Professional Documents
Culture Documents
ISSN: 2081-9927.
DOI: 10.2478/s13531-011-0070-1.
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Review article
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1 University of Beira Interior, CAST-Center for Aerospace Science and Technology, Dep. Electromechanical Engineering,
Cal. Fonte do Lameiro, 6201001 Covilh, Portugal
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2 Universit degli Studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia, Dipartimento di Scienze e Metodi dellIngegneria,
Via Amendola 2, Pad. Morselli, 52122 Reggio-Emilia, Italy
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Abstract: After a few decades in which airships have been depromoted to the level of being only considered as a mere
curiosity they seem now to reappear. The main reasons for this are related to the recent progress in technology of
materials, aerodynamics, energy and propulsion. Airships are also presenting themselves as green friendly air
vehicles, in particular if solar powered airships are considered. Their ability to remain aloft for long time periods
have also expanded the range of mission profiles for which they are suited. Herein we have concentrated on a
critical overview of propulsion mechanisms for airships. These include a detailed overview of past, present, and
future enabling technologies for airship propulsion. Diverse concepts are revisited and the link between the airship
geometry, and flight mechanics, is made for diverse propulsion system mechanisms.
Keywords: Airship Buoyancy Lift gas Propulsion Review
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1.
Introduction
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Airships have the inherent ability of being able to generate lift without the use of aerodynamic flow around wings,
as is the case of heavier-than-air vehicles. This makes
them advantageous in cases where we need to hover at
low cost, thus providing long endurance with low energy
consumption. We must make clear that we are not dealing with balloons and aerostats, since these do not have
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E-mail:
E-mail:
E-mail:
E-mail:
galinaili@yahoo.com.
pascoa@ubi.pt, corresponding author.
antonio.dumas@unimore.it.
michele.trancossi@unimore.it.
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Table 1.
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Weight [Kg]
Volume [m3 ]
95 000
180 000
184 000
255 800
5 824
212 000
58 600
20 000
1 105
1 105
1 105
2.48 108
7.16 106
2.1 105
3.8 107
1.4 104
3.9 104
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1 677
3 340
3 340
2 535
313
1 788
4 000
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2.
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2.1.
Stern propulsion
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deals with this problem was supported in theoretical analysis or in wind tunnel experiments, see [11, 12]. Both design
approaches concluded that a wake propeller would operate
more efficiently than a conventional mounted system. In
reality, a stern-mounted propeller would have an additional advantage, in particular for long endurance flight,
that is related to the reduction of noise, since the system is
mounted at a greater distance from living quarters. NASA
performed wind tunnel experimental testing and concluded
that a stern mounted propeller would achieve higher efficiencies than when using a conventional assembly or even
a fin-mounted-propeller. This is of paramount importance
in order to ensure an increase of airship range.
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3.
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3.1.
Several countries have decided to investigate solar powered airships. In Russia, the HAA Berkut solar powered
airship was designed with three different envelopes of di-
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(a)
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(b)
Figure 1.
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(a)
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(b)
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Figure 2.
Unconventional non-rigid inflatable airship: a) Ascent sequence after launch without being fully inflated; b)Fully
inflated airship at cruise altitude after ascent.
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is needed not only for propulsion but also for other components, such as rudder machines, ballonet fan, ballonet
valves, payload electric equipment, and also for the control
of the airship.
However, due to the variable angle of incidence between
the Sun radiation and the solar cells during flight, the
solar power supply varies permanently and can even be
zero. Therefore, the power supply has to be buffered, as in
the case of LOTTE airship, with flight accumulators serving
as an intermediate reservoir of energy [33, 34].
The airship power systems should be constructed in decentralized and redundant fashion, as in the power system
of the P500 [35]. In this case there are two power systems
a smaller power system and a single larger one. Yet, more
redundancy can be introduced by using distributed power
systems connected through a power ring or net.
These systems can thus function as back up of each other.
The engines and control systems will continue to function
even in the event of loss of one or more (in case of several
propulsion systems) of the independent power modules.
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3.2.1.
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Figure 3.
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Figure 4.
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5.
Conclusions
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for the needed dynamic lift. However, when accelerating lighter than air vehicles its very important pay attention to the added masses and ground effects [54]. They
exert acceleration in take off conditions and, in case of
MAAT cruiser/feeder concept, also when the feeder approaches the cruiser airship. This is another area, related
to unsteady propulsion design conditions, where it is of
paramount importance to perform additional research work.
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Acknowledgments
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References
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[27]
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[29]
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[30]
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[31]
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[32]
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[33]
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[34]
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[35]
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[36]
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[37]
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[39]
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[43]
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[52]
[53]
[54]
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