Airship - the history of development. Who invented the first airship in the world and for what purposes Briefly about the airship

The airship belongs to the class of aircraft and is identical in design to the hot air balloon. Among its distinctive features is a large carrying capacity, the ability to stay in the air for a long time, low cost and mooring at any site. The only disappointment is the low speed km / h, limited to 20 units. With the development of powerful models of air vehicles, in modern society there is an increasing interest in who created the first airship and where they can be used. These are very beautiful and powerful machines that are experiencing a rebirth today. In the photo - a modern domestic airship.

How it all began

As follows from the chronicle, the first airship in the world, operated by the Frenchman Henri-Jacques-Girard, took to the skies over Versailles in September 1852. The length of the spindle-shaped form, equipped with a steam engine, reached 4.4 m. At that time, many countries began to create their own airship, the first flight of their miracle vehicles was recorded in history:

• Dupont de Lom's airship was launched in 1872.
• Henlein, a mechanic from Germany, equipped the aircraft with a gas engine, thanks to which the speed increased to 19 km / h.
• "France" is one of the first airships built in Europe, on which the Tissadier brothers installed batteries.

Airship "France"

• In Germany, the embodiment of the idea belongs to the intelligence officer Ferdinand von Zeppelin, who presented a new development in 1900. Throughout his life, Count Zeppelin improved his projects, and in 1911 he created the Ersatz Deutschland passenger airship, capable of accommodating 20 people on board. Since then, the count's airship has become known as the zeppelin.
• For the first time, an internal combustion engine was installed by Captain Kostovich on the Rossiya airship. The engine itself is in the Monino Museum.

Airship building in Russia

The daring dream of flying warmed the souls of more than one generation of people living on earth. Long before the era of aeronautics, Peter the Great, he was sure that his grandchildren would conquer the blue dome.

The first airship in Russia "Krechet"

The impetus for the development of aircraft was the Crimean War, after which in 1869 a special commission was created to oversee the invention of a balloon used for military purposes. August 1, 1970 is considered to be the birthday of military aeronautics, however, the first airship in Russia under the name "Krechet" appeared only in 1909. Then the "Hawk", "Falcon" and "Dove" were created. In 1911, the country ranked third in this area.

Airship building in the USSR actively developed in the 20-30s, in those years Osoaviakhim appeared, which was controlled by Umberto Nobile himself. Its speed reached 113 km / h, capacity - 20 people.

With the advent of aircraft, the demand for clumsy models dropped sharply. However, during the Second World War, dozens of them hovered over cities, cutting off the wings of enemy attack aircraft with cables.

Airships of the First World

The prospect of airships for military purposes was so obvious that the equipment of the armies began long before the outbreak of hostilities. Entire fleets of ships were used as cargo carriers, reconnaissance aircraft and bombers. In this area, Russia was the leader (more than 20 pieces), followed by Germany (18) and Austria-Hungary (10). At the same time, Russia purchased Astra, Burevestnik and Condor from abroad, and built the rest of the ships at the Izhora and Baltic Shipyards. Domestic engineers believed that an inexpensive soft airship was better than a huge prototype, which was easier to hit from the ground and set on fire.

What filled the first airships

The devices initially worked on hydrogen, which is lighter than air, and later it was replaced by helium. It was hydrogen that caused death of the Hindenburg, flying with passengers across the Atlantic and was considered the largest ship in Germany.

), which creates aerostatic lift. The propellers rotated by the engines give the airship a forward speed of 60-150 km/h. The aft part of the hull has - stabilizers and. The hull of the airship in flight creates additional aerodynamic lift, thus the airship combines the performance characteristics of a balloon and an aircraft.

The airship is characterized by a large carrying capacity, flight range, the possibility of vertical takeoff and landing, free drift in the atmosphere under the influence of air currents, and a long hover over a given place. It is attached to the lower part of the hull (sometimes several gondolas), in which the control cabin, rooms for passengers and crew, fuel and various equipment are located. Airships usually fly at an altitude of up to 3000 m, in some cases - up to 6000 m. The takeoff of the airship occurs as a result of ballast discharge, and the descent is due to the partial release of lifting gas. In parking lots, they are attached to special mooring masts or driven into for storage and maintenance. Airship frames are usually assembled from flat triangular or polyhedral trusses; it can be fabric (impregnated for gas tightness) or from a polymer film, or typed from thin metal sheets or plastic panels. The external volume of the airship (body) is up to 250 thousand m3, the length is up to 250 m, the diameter is up to 42 m.

The first draft of a controlled balloon was proposed in 1784 by J. Meunier (France). But only in 1852, the Frenchman A. Giffard, for the first time in the world, made on an airship of his own design with a steam engine that rotated. In 1883, G. Tissandier and his brother built an airship with a 1.1 kW electric motor, which received current from galvanic batteries. From con. 19th century up until the early 1990s. airships were built in Germany, France, USA, Great Britain, USSR. The largest airships LZ-129 and LZ-130 were created in Germany in 1936 and 1938. They had a volume of 217 thousand m³, four engines with a total capacity of 3240 and 3090 kW, developed a speed of up to 150 km / h and could carry up to 50 passengers over a distance of 16 thousand km.

Encyclopedia "Technology". - M.: Rosman. 2006 .

Airship

Aviation: Encyclopedia. - M.: Great Russian Encyclopedia. Chief editor G.P. Svishchev. 1994 .

See what "airship" is in other dictionaries:

AIRSHIP A lighter-than-air aircraft equipped with an engine and a motion control system. A rigid airship, or zeppelin, has an internal frame of struts on which a fabric or aluminum alloy shell is fixed. lifting… … Scientific and technical encyclopedic dictionary

airship- I, m. dirigeable m. 1. air. An aeronautical apparatus lighter than air, equipped with engines and propellers, a controlled balloon. Ush. 1934. The first aeronate, which managed to be controlled in the air, received the title of an airship .., not at all due to ... Historical Dictionary of Gallicisms of the Russian Language

A controlled balloon, an airship, an aircraft (Dirigible) an aircraft lighter than air (as opposed to an aircraft, an apparatus heavier than air). D. stays in the air due to the fact that his body is filled with a gas lighter than air ... Marine Dictionary

- (fr. managed). Guided flying projectile. Dictionary of foreign words included in the Russian language. Chudinov A.N., 1910. airship (French dirigeable lit. controlled) controlled balloon, New Dictionary of Foreign Words. by EdwART,… … Dictionary of foreign words of the Russian language

Aerostat, zeppelin, balloon Dictionary of Russian synonyms. airship see balloon Dictionary of synonyms of the Russian language. Practical guide. M.: Russian language. Z. E. Alexandrova. 2011 ... Synonym dictionary

Airship- Airship. An aircraft lighter than air, driven by a power plant ... Source: Order of the Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation dated September 12, 2008 N 147 (as amended on December 26, 2011) On the approval of the Federal Aviation Rules Requirements for aircraft crew members ... ... Official terminology

- (from French dirigeable controlled) a controlled balloon with an engine. It has a streamlined hull, one or more gondolas, plumage. The first flight in a controlled balloon with a steam engine was made by A. Giffard (H. Giffard, 1852, France). Up to 50… … Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

AIRSHIP, airship, male. (French dirigeable, lit. controlled) (aviation). An aeronautical apparatus lighter than air, equipped with engines and propellers, a controlled balloon. Explanatory Dictionary of Ushakov. D.N. Ushakov. 1935 1940 ... Explanatory Dictionary of Ushakov

AIRSHIP, me, husband. A cigar-shaped controlled balloon equipped with engines. | adj. dirigible, oh, oh. Explanatory dictionary of Ozhegov. S.I. Ozhegov, N.Yu. Shvedova. 1949 1992 ... Explanatory dictionary of Ozhegov

airship- A balloon moving in the atmosphere with the help of a power plant and controlled in height, direction, speed, range and flight duration. [FAR dated March 31, 2002] Aviation regulations topics… Technical Translator's Handbook

AIRSHIP- an aircraft lighter than air with an engine and propellers for horizontal movement. For control in the horizontal plane are the rudders. Movement in the vertical direction is controlled by elevators, and large ... ... Great Polytechnic Encyclopedia

Books

• Martha and the Fantastic Airship, Nikolskaya A.. Imagine that somewhere in the world next to us lives an amazing creature - a huge, shaggy, clawed and toothy. Fearfully? But in vain! After all, this creature is very kind, with the most gentle, sympathetic ...

The airship (from the French diriger - “to manage”) is self-propelled. We will tell about its history and how to build this aircraft ourselves later in the article.

Structural elements

There are three main types of airships: soft, semi-rigid and rigid. All of them consist of four main parts:

• a cigar-shaped shell or a balloon filled with a gas whose density is less than that of air;
• cabin or gondola, suspended under the shell, which serves to transport the crew and passengers;
• engines that drive the propellers;
• horizontal and vertical rudders to help guide the airship.

What is a soft airship? This is a balloon with a cabin attached to it with ropes. If the gas is released, the shell will lose its shape.

The semi-rigid airship (pictured in the article) also depends on internal pressure to maintain its shape, but it still has a structural metal keel that runs longitudinally along the base of the balloon and supports the cabin.

Rigid airships consist of a lightweight aluminum alloy frame covered in fabric. They are not sealed. Inside this structure are several balloons, each of which can be separately filled with gas. Aircraft of this type retain their shape, regardless of the degree of filling of the cylinders.

What gases are used?

Typically, hydrogen and helium are used to lift airships. Hydrogen is the lightest known gas and thus has the highest carrying capacity. However, it is highly flammable, which has caused many fatal accidents. Helium is not as light, but much safer because it does not burn.

History of creation

The first successful airship was built in 1852 in France by Henri Giffard. He created a 160-kilogram steam engine capable of developing a power of 3 liters. s., which was enough to drive a large propeller at a speed of 110 revolutions per minute. In order to lift the weight of the power plant, he filled a 44-meter balloon with hydrogen and, starting from the Parisian hippodrome, flew at a speed of 10 km / h, covering a distance of about 30 km.

In 1872, the German engineer Paul Hahenlein first installed and used an internal combustion engine on an airship, which was fueled by gas from a cylinder.

In 1883, Frenchmen Albert and Gaston Tissandier were the first to successfully fly a balloon powered by an electric motor.

The first rigid airship with an aluminum sheet hull was built in Germany in 1897.

Alberto Santos-Dumont, a native of Brazil who lived in Paris, set a number of records in a series of 14 non-rigid airships built by him from 1898 to 1905, powered by internal combustion engines.

Count von Zeppelin

The most successful operator of motorized rigid balloons was the German Ferdinand Graf von Zeppelin, who built his first LZ-1 in 1900? The Luftschiff Zeppelin, or Zeppelin Aircraft, is a technically sophisticated ship, 128 m long and 11.6 m in diameter, which was made of an aluminum frame consisting of 24 longitudinal beams connected by 16 cross rings, and was driven by two engines, power 16 l. With.

The aircraft could reach speeds of up to 32 km / h. The Count continued to refine the design during World War I, when many of his airships (called Zeppelins) were used to bombard Paris and London. Aircraft of this type were also used by the Allies during World War II, mainly for anti-submarine patrols.

In the 20s and 30s of the last century, in Europe and the United States, the construction of airships continued. In July 1919, a British R-34 made two transatlantic flights.

Conquest of the North Pole

In 1926, the Italian semi-rigid airship (photo is given in the article) "Norway" was successfully used by Roald Amundsen, Lincoln Ellsworth and General Umberto Nobile to explore the North Pole. The next expedition, already on another, was led by Umberto Nobile.

In total, he planned to make 5 flights, but the airship, built in 1924, crashed in 1928. The operation to return the polar explorers took more than 49 days, during which 9 rescuers died, including Amundsen.

What was the name of the 1924 airship? The fourth series N, built according to the project and at the Umberto Nobile factory in Rome, was named "Italy".

Heyday

In 1928, the German balloonist Hugo Eckener built the Graf Zeppelin airship. Before decommissioning, nine years later, he made 590 flights, including 144 transoceanic crossings. In 1936, Germany opened regular transatlantic passenger traffic on the Hindenburg.

Despite these advances, the airships of the world practically ceased production in the late 1930s due to their high cost, low speed, and vulnerability to stormy weather. In addition, a series of disasters, the most famous of which was the explosion of the Hindenburg filled with hydrogen in 1937, combined with advances in aircraft construction in the 30s and 40s. made this mode of transport commercially obsolete.

Technology Progress

The gas cylinders of many early airships were made from so-called "gold digger's skin": cow intestines were beaten off and then stretched. The creation of one aircraft required two hundred and fifty thousand cows.

During the First World War, Germany and its allies stopped the production of sausages so that there was enough material to produce airships with which to carry out the bombing of England. Advances in textile technology, including the invention of vulcanized rubber in 1839 by the American trader Charles Goodyear, sparked an explosion of innovation in airship construction. In the early 1930s, the US Navy built two "flying aircraft carriers," the Akron and the Macon, whose hulls opened up to produce a fleet of F9C Sparrowhawk fighter aircraft. The ships crashed after falling into a storm, without having time to prove their combat capability.

The world record for the duration of the flight was set in 1937 by the balloon "USSR-B6 Osoaviakhim". The aircraft spent 130 hours 27 minutes in the air. The cities that the airship visited during the flight were Nizhny Novgorod, Belozersk, Rostov, Kursk, Voronezh, Penza, Dolgoprudny and Novgorod.

Sunset balloons

Then the airships disappeared. So, on May 6, 1937, the Hindenburg exploded over Lakehurst in New Jersey - 36 passengers and crew members died in a ball of fire. The tragedy was caught on film, and the world saw how the German airship exploded.

What hydrogen is and how dangerous it is became clear to everyone, and the idea that people can comfortably move under a container with this gas became unacceptable in an instant. Modern aircraft of this type use only helium, which is non-flammable. Increasingly popular and economical were aircraft such as Pan American Airways' high-speed "flying boats".

Modern engineers involved in the design of aircraft of this type lament the fact that until 1999, when a collection of articles on how to build an airship called Airship Technology was published, the only textbook available was Aircraft Design by Charles Burgess published in 1927

Modern developments

In the end, airship designers abandoned the idea of ​​carrying passengers and focused on cargo transportation, which today is not effectively carried out by rail, road and sea transport, and is out of reach in many areas.

The first few such projects are gaining momentum. In the 1970s, a former US Navy fighter pilot tested an aerodynamic delta-shaped craft called the Aereon 26 in New Jersey. But Miller ran out of funds after the first test flight. Creating a prototype cargo aircraft requires a huge capital investment, and there were not enough potential buyers.

In Germany, Cargolifter A.G. went so far as to build the world's largest freestanding building, over 300m long, in which the company planned to build a helium semi-rigid cargo airship. What it means to be a pioneer in this field of aeronautics became clear in 2002, when the company, faced with technical difficulties and limited funding, filed for bankruptcy. The hangar, located near Berlin, was later turned into the largest indoor water park in Europe, Tropical Islands.

In pursuit of dominance

A new generation of design engineers, some of whom are backed by significant government and private investment, are convinced that, given the availability of new technologies and new materials, society will be able to benefit from the construction of airships. In March last year, the US House of Representatives held a meeting dedicated to this type of air transport, the purpose of which was to accelerate the process of their development.

Aerospace heavyweights Boeing and Northrop Grumman have been developing airships in recent years. Russia, Brazil and China have built or are developing their own prototypes. Canada has created designs for several aircraft, including the Solarship, which looks like a bloated stealth bomber with solar panels placed all over the top of its helium-filled wings. Everyone is in a race to be number one and monopolize the multi-billion dollar trucking market. Currently, three projects are attracting the most attention:

• the English Airlander 10, by Hybrid Air Vehicles, is currently the largest airship in the world;
• LMH-1, Lockheed Martin;
• Aeroscraft, Worldwide Eros Corp, created by Igor Pasternak, an immigrant from Ukraine.

Do-it-yourself radio-controlled balloon

To assess the problems that arise during the construction of aircraft of this type, you can build a children's airship. It is smaller than any model you can buy and has the best combination of stability and maneuverability.

To create a miniature airship, you will need the following materials:

• Three miniature motors weighing 2.5g or less.
• A micro receiver weighing up to 2 g (for example, DelTang Rx33, which, among other parts, can be purchased from specialized online stores such as Micron Radio Control, Aether Sciences RC or Plantraco), powered by a single lithium polymer cell. Make sure the motor and receiver connectors are compatible, otherwise soldering will be required.
• Compatible transmitter with three or more channels.
• 70-140 mAh LiPo battery and suitable charger. To keep the total weight under 10g, a battery weighing up to 2.5g is required. The large capacity of the battery will ensure a long flight time: at 125 mAh, you can easily achieve a duration of 30 minutes.
• Wires connecting the battery to the receiver.
• Three small propellers.
• Carbon rod (1 mm), 30 cm long.
• A piece of depron 10 x 10 cm.
• Cellophane, tape, superglue and scissors.

Buy a latex balloon filled with helium. A standard one or any other with a load capacity of at least 10 g will do. To achieve the desired weight, ballast is added, which is removed as helium leaks.

The components are attached to the rod with adhesive tape. The front motor is used to move forward, and the rear is mounted perpendicularly. The third engine is located at the center of gravity and is directed downwards. The propeller is attached to it on the opposite side so that it can push the airship up. Motors should be glued with superglue.

By attaching a tail stabilizer, forward movement can be greatly improved, since the lift propeller provides little and the tail rotor is too powerful. It can be made of their deprona and attached with adhesive tape.

Forward movement should be compensated by a slight rise.

In addition, an inexpensive camera, such as used in key fobs, can be mounted on the airship.

What else interests readers according to? We will now find out by listening to the topic from luciferushka :

It would be interesting to learn about the origin, formation and decline of the era of airships. And do they have a future? Was there a theme?

I have a very interesting topic on my blog. , then we will not dwell on our country in detail here. Read it to anyone who is interested. Let's take a look at the global development of this aircraft.

An airship (from French dirigeable - controlled) is an aircraft lighter than air, a balloon with a propeller, thanks to which the airship can move regardless of the direction of air flow.

250 years before our era, the great Archimedes opened the way to ballooning. But only in the second half of the 17th century was it possible to create a balloon suitable for practical use. An apparatus lighter than air, moving in the air ocean at the behest of the wind and air currents, was called a balloon. It is maintained in the air due to the lifting force of the gas enclosed in its shell.

On June 5, 1783, in the French city of Videlon-les-Annones, the brothers Joseph Michel and Jacques Etienne Montgolfier demonstrated the flight of the balloon they had built. A shell with a volume of about 600 cu. m. rested on a lattice frame woven from a vine. The frame was installed on a scaffold, under which a fire of wet straw was built. Hot moist air filled the shell. After the ropes holding her were released, she rushed up. The flight lasted only 10 minutes. During this time, the ball flew over two kilometers.

Drawings of aerostatic launches in France

The French Academy of Sciences decided to repeat the experience of the Montgolfier brothers in Paris. The preparation for it was entrusted to the physicist Charles. He did not use hot air to fill the balloon, but hydrogen discovered in 1766, which had a low specific gravity. On August 27, 1783, the launch took place on the Champ de Mars in Paris, the Ball quickly gained altitude and disappeared from sight. After flying 24 kilometers, he fell to the ground due to a rupture of the shell.

In the future, balloons filled with hot air were called hot air balloons, and hydrogen - charliers.

The possibility of flight has been proven. It remains to be seen how safe it is for the human body. At that time, many believed that any living creature that rose under the clouds, even to a small height, would certainly suffocate. Therefore, on the first air journey on a hot air balloon, they sent faithful and trouble-free friends of a person. On September 19, 1783, for the first time in history, living creatures were lifted into the air from the courtyard of the Palace of Versailles. This honor fell to the ram, rooster and duck. They sank to the ground in perfect health. Then we started training ascents of people on tethered balloons. And only after thorough preparation, on November 21, 1783, in the suburbs of Paris, the hot air balloon was launched with a crew, which included two people - Pilatre de Rozier and d "Arlande.

Airship Meunier 1784.

As time went on, balloons improved, allowing more and more complex flights to be made. In early January 1785, the Frenchman Blanchard and the Englishman Jeffreys flew from Dover to Calais on a charter. Having conquered the Pas de Calais in 2.5 hours, they were the first to make an air journey between island England and continental Europe.

The Russian ambassador to France, Prince Baryatinsky, regularly informed Empress Catherine II about the successes of aeronautics. To them he attached his own sketches of what he saw. However, the Empress showed no interest in this matter. She did not even allow Blanchard to come to Russia in 1786 for demonstration flights. Catherine II asked me to tell him that "...here they do not do this or other similar aeronautics, and all sorts of experiments like that, as if fruitless and unnecessary, are completely difficult for us." Such a view of the royal person on aeronautics led to the fact that the Russians first saw a flight in a balloon only in the next century.

On June 20, 1803 in St. Petersburg, in the presence of the imperial family of Alexander I and a large gathering of spectators, a demonstration flight of the Frenchman J. Garnerin took place. In September of the same year, the balloon rose into the Moscow sky.

With the development of science and technology, balloons began to be used to solve a wide range of problems. They were used in military affairs, were used to study the atmosphere, to conduct meteorological, physical, and astronomical observations.

The inventor of the airship is Jean Baptiste Marie Charles Meunier. Meunier's airship was to be made in the shape of an ellipsoid. Handling was to be carried out with the help of three propellers, manually rotated by the efforts of 80 people. By changing the volume of gas in the balloon by using a balloonet, it was possible to adjust the flight altitude of the airship, and therefore he proposed two shells - the outer main and the inner.

Giffard's airship, 1852

The steam-powered airship designed by Henri Giffard, who borrowed these ideas from Meunier more than half a century later, did not make its first flight until September 24, 1852. Such a difference between the date of the invention of the balloon and the first flight of the airship is due to the absence at that time of engines for an aerostatic aircraft. The next technological breakthrough came in 1884 with the first fully controlled free-flight in the French electric-powered military airship La France by Charles Renard and Arthur Krebs. The length of the airship was 52 m, the volume was 1900 m³, in 23 minutes a distance of 8 km was covered using an 8.5 hp engine.

It had a volume of 2500 cubic meters. m., was equipped with a 3 hp steam engine. With. and developed a speed of about 10 km / h. The steam engines of those years had low power with a large mass and were unsuitable for practical use on aircraft. On the first flight, Giffard was unable to return to the launch site. The strength of the wind exceeded the modest capabilities of its engine! The heyday of the airship industry began with the advent of reliable, light and sufficiently powerful internal combustion engines and fell on the beginning of our century.

On October 19, 1901, the French aeronaut Alberto Santos-Dumont, after several attempts, flew around the Eiffel Tower at a speed of just over 20 km / h on his Santos-Dumont apparatus number 6. Then it was considered an eccentricity, but later the airship became one of the most advanced transport for several decades funds. At the same time that soft airships began to gain popularity, the development of rigid airships also did not stand still: later they were able to carry more cargo than airplanes, and this situation remained for many decades. The design of such airships and its development are associated with the German count Ferdinand von Zeppelin.

The development of airships went in three constructive directions: soft, semi-rigid, rigid.

In soft airships, the hull is a shell made of fabric with low gas permeability. The constancy of the shape of the shell is achieved by the excess pressure of the gas that fills it and creates lift, as well as ballonets, which are soft air containers located inside the case. With the help of a system of valves that allow either to pump air into the balloonets or bleed it into the atmosphere, a constant overpressure is maintained inside the case. If this were not the case, then the gas inside the shell under the influence of external factors - changes in atmospheric pressure during the ascent or descent of the airship, ambient temperature - would change its volume. A decrease in the volume of gas leads to the fact that the body loses its shape. It usually ends in disaster.

Rigid structural elements - a stabilizer, a keel, a gondola - are attached to the shell with the help of "paws" sewn or glued to it and connecting slings.

Like every engineering design, soft airships have their own advantages and disadvantages. The latter are quite serious: damage to the shell or failure of the fan that blows air into the ballonets lead to disasters. The main advantage is a large weight return.

The soft scheme limits the size of the airship, which, however, makes assembly, disassembly and transport operations relatively easy.

Soft airships were built by many aeronauts. The most successful was the design of the German major August von Parseval. His airship took off on May 26, 1906. Since then, soft airships are sometimes called "parsevals".

The dependence of the hull shape on atmospheric factors in soft airships was reduced by the introduction of a rigid keel truss into the design, which, passing from bow to stern along the bottom of the hull, significantly increases its rigidity in the longitudinal direction. This is how semi-rigid airships appeared.

In airships of this scheme, a shell with low gas permeability also serves as a hull. They also need ballonets. The presence of the farm allows you to attach elements of the airship to it and place part of the equipment inside it. Semi-rigid airships are larger in size.

The semi-rigid scheme was developed by the French engineer Juyo, the manager of the sugar factories of the Lebody brothers. The construction of the airship was financed by the owners of the factories. Therefore, it is not entirely fair that such a scheme of airships is called a "swan". The first flight of the airship took place on November 13, 1902.

In airships with a rigid scheme, the hull is made up of transverse (frames) and longitudinal (stringers) load-bearing elements, covered on the outside with fabric, which is intended only to give the airship a proper aerodynamic shape. Therefore, no gas permeability requirements are imposed on it. Ballonets are not needed in this scheme, since the invariance of the shape is ensured by the power frame. The carrier gas is placed in separate containers inside the housing. Almost all the units of the ship are installed there, for the maintenance of which “service passages are provided.

The only disadvantage of such a scheme is that the metal structure of the frame reduces the weight of the payload. It was the rigid scheme that made the airship a real ship capable of sailing in the ocean of air like sea liners. The creator of such airships was the outstanding German engineer and organizer of their production, General Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin. His first airship took to the air on July 2, 1900. Since then, the name "zeppelin" has been attached to the airships of a rigid scheme.

The mass construction and diverse use of airships was taken up by a German aristocrat and a professional military man. Ferdinand von Zeppelin. While in the United States during the Civil War, he became interested in reconnaissance balloons used by both sides, and, returning to his homeland, began to promote the idea of ​​​​a balloon fleet in the German army. However, his developments did not find understanding among the command, and in 1890 the count, whose rationalization enthusiasm for many years had tired the higher ranks, was dismissed from the army with the rank of lieutenant general upon reaching retirement age.

But Zeppelin did not even think of giving up. Returning to the places of his childhood - on the shores of Lake Constance - he eagerly began to spend the family's money on the creation of the production of airships. Eight years of work were crowned with the launch of a floating assembly shop right on the water surface of the lake, the creation of a team of young talented engineers and the nickname Count the Fool from the neighbors.

The first flight of a prototype airship LZ1 (LZ - Luftschiff Zeppelin) took place on June 2, 1900. The apparatus had a length of 128 m, a rigid structure (a metal frame covered with fabric, inside which gas was placed in gas-tight cylinders) and was driven by two Daimler engines with a power of 14.5 hp. The airship was piloted personally by the count. After much refinement and improvement, by 1906 he managed to create a fully functional model of the airship LZ2, and in 1908 LZ4, on which the seventy-year-old aristocrat stayed in the air for 8 hours, flying to neighboring Switzerland.

Unfortunately, the apparatus was completely destroyed during a thunderstorm, and here an end could be put in the history of zeppelins, since their creator by that time had been pretty overburdened. But a miracle happened: fellow citizens suddenly began to help the inventor financially, and Wilhelm II of Württemberg ordered to allocate 500,000 marks for airships. So after the creation of the company Luftschiffbau Zeppelin GmbH, Count the Fool, according to the same Kaiser Wilhelm II, became "the greatest German of the 20th century."

In 1909, Ferdinand von Zeppelin founded the world's first transport airline, Deutsche Luftschiffahrt AG, and a year later, four airships made regular flights within Germany, for which an appropriate infrastructure was created with hangars and mooring masts.

From the beginning of the First World War, the airship fleet was actively used by the Germans for reconnaissance, propaganda, and even for the bombing of cities, including London and Calais. On August 14, 1914, as a result of a raid by one German airship on Antwerp, 60 houses were completely destroyed, another 900 were damaged. Yes, the ability to slowly, at a speed of 80-90 km / h, overcome a couple of thousand kilometers at a height inaccessible to aviation and artillery and unleash tons of bombs on the enemy is a powerful deterrent factor.

But, in addition to the advantages, the glaring shortcomings of the air giants also appeared. The hydrogen that filled the zeppelins was fire hazardous, maneuverability left much to be desired, and dependence on weather conditions did not add survivability either.

It is interesting to note that Zeppelin himself, well aware of the advantages of a rigid scheme, paid tribute to airships and other designs. He said that "one type of ship does not exclude the other. It is only important that they be developed as best as possible, and defects corrected in the interests of all mankind and culture." The further development of the airship industry confirmed the validity of his words.

As it often happens, the new achievement of engineering thought did not primarily serve the flourishing of culture, but directly opposite goals. For the first time in combat, airships were used by the Italians in 1911-1912. during the war with Turkey. With their help, reconnaissance operations were carried out and bombing strikes were carried out. During the First World War, Germany was the undisputed leader in the field of airship building. During the war years, it was built: in the UK - 10 airships, in Italy - 7, in France - 1, in the USA - 6. Kaiser Germany built about 76 airships, of which 63 were zeppelins and 9 were designed by Professor Schütte-Lanz with a wooden frame. Russia used three British-made Chernomor aircraft. Germany entered the war with three airships: L3, L4, L5.

In total, 1210 sorties were made on German zeppelins. Of the 75 warships lost during the war years as a result of hostilities, 52 were destroyed with a crew of 19, 33 due to shelling or accidents were captured by the British after landing. By the end of the war, Germany had only 7 airships left. The Germans made extensive use of zeppelins to bomb England. The first raid took place on January 15, 1915. According to the directive of the command, the airships should start bombing from Buckingham Palace and government residences, then there was a turn of military factories and residential areas. In one of the night raids, the L-22 airship (with a volume of 36,000 m³) took on board 24 50 kg bombs, 2 100 kg bombs and 2 300 kg bombs. On approaching York, a huge cigar fell into the beams of searchlights and was shot down by anti-aircraft guns. Fighter aircraft began to pose a great danger to airships. So on January 31, 1916, 9 zeppelins were shot down by English planes over the sea at once. To escape from fighters and anti-aircraft guns, airships climbed to heights of up to 5 km, where the crew suffered from low temperatures and lack of oxygen.

The airship accompanies a squadron of German warships

Due to the ever-increasing defensive measures of the enemy, zeppelins for the front were built in two sizes, such as "L 50" and "L 70".

The main distinguishing features of the "L 50" were: five engines, each 260 hp, which could develop sufficient speed even in rarefied high atmospheric layers; four propellers (two rear engines attached to one propeller); central aisle, vessel length 196.5 m; width 23.9 m; gas volume 55,000 cubic meters m; speed 30 m/s (approximately 110 km/h); takeoff weight 38 tons. Type "L 70": seven engines, each with 260 hp; six propellers; central passage, vessel length 211.5 m; the largest diameter is 23.9 m; gas volume 62,000 cubic meters m; speed, 35 m/s (130 km/h); takeoff weight 43 tons.

"L 50" had a team of 21 people, and "L 70" of 25. The crew consisted of: 1 commander, 1 observer officer, 1 quartermaster, 1 chief engineer, 2 riggers (foreman-signalman), 2 people on balancing mechanisms (boatswains), 2 minders (junior officers) for each engine, 1 helmsman, 1 telegraph operator, and 1 telegraph operator for wireless telegraph. The job titles are not accidental, the airships were part of the Kaiser's navy.

The airships carried two heavy machine guns, and later 20 mm cannons. The ammunition consisted of incendiary bombs weighing 11.4 kg, and high-explosive fragmentation bombs weighing 50, 100, and 300 kg each.

Airships were used by the German army for naval reconnaissance. At the beginning of the war, seaplanes did not yet exist. Later, airships were able to rise to a height of 6,000 meters, which was inaccessible to airplanes.

Airship bases were placed as close as possible to the coast, and had sufficient area for takeoff and landing; but they had to be deep enough on land to eliminate the danger of a surprise attack from the sea. The fleet had the following airship bases on the North Sea coast: Nordholz near Cuxhaven, Ahlhorn near Oldenburg, Wittmundshaven (East Friesland), Tondern (Schleswig-Holstein). The Hage base, south of Norderney, was abandoned.

In January 1918, when one of the airships at Ahlhorn spontaneously ignited, the fire exploded into neighboring hangars and four Zeppelins and one Schütte-Lanz were lost. All hangars, except for one, were rendered unusable. After that, the German fleet had only 9 airships at its disposal. From the autumn of 1917, the construction of airships was limited, because the material needed to build airships was needed for more promising airplanes. From that date, only one airship per month was ordered.

In peacetime, the achievements of airship building continued to amaze the world. In 1928, the LZ-127 zeppelin flew to the United States via the Atlantic, and the following year, with three landings, it circled the globe. These successes attracted the attention of the Soviet public to the issues of airship building. "Airship building boom" reached Moscow with the arrival of LZ-127 to the capital. In September 1930, he landed at the Central Airfield. Regarding this event, N. Alliluyeva wrote to I. Stalin, who was on vacation in the south: "All of us in Moscow were entertained by the arrival of a zeppelin, the spectacle was really worthy of attention. All of Moscow looked at this wonderful machine." The arrival of the LZ-127 left such a deep impression on our society that in 1991, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of this event, the USSR Ministry of Communications issued a series of postage stamps dedicated to airships. One of them depicts "Count Zeppelin" against the backdrop of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior.

Ferdinand von Zeppelin died in 1917, and Hugo Eckener, former press officer, took over his firm. Although, under post-war agreements, Germany was forbidden to have dual-use aircraft, Eckener managed to persuade the authorities to build a transatlantic giant rigid airship on helium. By 1924, the LZ126 had arrived. It is curious that it was transferred to the United States as reparations and under the name "Los Angeles" was in service with the US Navy.

By that time, the British airship R-34 had already flown over the Atlantic (in 1919), and the industrialized powers began to rapidly grow in airship building. used as a mooring mast. The 102nd floor of this building was originally a mooring platform with a gangway for climbing to the airship. The popularity of airships was even reflected in one of Steven Spielberg's films about the adventures of Indiana Jones, in one of which the hero of Harrison Ford and his father, performed by Sean O'Connery, fly on a zeppelin. But the giants of the giants were the creations of the same Luftschiffbau Zeppelin GmbH The first of them, the Graf Zeppelin airship (LZ127), built for the 90th anniversary of its “father”, began transatlantic flights in September 1929. In the same year, LZ127, with three intermediate landings, made the legendary round-the-world flight, overcoming in 20 days more than 34,000 km with an average flight speed of about 115 km / h He made regular flights until 1936, was honored with an image on a postage stamp during a Pan-American tour and ended his “life” in 1940, being destroyed by order of the Minister of Aviation of Hitler Germany Hermann Goering.

The largest creation of the Zeppelin company was the LZ129 Hindenburg: 245 m in length, maximum diameter - 41.2 m, 200,000 cubic meters of gas in cylinders, 4 Daimler-Benz engines for 1200 hp. each, up to 100 tons of payload and speed up to 35 km/h. Flights with passengers, including to North and South America, "Hindenburg" began in May 1936. In the same 1936, he made the fastest, only 43-hour flight across the North Atlantic. By May 1937, the Zeppelin had flown 37 flights across the Atlantic Ocean, carrying about 3,000 people.

For about $400, Graf Zeppelin and Hindenburg offered their passengers very comfortable conditions. Travelers were entitled to a separate cabin with a shower. It was possible to pass the time in flight by walking around the spacious glazed cabin, at the service of passengers - a restaurant with real tables, chairs, obligatory silver appliances and a piano (though slightly reduced in size). For smokers, a special room was equipped, finished with asbestos, where up to 24 people could smoke at the same time, using the only lighter on board. The rest of the flammable items were confiscated at the entrance to the board, and this was the only serious restriction for travelers.

This flying airship was created and named after the Reich President of Germany, Paul von Hindenburg. Its construction was completed in 1936, and a year later, the largest airship in the world at that time, crashed.

The construction of the LZ 129 Hindenburg zeppelin took about five years.

The first lift into the air, and a test flight took place on March 4, 1936.

The giant waterfowl was staggering in its scale: 245 meters long and 41.2 meters in diameter.

At the same time, the volume of gas in cylinders was 200 thousand cubic meters!

The speed of the airship at zero wind could reach 135 km / h.

For passengers on board were equipped: a restaurant with a kitchen, an observation deck, 25 bedrooms, showers, a lounge, a reading room and a smoking room.

Most of the metal elements were made of aluminium. Even the piano.

At that time, "Hindenburg" became the champion, having overcome the path from Europe to America in 43 hours.

The last flight for the zeppelin was the 38th in a row.

Having safely crossed the Atlantic Ocean in 77 hours, the airship crashed.

This happened during a landing at the American military base Lakehurst on May 6, 1937.

On his last flight, he went on May 3, 1937. By the morning of May 6, he had already arrived in New York. After several circles over the city and flying over a crowd of journalists on the top platform of the Empire State Building, the Hindenburg headed towards the Lakehurst base, where it was supposed to land. Since a thunderstorm was raging in the city, permission to land was received only in the evening. Already when the landing cables were dropped, an explosion occurred in the area of ​​​​the 4th gas compartment and the airship instantly caught fire. Through the efforts of Captain Max Pruss, the burning Hindenburg nevertheless managed to land, thanks to which 62 of the 97 passengers on board were saved.

The causes of the disaster have not yet been fully determined. There are several versions.

This catastrophe did not become the largest in the history of airships, and the zeppelin itself did not remain the largest in history. However, the story of its existence and death is one of the most famous waterfowl in history.

It was also a disaster for the entire airship industry. In 1938, the LZ130, the second Graf Zeppelin, was built, but almost immediately a law was passed in Germany prohibiting passenger flights of hydrogen airships, and he never managed to fly. However, during World War II, the US Navy used small K-class airships, which could stay in the air for up to 50 hours, to detect German submarines. One of them, on the night of July 18-19, 1943, attacked the submarine U-134, which was sailing on the surface, and was shot down as a result of the ensuing battle. This is the only engagement in World War II involving an airship.

In the USSR during the Great Patriotic War, according to some sources, four airships were used to support combat operations - the USSR V-1, the USSR V-12, the Kid and Pobeda. One of their most important tasks was the transportation of hydrogen for refueling barrage balloons. One departure of an airship with a passing cargo was enough to refuel 3-4 balloons. The airships carried 194,580 cubic meters of hydrogen and 319,190 kg of various cargoes. In total, during the years of World War II, Soviet airships performed more than 1,500 flights. And in the Soviet Union in 1945, a special aeronautical detachment was organized on the Black Sea to search for mines and sunken ships. For this purpose, in September 1945, the same Pobeda flew from Moscow to Sevastopol, with which observers happened to find mines even after repeated sweeping of the bay.

Projects using airships periodically appear in different countries so far. For example, Aerocraft from NASA is an airship that can float on the surface of the water. It is assumed that Aerocraft will fly mainly over the ocean, carrying cargo and passengers faster than ships and cheaper than airplanes. British engineer and inventor Roger Munk has been offering several interesting ideas for the last twenty years. Among them, for example, presented in three modifications of SkyCat with a carrying capacity of 15, 200 and even 1000 tons. There are also developments of the Swiss Prospective Concepts AG. The case of Count von Zeppelin lives on. Even though he hasn't won yet.

Clickable 1600 px

Aeros, an aviation company based in Montebello, California, USA, has unveiled the first footage of the fully completed Aeroscraft aircraft. This is not an airplane, not a helicopter or an airship, but something in between - a real revolution in the industry for a hundred years to come, as Igor Pasternak, CEO of the company, assures. Aeroscraft will be tested in flight mode over the next two months. ...

The end of the article about modern airships . Well, he doesn’t want to fit into the framework of the LiveJournal post,

Let me remind you now of some kind of aviation topic, for example, it was a long time ago or

Airship!

Airship- is an aircraft lighter than air, which is a combination of a balloon with a power plant (usually an internal combustion engine with a propeller) and an attitude control system (rudders), thanks to which the airship can move in any direction, regardless of the direction of air flows.

The term "airship" comes from the French word "dirigeable" - controlled.

The first flights of airships!

The idea of ​​creating an airship was proposed and formulated in 1783 by the inventor Jean Baptiste Marie Charles Meunier. He proposed the design of an airship with an ellipsoid-shaped shell. The airship was supposed to be controlled using three propellers, manually rotated by the efforts of 80 people. By changing the volume of gas in the balloon by using a balloonet, it was supposed to regulate the flight altitude of the airship, and therefore he proposed two shells - the outer main and the inner.

The practical flight of the airship took place only on September 24, 1852. It was a steam-powered airship designed by Henri Giffard, who borrowed many ideas from Meunier.

The next technological breakthrough came in 1884 with the first fully controlled free-flight in the French electric-powered military airship La France by Charles Renard and Arthur Krebs. The length of the airship was 52 m, the volume was 1900 m³. In 23 minutes, the airship flew a distance of 8 km using an 8.5 liter engine. With.

All the first airships were short-lived and extremely fragile. Regular controlled flights of airships did not take place until the advent of the internal combustion engine.

On October 19, 1901, the French balloonist Alberto Santos-Dumont, after several attempts, flew around the Eiffel Tower at a speed of just over 20 km / h on his Santos-Dumont number 6 apparatus.

Airship Santos Dumont number 6, 1901.

In parallel with the development of soft airships, the development of rigid airships was also started. Subsequently, it was rigid airships that were able to carry more cargo than airplanes, and this situation persisted for many decades. Much for the creation of rigid airships, and the development of their design, did a German count, whose name was Ferdinand von Zeppelin.

Construction of the first Zeppelin airships began in 1899 at a floating assembly plant on Lake Constance in Manzell Bay, Friedrichshafen. It was organized on the lake because Graf von Zeppelin, the founder of the plant, spent all his fortune on this project and did not have the means to rent land for the plant.

The experimental airship "LZ 1" (LZ stood for "Luftschiff Zeppelin") had a length of 128 m and was balanced by moving weight between two gondolas; it was equipped with two Daimler engines with a power of 14.2 hp. (10.6 kW).

The first flight of the Zeppelin LZ 1 took place on July 2, 1900. The flight of the Zeppelin "LZ 1" lasted only 18 minutes as the airship was forced to land on the lake after the weight balancing mechanism broke down. After the refurbishment of the Zeppelin LZ 1, the rigid airship technology was successfully tested on subsequent flights. The speed record of the French airship La France (6 m / s) was broken by 3 m / s, but this was still not enough to attract significant investment in airship construction. Ferdinand von Zeppelin received the necessary funding a few years later. And the very first flights of his airships convincingly showed the promise of their use in military affairs.

By 1906, Ferdinand von Zeppelin was able to build an improved rigid airship that interested the military.

For military purposes, at first semi-rigid, and then soft Parseval airships, as well as hard-type Zeppelin airships, were used.

In 1913, the Schütte-Lanz rigid airship was adopted. Comparative tests of these aeronautic vehicles in 1914 showed the superiority of rigid airships.

In 1910, the first air passenger line Friedrichshafen-Dusseldorf was opened in Europe, along which the airship "Germany" ran.

In January 1914, Germany, in terms of total volume (244,000 m³) and in terms of the combat qualities of its airships, had the most powerful aeronautic fleet in the world.

In the Russian Empire, the first technically sound design for a large cargo airship was proposed in the 1880s by the Russian scientist Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky.

At the end of the 19th century, a separate aeronautical park operated in the Russian army, which was at the disposal of the Commission for aeronautics, pigeon mail and watchtowers. At the maneuvers of 1902-1903 in Krasnoe Selo, Brest and Vilna, methods of using balloons in artillery and for aerial reconnaissance (observation) were tested. Convinced of the advisability of using tethered balls, the War Ministry decided to create special units at the fortresses in Warsaw, Novgorod, Brest, Kovno, Osovets and the Far East, which included 65 balls. The manufacture of airships in Russia began in 1908.

Military use of airships!

The promise of using airships as bombers was understood in Europe long before airships were used in this role. H. G. Wells, in his book War in the Air (1908), described the destruction of entire fleets and cities by combat airships.

Unlike airplanes (the role of bombers was performed by light reconnaissance aircraft, the pilots of which took several small bombs with them), airships were already a formidable force at the beginning of the World War.

The most powerful aeronautic powers were Russia, which had a large Aeronautical Park in St. Petersburg with more than two dozen devices, and Germany, which had 18 airships. On the eve of the First World War, the Austro-Hungarian Air Force included 10 airships.

Military airships were directly subordinate to the main command. Sometimes they were attached to fronts or armies. At the beginning of the war, the airships performed combat missions under the leadership of the officers of the general staff sent to the airships. In this case, the commander of the airship was assigned the role of a watch officer. Thanks to the success of the design solutions of Count Zeppelin and Schütte-Lanz, Germany had in this area a significant superiority over all other countries of the world, which, if used correctly, could be of great benefit, in particular for deep exploration. German military airships could overcome a distance of 2-4 thousand km at a speed of 80-90 km / h and bring down several tons of bombs on the target. For example, on August 14, 1914, as a result of a German airship raid on Antwerp, 60 houses were completely destroyed and another 900 damaged.

For a covert approach to the target, the airships tried to use clouds. At the same time, due to the imperfection of the navigation equipment of those times and the need for visual observation of the surface in order to achieve an accurate approach to the target, the equipment of military airships included observation gondolas: inconspicuous capsules with an observer equipped with telephone or radio communication, which descended from the airships down on cables up to 915 m long .

However, by September 1914, having lost 4 devices, the German airships switched only to night operations. Huge and unwieldy, they were an excellent target for armed enemy aircraft, moreover, they were filled with extremely flammable hydrogen. Obviously, they were inevitably to be replaced by cheaper, more maneuverable and resistant to combat damage vehicles.

"Golden Age" of airships!

After the end of the First World War in the USA, France, Italy, Germany, the USSR and other countries, the construction of airships of various systems continued.

The years between the first and second world wars were marked by significant advances in airship technology.

The first lighter-than-air craft to cross the Atlantic was the British airship R34, which flew from East Lothian, Scotland to Long Island, New York in July 1919, and then returned to Pulham, England.

In 1924, the German-built airship LZ 126 (named ZR-3 "Los Angeles" in the US) made a transatlantic flight.

In 1926, a joint Norwegian-Italian-American expedition led by R. Amundsen on the airship "Norway" (N-1 "Norge") designed by Umberto Nobile carried out the first transarctic flight about. Svalbard - North Pole - Alaska.

By the end of the 1920s, airship technology had advanced to a very high level.

For example, the German rigid airship LZ-127 "Graf Zeppelin". Length 237 m, diameter 30 m, 5 engines, speed 135 km/h, carrying capacity 60 tons, shell volume 105,000 cubic meters, built at the Zeppelin shipyards in 1928.

German airship "Graf Zeppelin" on trials.

In September and October 1929, the airship LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin made the first transatlantic flights.

In the same year, 1929, the Graf Zeppelin airship made its legendary round-the-world flight with three intermediate landings. For 20 days, he covered more than 34 thousand kilometers with an average flight speed of about 115 km / h.

In the summer of 1931, the famous flight of the Graf Zeppelin airship to the Arctic took place, and soon the airship began to perform relatively regular passenger flights to South America, which continued until 1937.

Traveling in an airship of this era was far superior in comfort to contemporary (and in some respects modern) aircraft. The hull of the passenger airship often had a restaurant with a kitchen and a saloon.

For example, the British rigid airship R101 had 50 one-, two- and four-seater passenger cabins with sleeping places located on two decks, a dining room for 60 people, two promenade decks with windows along the walls. Passengers used mainly the upper deck. On the lower deck were the kitchens and toilets, and also housed the crew. There was even an asbestos-lined smoking room for 24 people.

Passengers of the airship R101 on the promenade deck.

There was a smoking ban on the Hindenburg airship. Everyone on board, including passengers, was required to hand over matches, lighters and other devices that could cause a spark before boarding.

German airship "Hindenburg" in flight.

One of the largest airships in the world - the American military airship "Akron" with a nominal volume of 184 thousand m³ - could carry on board up to 5 small aircraft, several tons of cargo and was theoretically capable of flying about 17 thousand km without landing.

Assembling the airship "Akron" at the factory.

Airship "Akron" on the pier.

American airship "Akron" in flight.

Airships in the USSR!

In the USSR, a lot of attention was paid to airships, even a special organization "Airshipstroy" was created, which built and put into operation more than ten airships of soft and semi-rigid systems.

In 1937, the largest Soviet airship "SSSR-B6" with a volume of 18,500 m³ set a world flight duration record - 130 hours 27 minutes.

After the war, the USSR built several semi-rigid Coast Guard airships, primarily for use in the Arctic regions.

The last Soviet airship was the SSSR-V12 bis built in 1947.

Airship USSR-V12.

In the early 1980s, the airship was calculated for the needs of the Navy, but due to funding problems during the perestroika reforms, the project was mothballed.

After the collapse of the USSR, the state-owned enterprise DKBA, which was engaged in the design of air beds, balloons and airships, led the Russian aeronautical technology industry, and became the core enterprise of the emerging industry.

In the 1990s, DKBA was developing a project for a 2DP soft airship with a carrying capacity of about 3 tons, and after revising the terms of reference and indicating the need to create an apparatus with a higher carrying capacity, the project continues under the name "DS-3 airship". In 2007, a preliminary design of this apparatus was prepared.

Russian airship DS-3.

Today, airships with a carrying capacity of 20, 30, 55, 70, 200 tons are being developed in Russia. A significant part of the work has been carried out on the project of the “lens-shaped” airship DP-70T, which is designed to transport cargo with boat-free year-round operation in all climatic zones. On the constructive basis of this airship, variants of an airship with a carrying capacity of 200-400 tons have been worked out.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the Thermoplan project appeared in the USSR, a distinctive feature of which was the use to create lift, in addition to the helium section of the airship and the section with air heated by engines (an idea expressed by K. E. Tsiolkovsky in 1890s). Thanks to this, it was possible to reduce the weight of unproductive ballast by 70-75% in comparison with airships of other designs and, consequently, increase efficiency (up to 28.125 grams per ton-kilometer for a design carrying capacity of 2000 tons). In addition, such an airship does not need closed boathouses and mooring masts, which drastically reduces the cost of servicing infrastructure. The disc-shaped form of the hull makes it possible to fly with side and head winds of 20 m/s.

The airship "Thermoplan".Thermoplan

Perhaps the testing of disc-shaped airships was the cause of many legends about flying saucers.

Airships in the USA!

The development of airships in the United States, by the Pentagon, is carried out in two directions. On the one hand, small cheap balloons and tactical airships are being created, on the other hand, work is underway to design strategic stratospheric airships.

So, in early 2005, the US military announced tests at the Arizona test site of the Combat SkySat Phase 1 mini-aerostat, which allowed ground services to be contacted at a distance of 320 km. The weight of the mini-balloon is about 2 kg, in case of mass production, the cost can be about 2000 USD.

US military airships will also find use in the Future Combat Systems program being developed. It is with the help of high-capacity airships that the United States plans to transfer equipment to places of military conflicts.

In February 2005, in Iraq, the Pentagon tested the MARTS (Marine Airborne Re-Transmission Systems) airship, which is equipped with equipment that allows you to communicate with units within a radius of 180 km. It is able to withstand winds up to 90 km / h and hang in the air for two weeks without ground maintenance.

The American company "JP Aerospace" is preparing for testing a 53-meter V-shaped airship "Ascender". The first flight involves climbing to a height of about 30 km and returning to the ground. In case of successful tests, the Pentagon suggests the possibility of opening funding for the construction of a large three-kilometer V-shaped airship for stratospheric purposes.

Airship! Airship features!

Since an airship is an aircraft lighter than air, it will “float” in the air due to the buoyancy force if its average density is equal to or less than the density of the atmosphere. Usually, a gas lighter than air (hydrogen, helium) is pumped into the shell of a classic airship, while the carrying capacity of the airship is proportional to the internal volume of the shell, taking into account the mass of the structure.

In early airships, all the gas was contained in a single-volume envelope with simple walls of oiled or lacquered fabric. Subsequently, shells began to be made of rubberized fabric or other (synthetic) materials, single-layer or multi-layered to prevent gas leaks and increase their service life, and the volume of gas inside the shell began to be divided into compartments - cylinders.

In modern airship building, the use of durable fiberglass and metal-plastics is considered promising for the manufacture of an airship shell.

Modern airships can be equipped with a lift control system that can use the aerodynamic lift of the shell, which occurs by increasing the angle of attack of the shell, as well as by compressing atmospheric air and storing it in ballonets inside the shell or releasing it from ballonets. In addition, the shell necessarily includes gas (for carrier gas) safety valves (to prevent shell rupture due to an increase in shell tensile forces with an increase in flight altitude and with an increase in temperature in it), as well as safety air valves on air balloonets. The gas valves open only after the air balloons are completely empty.

On the first airships, the payload, crew and power plant with a supply of fuel were placed in a gondola. Subsequently, the engines were moved to the engine nacelles, and a passenger gondola began to stand out for the crew and passengers.

In addition to the shell, nacelles and propeller, the design of a classical airship usually provides for the simplest gravitational and aerodynamic system for controlling the orientation and stabilization of the apparatus. The gravitational system can be either passive or active. Passive gravitational stabilization is carried out in pitch and roll even at zero airspeed, if the nacelle(s) is installed below (at the bottom) of the shell (see Figures 2 and 3). In this case, the greater the distance between the shell and the gondola, the greater the stability of the apparatus to disturbing influences. Active gravitational stabilization and orientation was usually carried out in pitch by moving forward or backward (along the longitudinal axis of the apparatus) some load or ballast, and the more rigid the design of the apparatus, the better the controllability. Aerodynamic stabilization and orientation of the apparatus is carried out in pitch and course (yaw) with the help of the tail unit (aerodynamic stabilizers and rudders) only at a significant speed of its flight. At a low flight speed, the effectiveness of aerodynamic rudders is insufficient to ensure good maneuverability of the vehicle. On modern airships, an active automatic system of orientation and stabilization along its three construction axes is increasingly used, where rotary screw propellers are used as the executive elements of the system.

Mooring devices on the first vehicles were guides - cables 228 or more meters long, freely hanging from the shell. When the airship was lowered to the required height, the numerous berthing crew grabbed onto these cables, pulling the airship to the landing point. Subsequently, mooring masts were built for mooring airships, and the devices themselves were equipped with an automatic mooring unit.

Airships! Airship types!

Airships, manufactured and operated at different times and up to the present, differ in the following types, purpose and methods.

Shell type: soft, semi-hard, hard.

By type of power plant: with a steam engine, with a gasoline engine, with an electric motor, with diesel engines, with a gas turbine engine.

Propulsion type: wing, with a propeller, with an impeller, jet.

By appointment: passenger, cargo, military.

According to the method of creating the Archimedean force: filling the shell with a gas lighter than air, heating the air in the shell (thermal airships), evacuating the shell, combined.

Lift control method: lift gas bleed, lift gas temperature change, ballast air injection/bleed, power plant variable thrust vector, aerodynamic.

Airships! Airship flight!

In flight, a classic airship is usually controlled by one or two pilots, with the first pilot mainly maintaining the set course of the device, and the co-pilot continuously monitors the change in the pitch angle of the device and manually using the yoke either stabilizes its position or changes the pitch angle at the command of the commander. Climbing and descent are carried out by tilting the airship with the elevators or by turning the engine nacelles - the propellers then pull it up or down.

Airships! Landing of the airship!

When mooring the airship, people on the ground picked up the ropes dropped from different points of the airship and tied them to suitable ground objects.

Large classical airships of the 1930s were practically not adapted to landing on an unequipped platform, as, for example, a helicopter can do. These operational limitations are caused by the incommensurability of control actions and wind disturbances, that is, due to insufficient maneuverability.

From the top of the mooring mast, a guidedrop was dropped, which was laid along the ground in the wind. The airship approached the mast from the leeward side, and a guidedrop was also dropped from its nose. People on the ground connected these two guides, and then the airship was pulled up to the mast with a winch - its nose was fixed in the docking socket. The moored airship can rotate freely around the mast, like a weather vane.

Mooring tower with airship.

During the interaction of airships with the fleet, special mother ships equipped with mooring masts were used.

Advantages and disadvantages of airships!

Advantages:

Large payload capacity and range of non-stop flights.

In principle, higher reliability and safety is structurally achievable than that of airplanes and helicopters. Even in major disasters, airships have shown a high survival rate of people.

Less specific fuel consumption than helicopters and, as a result, lower flight cost per passenger-kilometer or unit mass of the transported cargo.

The dimensions of the interior spaces can be very large.

The duration of stay in the air can be measured in weeks.

The airship does not require a runway (but it does require a mooring mast) - moreover, it may not land at all, but simply “hover” above the ground (which, however, is feasible only in the absence of a strong side wind).

Disadvantages:

Relatively low speed compared to airplanes and helicopters (usually up to 160 km / h) and low maneuverability - primarily due to the low efficiency of aerodynamic rudders in the course channel at low flight speed and due to the low longitudinal rigidity of the shell.

Difficulty landing due to low maneuverability.

Dependence on weather conditions (especially with strong winds).

Very large dimensions of the required hangars (boathouses), the complexity of storage and maintenance on the ground.

Relatively high maintenance costs for an airship, especially for larger ones. As a rule, modern small airships require a so-called berthing and launch team of 2 to 6 people. American military airships of the 1950s and 1960s required the efforts of about 50 sailors for a reliable landing, and therefore, after the appearance of reliable helicopters, they were removed from service.

Relatively low reliability and durability of the shell.

Modern airship!

Modern technologies make it possible to create models of airships, reducing many of the shortcomings inherent in them before!

This allows modern airships to solve important and complex tasks!

And of course, the airships of the future will expand the existing horizons in the field of airship building!

Airships and airship building! The airship is controlled!