The new ideas in this airship have not had their chance to be tested. It's pretty common in history for people to dream of things they can't quite achieve and then for new ideas and technology to make it possible later on. I admit I'm only a programmer and a civilian but this is something I see very often in my field due to the mind-blowing increases in performance that have been achieved. Lots of people said "X" or "Y" will never happen and it has so I sort of disrespect that attitude now because it is regularly disproved in my area of experience.
Essentially I like people who persist because in my experience that's what leads to success. You can roughly speaking do almost anything you think of eventually although there are usually lots and lots of people who delight in telling you that you can't. One could laugh at Leonardo da Vinci for being so foolish as to think of tanks and helicopters and parachutes in 14XX when it was "clearly" snake oil. In a sense perhaps it was for him but those old ideas got dusted off and used. What would the world be like if someone had given him the equivalent of XXX million pounds to pursue it all? Possibly not filled with helicopters but he might have realised that he needed some better mathematics, lighter materials and a computer to help him and that could well have changed the world.
So I'm very happy with this little use of my tax:
Today’s grant announcement will help HAV create a detailed model of the aerodynamic characteristics of the aircraft and its engines using wind tunnels and CFD simulations; a methodology for engineering the largest composite structures used in aviation; and to develop the software that will control and monitor the hull pressure system.