RU2256584C1 - Airship - Google Patents

Abstract

FIELD: aerostation.

SUBSTANCE: proposed airship has three load-bearing envelopes filled with hydrogen and helium and interconnected by means of articulations and ropes, vertical stabilizer, nacelle, engines, propellers and ballast. Load-bearing envelopes are movable relative to one another and may be locked in any position. Each of load-bearing envelopes is divided by partitions into hermetic sections whose shape is selected from the following groups of forms: cube, hexagonal prism, rhombo-dodecahedron and cubo-octahedron.

EFFECT: improved adaptation of envelope form to flight conditions.

1 dwg

Description

The field of technology.

The invention relates to the field of aeronautics.

The level of technology.

Known from [1,2,3] airships are soft, semi-rigid and rigid designs. All of them have a shape that is maintained unchanged during operation. However, the operating modes of airships vary significantly:

- take-off and landing on land, water, ice;

- movement by land, water, ice;

- active and passive flight at altitudes up to 500 m;

- active and passive flight at altitudes from 500 m to 10,000 m.

In addition, operating conditions vary: temperature, pressure and density of the surrounding air, wind speed and direction, precipitation. The airships given in [1, 2, 3] are intended primarily for flight in stable air currents, at an altitude of 500 to 4000 m, at a positive ambient temperature. Operation of the devices in other conditions: with significant turbulence, with an altitude of less than 500 or more than 4000 m, negative temperatures and precipitation - inevitably leads to accidents. One of the causes of accidents is the invariable shell design, inadequate to the mode and operating conditions.

The most developed bearing shells of the airships from [1,2,3] have an internal structure: a frame and up to 20 airtight sections or balloons with devices for filling and releasing the carrier gas. The internal structure of the shell is designed to maintain shape, control lift and ensure the reliability of the operational characteristics of the airship, in the first place, survivability. However, structuring the shell for 20 sections or less does not counteract accidents and does not ensure the survivability of airships; a fire in one of the sections is not localized by partitions and goes to other sections, the destruction of one section and the leakage of gas from it leads to a loss of the bearing capacity of the shell as a whole.

Balloons and airships are known from [4, 5, 6], in which the internal structure of the shells contains a sufficient number of sealed sections to ensure the fire safety of the devices. When filling the space between sections with insulating gas, the fire from one small section does not pass to others, and the destruction of several sections does not lead to a loss of the bearing capacity of the shell as a whole. However, the space between the sections has a significant associated volume, which is also filled with carrier gas to improve the bearing capacity of the shell. In this case, if the outer shell is broken or in case of fire, a lot of carrier gas expires or burns out and the bearing capacity is lost.

The airship from [3] has the most developed shell structure and is selected as a prototype.

Disclosure of the invention.

An airship with three bearing shells is offered (see drawing).

1. The lower shell 1 is made of sheet composite material and has the shape of a straight pentagonal prism, one side face and all side ribs of which are horizontal, and on the bases there are polyhedrons that determine the pointed shape of the bow and stern parts of the airship. The four other lateral faces of the prism are pairwise equal and oriented. The faces adjacent to the horizontal above (the lower face of the shell) are the side faces of the shell. The faces adjacent to the side faces of the shell are the upper faces of the shell. The shell has partitions of sheet composite material, which divide the entire volume into identical, sealed sections 2, for example, cubic, filled with hydrogen or helium and having drainage and refueling means. Sections adjacent to the boundaries of the shell can be truncated and filled with helium. The volume of one section is defined as the smaller of the two:

- 0.05% of the total volume of the bearing shells of the entire airship;

- the volume of hydrogen (different for different materials), the combustion of which in the full section under operating conditions does not destroy adjacent sections.

A vertical, trapezoidal stabilizer 3 made of sheet composite material is mounted at the stern of the lower shell. A sealed nacelle 4 with engines and propellers 5, winches, slings, ballast (sand in bags) uniformly distributed along the entire length of the nacelle and other control and navigation equipment is attached to the lower shell from the bottom. The gondola has the shape of a straight triangular prism with triangular pyramids on the bases and complements the shape of the shell to a straight quadrangular prism with polyhedra on the bases.

2. The two upper shells 6 are in the form of a straight triangular prism, the lateral ribs of which are horizontal, and there are triangular pyramids on the bases. The shells have partitions of sheet composite material, which divide the volumes of the shells into the same sealed sections 2, for example, cubic, filled with hydrogen and having drainage and refueling means. Sections adjacent to the boundaries of the upper shells may have a truncated shape and are filled with helium.

Sections of all three shells can also have one of the forms: hexagonal prism, rhombic dodecahedron, cuboctahedron. Each of them can densely fill the shells without gaps between sections, similar to filling crystalline grains of crystals with symmetrical crystal lattices [7]. Partitions between sections of sheet composite material play the role of a rigid, three-dimensional frame. The upper shells are connected to the lower shell by hinges and slings 7, providing movement and fixation of the upper shells relative to the lower shell from the extreme upper position to the extreme lower. The hinges are located on the right and left side ribs of the lower shell. The slings are attached at one end to the upper shell, and the second to the winch in the gondola, respectively, to the right and left along the side. The upper shells in the extreme upper position complement the shape of the lower shell with the gondola to a straight rhombic prism with rhombic pyramids on the bases. This position of the upper shells gives the greatest lateral windage and the smallest vertical. The upper ribs of the upper shells in the lowermost position are in the same horizontal plane with the lower edge of the nacelle, and all can be supports or keels. This position of the upper shells gives a decrease in lateral windage and an increase in vertical. The movement of the upper shells from the upper position to the lower and back is carried out by turning around the side ribs of the lower shell.

The design of the apparatus is shown in the drawing. Solid lines depict two orthogonal projections of the airship and its longitudinal and transverse sections at the extreme upper position of the upper shells. The dashed lines show the upper shells in the lowermost position.

The proposed airship provides the following technical results:

- adaptation of the shape of the airship to various modes and operating conditions;

- the probability of failure-free operation is not less than 99.99%;

- Overhaul survivability of 100%.

A brief description of the drawings.

The drawing in solid lines shows two orthogonal projections of the airship and its longitudinal and transverse sections at the extreme upper position of the upper shells. The dashed lines show the upper shells in the lowermost position.

The implementation of the invention.

When using the proposed airship, the following practical tasks are solved.

1. Landing and take-off on a prepared earth surface.

The upper shells are in their highest position. Shells filled with carrier gas create a lift sufficient for vertical take-off, leveling and maintaining the airship in the air at the required height. Bleeding carrier gas provides a vertical landing on the keel of the lower shell.

2. Landing and take-off to an unprepared earth's surface.

The upper shells are in an intermediate position between the extreme upper and extreme lower. After touching an uneven surface, the upper shells are additionally moved until the keels touch the earth's surface and the airship is placed in an acceptable, stable position. During take-off, after separation from an uneven surface, the upper shells move to their highest position.

3. Passive flight.

It is carried out with the upper shells in the extreme upper position due to air flow and aerostatic supporting force.

4. Active flight.

It is carried out with the upper shells fixed in the extreme upper position, due to engine thrust, aerostatic and insignificant aerodynamic forces.

5. Soaring.

It is carried out in an attached state with the upper shells fixed in the extreme upper or middle position due to aerostatic and aerodynamic forces.

6. Moving on a flat earth surface.

It is carried out with the upper shells fixed in the lower position and touching the keels of the earth's surface, due to the propeller thrust. Maintaining in an upright position is ensured by aerostatic force, support on the keels of the shells and the screen effect.

7. Fire safety of the shells filled with hydrogen. It is achieved due to fireproof partitions between sections, their size, shape and tightly packed “crystalline” structure of the shells. Additionally, the boundary sections are filled with inert helium.

8. Safety of carrier gas leakage from shells.

This is achieved due to the “crystalline” structure of the shells without gaps between sections, the volume of which is not more than 0.05% of the total volume of the bearing shells. There are also backup sections with carrier gas balanced by reserve ballast.

9. Mechanical strength.

This is achieved due to the three-dimensional frame formed by partitions of composite material between the sections of the shells.

Sources of information

1. UDC 629.73 (09)

Boyko Yu.S., Turyan V.A.

The blue dream of centuries. - M.: Mechanical Engineering, 1991.128 s: ill.

ISBN 5-217-01369-9

2. The Great Soviet Encyclopedia. (In 30 volumes) / Ch. ed. A.M. Prokhorov. Vol. 3. M., “Soviet Encyclopedia”, 1972, T. 8

3. Patent RU No. 2003596

4. Patent SU No. 1693838

5. Patent SU No. 1756200

6. Patent SU No. 1821411

7. UDC 548.0

Modern crystallography (in four volumes).

Volume 1. Symmetry of crystals. Methods of structural crystallography.

/ B.K. Vanstein and others M., “Science”, 1979. 384 p.

Claims (1)

An airship having three bearing shells filled with hydrogen and helium, connected by hinges and slings, a vertical stabilizer, a nacelle, engines, propellers and ballast, characterized in that the bearing shells are movable relative to each other and fixed in various positions, while each of the bearing shells is divided by partitions into sealed sections with a shape selected from the group of shapes: cube, hexagonal prism, rhombic dodecahedron and cuboctahedron.