GB309969A - Improvements in or relating to lighter-than-air aircraft - Google Patents

Abstract

309,969. Airship Guarantee Co., Ltd., Burney, C. D., and Bird, A. L. Dec. 19, 1927. Divided application. Aerostats.-An airship has compartmented or separate bags for lifting gas, and a fuel gas containing less than approximately 50 per cent of free hydrogen which is burnt in: the engines in conjunction with oil fuel so as to maintain the static equilibrium of the airship or to ensure any required variation of buoyancy as the fuel is consumed. The gas and oil may be used in different engines or in the same engine and in the latter case the gas and air after spark ignition serve to ignite the atomized oil fuel which may be thereby induced through a carburettor jet during tha suction stroke or forcibly injected into the cylinder at the end of the compression stroke or at the beginning of or during the firing stroke. The fuel gas under pressure may be used as in an injector to atomize the oil especially when kerosene or mixtures of kerosene and Diesel oil are used. The engines are started on gas and air only after which the gas is reduced and the oil added. The induction pipe may be electrically heated. Kerosene, paraffin or Diesel oil may be used as liquid fuel and the gas may be of a density varying from 50 per cent to 80 per cent of that of air and contain methane, ethylene and higher gaseous members of these series, or coal gas, producer or water gas may be used. A suitable gas for example is that produced by the Pintsch process. The gaseous fuel is carried in the lower parts of the hydrogen gas bags and separated therefrom by a flexible partition C or contained in separate bags beneath the hydrogen bags. In either case the fuel gas is subjected to the expansion pressure of the hydrogen, and blow off valves E with vertical trunks E<1> are provided on both bags. In general, only fuel gas is lost on expansion and on the operation of manoeuvring valves. Strengthening bands on the lower bags are adapted to engage an axial girder D should the hydrogen bag become accidentally deflated. The engines are arranged at a higher level than the fuel gas bags which are gravity fed from perforated pipes arranged at the upper sides of the bags. The engines may be arranged in the fins as described in Specification 259,264.