RU2178370C1 - Airship - Google Patents

Abstract

FIELD: lighter-than-air aerostats; manufacture of highly efficient semi-rigid airships. SUBSTANCE: semi-rigid airship includes fin framework, shell nose and aft compartments, middle compartment and gastight rigid partitions. Ballast reservoirs in form of cluster of rigid finned spheres resting against rigid gastight partitions are located in nose and aft compartments; they are equidistantly inscribed in contour of nose and aft extremities of airship. Ballast reservoirs are filled with pressure air. EFFECT: enhanced efficiency in all modes of flight, stoppage and hovering. 2 cl, 2 dwg, 5 ex

Description

 The invention relates to the field of aeronautics and can be used mainly for the construction of aircraft lighter than air, such as airships.

 A known airship equipped with a gas-tight, supporting body and air bow and tail chambers (see Germany patent DE 4009763 C2, application P 40097663.3-42 from 03/27/90, class A 64 A 1/38, B 64 B 1/106) to control flight and balance the airship. In this case, the cameras are separated by rigid partitions from the supporting body. However, the use of vacuum requires a significant power set in the design of the supporting body to prevent its destruction from atmospheric pressure, and this significantly increases the dead weight of the structure and therefore such an airship can be economically unprofitable.

 Also known is a Skyship-500 type airship of the English company Airship Industries Ltd (see the journal Foreign Military Review N 7, 1963, pages 57-58) with a hull of circular cross section and elliptical shape in plan having two air balloons inside the body for pressure regulation and longitudinal balancing. The disadvantage of this airship is the use of tanks with ballast water, which limits its use, both at low temperatures and in desert conditions.

 Also known is a semi-rigid airship, consisting of a shell, keel carcass, bow and stern compartments, a middle compartment and rigid gas-tight partitions made of plate wall elements with an internal carcass (see USSR patent N 716520, class A 64 A 1/102, 1974 g.), adopted by us for the prototype. However, such an airship has poor flight control and balance, as the bow and stern compartments are designed to withstand high-speed air pressure in flight, and not for balancing. The use of loadable ballast on such an airship limits its use, as well as on the analogue described above. In addition, the use of ballast water without special security measures when crossing the borders of states and international flights can create customs and sanitary problems in connection with the requirement of a guarantee of ballast water safety and smuggling situations.

 The invention is aimed at solving the problem of increasing the efficiency of the airship by using as the ballast of the environment, for example, air with the forced change of its physical parameters. The indicated technical problem is solved in that the spatial structure of the bundles of ballast tanks filled with air under pressure is located in the nose and aft compartments of the airship, and the air ballast tanks are made in the form of rigid, ribbed spheres resting on rigid gas-tight partitions, while the front and rear extreme spheres are equidistantly inscribed in the contour of the shells of the bow and stern ends of the airship.

Moreover, in all modes of flight, stop and hovering, the airship contains air ballast tanks filled with air under pressure, subject to the following conditions:
P _in = P - P _d ,
where P _in - the weight of the air pumped into the ballast tanks;
P is the lifting force of the carrier gas;
P _d - the weight of the airship at any time of flight, stop and hover,
It is known to use gaseous medium (air) as a ballast (see RF patent N 2093413 C1, class B 64 B 1/00, 07/30/91, and USSR author's certificate N 687727, class B 64 B 1/08, 1974 )

 However, these solutions have one serious drawback. In each of these cases, gaseous ballast interacts with the working (carrier) gas, transferring pressure to it through the central elastic strut (patent 2093413 C1) or through the diaphragm of the interlayer space (a.s.N. 687727), which even with slight redundancy can destroy the structure. The total effort on the shell area from this overpressure reaches tens of tons. These forces are transmitted to the attachment points of the shell and can destroy them. Therefore, it is necessary to exclude any interaction of ballast and carrier gases, as proposed in the present invention.

 In contrast to the essence of analogues and prototype, the use of the environment (air) as the ballast in the present invention leads to the appearance of a new property - the possibility of flight with full compensation during the flight of all weight losses and weight changes of the airship, for example weight loss from fuel, water, carrier gas leaks, temperature changes and weather conditions. Unloading the payload will also not require the loading of any ballast (water or soil, etc.).

 There is a known principle of increasing ballast to compensate for fuel weight consumption (see US Patent N 2,310,767, CL 244-95, 1937; UK Patent N 2,059,898, CL B 64 B 1/70, 1981; as well as the book "Ballooning in Inventions" ", Yu. S. Boyko, M.: Transport, 1999, pp. 57-62). However, in this case, the change in ballasting will not allow you to control and maneuver the airship, for example, to urgently decrease or gain altitude, which can be done in the present invention, since the ranges of changes in ballasting cover all changes in the weight of the airship from compensation for fuel loss to compensation for the weight of the payload in the proposed technical decision. This property does not have any known technical solution.

 The invention is illustrated by drawings.

 In FIG. 1 shows a general view of the airship, including the shell of the airship 1, bow 2 and aft 3 compartments, gas-tight partitions 4 and 5, ballast tanks 6, nacelle 7, engines 8, air discharge and discharge system 9, keel frame 10. Moreover, ballast tanks 6 interconnected in a single spatial structure, based on a rigid partition 4 and 5.

 In FIG. 2 shows a layout of ballast tanks 6, which are finned spheres, in the airship compartment. The spheres 6 are rigidly connected to the partitions 4, 5 by the docking nodes 11. Between the spheres and between the spheres and the power stringer 12, for example, at the junction 13, the docking nodes have compensation gaps 14, which avoids transferring the load from the pressurization of the spheres 6 to the airship’s power structure and thereby eliminating its destruction, because without compensation clearances, the total forces acting on the docking assemblies can reach tens and hundreds of tons. Docking eyes 15 are mounted on the outer ribs of the spheres 6 (see section AA).

 Section A-A shows the construction of the rib sphere made by gluing layers 16 of a high-strength material, for example, a Kevlar type with a binder, for example epoxy. The ribs 17 located outside the sphere and pasted over with Kevlar layers form peculiar "parallels and meridians" and create a single rigid structure on the surface of the sphere. The ribs 17 can be made of both Kevlar and metal, for example duralumin.

Such a design of the sphere makes it possible to create air pressure inside the sphere, sufficient for all the ballast tanks to create the weight necessary for ballasting the airship. (At a pressure of 6 atm. The weight of 1 m ^{3 of} air is 7.2 kg).

 In flight, due to the fact that the extreme finned spheres (front and back) are equidistantly inscribed in the structure of the shell of the extremities, the aerodynamic load from the pressure head is transmitted through the shell to a bunch of spheres and then closes to a rigid spatial structure formed by partitions 4 and 5 and the keel frame 10 .

 The air discharge and discharge system 9 includes a compressor with a drive, receivers, instrumentation and control equipment, including a computer control system that sets the flight program and the corresponding air discharge and discharge modes. The system 9 can be autonomous, and if necessary, have a drive and power take-off for its functioning from the supporting engines 8.

 The airship performs its functions as follows.

 According to a predetermined flight program, involving, for example, the loading of a certain payload, including fuel, from the ballast tanks as the load is loaded, compressed air is discharged, by weight equal to the received cargo. Subsequent rise to a given flight altitude is ensured by the discharge of ballast in the form of compressed air by weight equal to the required excess lifting force. To maintain flight altitude with fuel, water, etc. consumption leading to a decrease in the airship weight, compressed air is injected (pressurized) into ballast tanks, while the weighted intake of compressed air corresponds to the weighted fuel, water, etc. ensures the flight stability of the airship at a given height. To reduce the airship, the arrival of compressed air as ballast increases according to a given program, and the airship carries out controlled descent. During the subsequent unloading of the payload, crew, etc., compressed air is pumped as ballast in weight equal to the payload, which ensures a stable position of the airship near the surface of the earth.

 A description of the operation of the proposed airship is illustrated by examples 1-5.

 Example 1. Airship at the surface with a payload. In this case, the weight of the air in the ballast tanks is equal to the amount of excess lift, lifting the airship to the desired flight altitude.

Example 2. Flight of an airship at an estimated height. In this case, the weight of the airship is continuously decreasing. To fulfill the condition P _in = P - P _d it is necessary during the flight to pump air into the ballast tanks 6 as fuel, water, flight conditions change.

 Example 3. An airship in flight without a payload. In this case, the weight of air in the ballast tanks is equal to the weight of the payload + continuous injection of air into the ballast tanks 6, as in example 2.

 Example 4. When flying at low temperatures (in winter). Flight modes can be as in examples 1, 2, 3, but this additionally produces heating of the air pumped into the ballast tanks 6 from the working engines to compensate for the loss of lift of the carrier gas when it is cooled.

 Example 5. The airship produces a decrease. Depending on the required reduction rate, air is pumped into the ballast tanks 6 with the calculated value of the air flow.

The application of the proposed design in comparison with existing varieties of airships provides the following advantages:
- assumes full controllability and effectiveness of the airship in deserts, low temperatures and a change in flight conditions;
- does not require loading of ballast from the earth's surface and thereby ensures high quality of operation, allows for flights that are not available to known airship designs due to a new property - controlled changes in ballasting in flight and thereby full compensation during flight of any weight changes.

Claims (2)

 1. The airship, consisting of a shell, keel carcass, bow and stern compartments, a middle compartment and rigid gas-tight partitions made of plate wall elements with an internal skeleton, characterized in that in the bow and stern compartments of the airship there is a spatial structure of bundles of ballast tanks filled air under pressure, resting on rigid gas-tight partitions, and the air ballast tanks are made in the form of rigid, ribbed spheres, while the front and rear edges The lower spheres are equidistantly inscribed in the contour of the shells of the bow and stern ends of the airship. 2. The airship according to claim 1, characterized in that it contains air ballast tanks filled with air under pressure, based on the condition observed in all flight modes, stopping and hovering of the airship:
P _in = R-P _d
where R _in - the weight of the air pumped into the ballast tanks;
P is the lifting force of the carrier gas;
R _d - the weight of the airship at any time of flight, stop and hovering of the airship.

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