Thanks to French verb At least two words with the meaning “to manage” appeared in the Russian language. One of them - the word conductor - is a person who directs a group of musicians. The second word refers to a controlled - as opposed to an uncontrolled hot air balloon - balloon. Meet the airship.

By definition, an airship is a lighter-than-air aircraft, a balloon with an engine. The engine allows the airship to move regardless of the direction of air currents. It is clear that airships arose only after the advent of engines: before that, humanity dreaming of the sky made do with hot air balloons.

The inventor of the airship is considered to be the French mathematician Jean Baptiste Marie Charles Meunier. He came up with everything: the shape of an ellipsoid, three propellers for controllability, which had to be manually rotated by as many as 80 people, two shells: to change the volume of gas and, therefore, the flight altitude.

Meunier's ideas were implemented by a completely different person, the French engineer Henri Giffard. He designed the world's first airship with a three-horsepower steam engine. In September 1852, Giffard flew it over the Paris Hippodrome and flew about 30 kilometers from average speed 10 kilometers per hour. It is from this flight that the era of motor aviation and the era of airships are counted.

Another twenty years later, an internal combustion engine was installed on a similar aircraft - this was done by the German engineer Paul Henlein.

Giffard's airship is usually called a soft airship. In such systems, the fabric body also serves as a gas shell. The Great Tsiolkovsky noted the disadvantages of such airships: the inability to maintain altitude, the high probability of fires, and poor horizontal controllability.

If you install a metal truss in the lower part of the shell, you will get a semi-rigid airship - such was the famous “Italy” by Umberto Nobile.

Tsiolkovsky’s criticism of soft airships was not unfounded: back in the 80s of the 19th century, he calculated and proposed a design for a large cargo airship of a rigid structure with a metal skin.

Early airships contained the entire volume of gas in a single shell, which was a simple oiled cloth. Then shells began to be created from rubberized materials. This increased the service life of the airship. A little later, the gas began to be divided into different cylinders.

Airships differ from each other by:

Type of shell, which can be hard, soft or semi-hard;

By power plant (gasoline or diesel engine, electric motor or steam engine)

By purpose (for passenger transport, military or cargo)

According to the method of controlling Archimedean forces (thermal airships, displacement or combined), etc.

What was invented was realized in Russia. On own funds Count Zeppelin built a rigid airship and personally tested it. By the First World War, the Count's airships, which were called "zeppelins" in his honor, became a means of transportation.

Even at a time when the first airplanes looked more like flying whatnots, airships were already flying and amazed people with their size, elegant shapes and flight capabilities. And in the first half of the twentieth century, a real competition began between airships and airplanes in their practical use for civil and military purposes.

During the war, zeppelins bombed London, after it ended they flew across the Atlantic by shuttle, and one even flew around the world. The Zeppelins were let down by hydrogen, which was used instead of helium: after the explosion and fire of the Hindenburg airship, nicknamed the “heavenly Titanic,” the Zeppelins became history.

The first airship was built in 1923. Then, at the main directorate of the Main Air Fleet, they created the Airship Construction and invited Nobile to join the designers. Nobile managed it, and created the semi-rigid Soviet airship "USSR V-5". Then they created the USSR V-6, and it even set a world record for flight duration.

Germany was especially successful in airship construction, whose comfortable vehicles began transporting passengers and cargo over long distances. And who knows what means would have won this competition if not for the war, which rejected airships because of their slowness and easy attack even simple weapons. Of course, in combat, aircraft were faster, more maneuverable, better protected, etc., and motor fuel was then relatively cheap.

Despite this, interest in airships did not fade throughout the twentieth century, especially when all sorts of energy crises began, but their mass production did not take place. Firstly, it is difficult to overcome the competition of aircraft manufacturing, which has turned into a gigantic industry, and secondly, in technical terms, airship manufacturing is far behind, both in terms of design and in terms of infrastructure for design, construction and maintenance.

At the end of XX - beginning of XXI century, interest in airships increased again due to a sharp rise in price motor fuel and their obvious advantages over aviation. What is so attractive about the airship?

When using helium, it is much safer than an airplane. After all, helium does not completely fill the entire body of the airship, but is in bags. If one bag bursts, the rest work. The airship is much more environmentally friendly. It is not necessary to use hydrocarbon fuel to propel it. Can be applied nuclear engines, electric motors, including solar-powered ones, etc.

The Russian “aeronautical fleet” currently has 7 transport ships. But federal and regional programs for the development and construction of airships for various purposes are already in place. The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation does not lag behind with orders. At the same time, K.E.’s previous, previously unrealized ideas are used. Tsiolkovsky, as well as new developments that allow you to control the lifting force of an airship, perform vertical takeoff and landing, hover in the air with almost no energy consumption, land vertically on water and a hard surface, etc.

In domestic development there are hybrids of an airship and an airplane, which can be used in any mode - airplane, helicopter, as a sea hovercraft, etc. Unmanned versions of airships, controlled from the Earth, are also being developed for cargo transportation, video surveillance, telecommunications purposes, etc.

Let's talk about some of the airships of the future being developed in different countries. A hydroairship is designed to fly above the surface of the sea to transport cargo and passengers faster than ships and cheaper than airplanes. Of course, its speed characteristics will be lower than those of our ekranoplan, but the level of passenger service is no worse than on a comfortable ocean liner. The military is also interested in this type of airship in order to use it to search for the enemy and coordinate the actions of their assets.

It is also planned to use, instead of Earth satellites, stratospheric airships rising to a height of 20-25 km for receiving and transmitting digital radio signals, organizing mobile communications, etc. The use of such devices will cost much less than launching satellites. In addition, their equipment is easy to replace, they can be safely disposed of, while satellites cannot be disposed of, and they pose a danger to spacecraft and the environment long after their failure. There are many projects for private use of airships, such as air bikes, etc.

In general, it is possible that soon we will see on our TV screens annoying advertisements like: “Fly with the airships of the Russian Airship Fleet - reliable, profitable, convenient!”

On September 24, 1852, the Frenchman Henri Giffard took to the air in a hydrogen-filled controlled airship with a mechanical engine. He managed to reach a height of 1800 m and a speed of about 10 km/h. The airship's propeller was rotated by a steam engine.

The Count and his zeppelin

The flight was successful, but the steam engine did not provide any serious advantages as an engine.

Subsequent attempts were made with electric and diesel engines. Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin managed to make a breakthrough in this area. His rigid airship took off near the city of Manzel on Lake Constance On July 2, 1900, the LZ-1, developed jointly with Theodor Kober, was 128 m long. The diameter of the cylindrical fabric shell on an aluminum frame was 11.7 m. Two gasoline engines 14 horsepower each allowed the “flying cigar” to reach speeds of up to 28 km/h.

Despite several failures with subsequent airship models, the Zeppelin factory was built in Friedrichshafen in 1908. In 1919, regular passenger transportation on zeppelins began. During the First World War they were also used for air raids on England. The first attempts were successful, but the unsuitability of airships for military purposes soon became clear: the flammable hydrogen that filled the shell made them easy prey for the enemy.

Flying Luxury Hotels The biggest challenge for the aeronautics pioneers of the 1920s. there was a flight across the Atlantic. In October 1924, Hugo Eckener managed to cross for the first time on a zeppelin Atlantic Ocean. LZ-126, filled with 70,000 m3 of hydrogen, reached New York in 70 hours. Since 1932, passenger and cargo airship service opened between Frankfurt and Rio de Janeiro, as well as Frankfurt and the town of Lakehurst near New York. Among the rich, such travel became fashionable, and new models of increasingly impressive sizes resembled high-class hotels inside.

"Hindenburg"

In 1934, construction began on the Zeppelin Hindenburg, the largest airship ever built. It was 245 m long and, using diesel engines with a capacity of 1,100 horsepower, developed a speed of up to 135 km/h. On the twentieth transatlantic flight, on May 6, 1937, an explosion occurred on approach to Lakehurst. 36 people died in the fire. This cataharoph ended the era of giant airships.

• 1784: Jean-Baptiste Meunier published a design for an airship with a propeller.
• 1872: Paul Haenlein used a gas engine in his airship.
• 1898: Flexible airship No. 1 by Alberto Santos-Dumont with a gasoline engine.
• 1997: The Zeppelin NT took off on its maiden flight from its historic site in Friedrichshafen.

On September 24, 1852, in the suburbs of Paris, Versailles, he took to the skies first airship- controlled balloon Girard I. Length first airship was 44 m, it had a spindle shape and was equipped with a steam engine. Its designer is Henri-Jacques Girard, a former railway worker who is passionate about construction balloons, flew on his giant creation more than 31 km, reaching a speed of 10 km/h in the sky over Paris. Thus began the era of airships! Airships were distinguished from balloons by the elongated, spindle-shaped shape of the balloon. The cylinder was filled with hydrogen - a gas that was much lighter than air, moved thanks to a steam engine that rotated the propeller, and was controlled using a steering wheel. In the second half of the 19th century. The steam engine was replaced by an internal combustion engine, which was designed by Alberto Santos-Dumont. At the beginning of the 20th century. Thanks to the support of the German official Ferdinand von Zeppelin, the era of the heyday of giant airships began.

They were used to transport goods, as well as for military purposes: during the First World War, London was bombed from airships. Zeppelin introduced many innovations: his first balloon had a rigid aluminum structure over which fabric was stretched and then covered with paint. All this increased the strength of the structure. In addition, there were gondolas for passengers and crew, and the length of the airship reached 126 m. On July 2, 1900, Zeppelin I (L21), with five people on board, took off over Lake Costanza and gained a height of 400 m and covered 6 km in 17 minutes. In 1920, very expensive flights across the Atlantic on airships became fashionable among the rich and aristocrats, and airships were even nicknamed flying hotels. Unfortunately, due to frequent plane crashes involving the use of flammable hydrogen in the 1930s. The fashion for airships came to an end.

Around the world in 21 days

In 1929, the airship Graf Zeppelin (1.2127) flew around the world in 21 days, landing only in Tokyo, Los Angeles and Lakehurst (New Jersey). In nine years of flight, he crossed the Atlantic 139 times!

The largest airship

The biggest ever built airships became the “Hindenburg” (1.2129), its length reached 245 m, it was built in Germany, at the Zeppelin plant. But fate the largest airship ended in disaster.

Hindenburg disaster

Hindenburg disaster one of the most unpleasant events in the history of the world. On May 6, 1937, having completed its 63rd ocean flight, the Hindenburg suddenly burst into flames as it landed (photo left). 35 people died in the flames, another 62 were injured severe injuries. Since then passenger airships no more were built.

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

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 long hovering over a given place. Attached to the lower part of the hull (sometimes several gondolas) are the control cabin, rooms for passengers and crew, fuel and various equipment. Airships usually fly at altitudes of up to 3000 m, in some cases - up to 6000 m. The take-off of an airship occurs as a result of the discharge of ballast, and the descent is due to the partial release of lifting gas. At moorings they are attached to special mooring masts or brought in for storage and maintenance. Airship frames are usually assembled from flat triangular or polyhedral trusses; can be made of fabric (impregnated for gas-tightness) or made of polymer film, either made from thin metal sheets or plastic panels. The external volume of the airship (hull) is up to 250 thousand m3, length up to 250 m, diameter up to 42 m.

The first project of a controlled balloon was proposed in 1784 by J. Meunier (France). But it was only in 1852 that the Frenchman A. Giffard was the first in the world to fly 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 the end 19th century until the early 1990s. airships were built in Germany, France, the USA, Great Britain, and the USSR. The largest airships LZ-129 and LZ-130 were created in Germany in 1936 and 1938. They had a volume of 217 thousand cubic meters, four engines each with a total power of 3240 and 3090 kW, reached speeds 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. Editor-in-Chief G.P. Svishchev. 1994 .

Synonyms:

See what an “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 is attached a shell of fabric or aluminum alloy. Lifting... ... Scientific and technical encyclopedic dictionary

airship- I, m. dirigeable m. 1. air. A lighter-than-air aeronautical vehicle equipped with engines and propellers, a controlled balloon. Ush. 1934. The first aeronaut, who managed to control himself in the air, received the title of airship..., not at all due to... Historical Dictionary of Gallicisms of the Russian Language

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

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

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

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 approval of the Federal Aviation Rules Requirements for aircraft crew members... ... Official terminology

- (from the French dirigeable controlled) a controlled balloon with an engine. It has a streamlined body, one or more nacelles, and tail. The first flight in a controlled balloon with a steam engine was made by H. Giffard (1852, France). Up to 50... ... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

AIRSHIP, airship, husband. (French dirigeable, lit. controlled) (aviation). A lighter-than-air aeronautical vehicle equipped with engines and propellers, a controlled balloon. Dictionary Ushakova. D.N. Ushakov. 1935 1940 ... Ushakov's Explanatory Dictionary

AIRSHIP, me, husband. A motorized controlled balloon with a cigar-shaped body. | adj. airship, oh, oh. Ozhegov's explanatory dictionary. S.I. Ozhegov, N.Yu. Shvedova. 1949 1992 … Ozhegov's Explanatory Dictionary

airship- A balloon moving in the atmosphere using power plant and controlled by altitude, direction, speed, range and flight duration. [FAP dated March 31, 2002] Topics: aviation regulations... Technical Translator's Guide

Having once abandoned airships, today humanity is finding more and more advantages and benefits in these aircraft. But the sight of a mighty ship sailing across the sky is so attractive that just for the sake of this majestic spectacle, you want them to return...

As a rule, articles about modern airships begin with memories of how, almost 70 years ago, the giant German Zeppelin Hindenburg died in fire at the American Lakehurst airbase, and three years later, Hermann Goering ordered the remaining airships to be dismantled for scrap and the hangars to be blown up. The era of airships ended then, journalists usually write, but now interest in controlled balloons is actively reviving again. However, the vast majority of our fellow citizens, if they ever see “revived” airships, do so only at various kinds of air shows - there they are usually used as original advertising media. Is this really all these amazing airships can do? To find out who needs airships today and why, we had to turn to specialists building airships in Russia.

Pros and cons

An airship is a controlled, self-propelled balloon. Unlike a conventional balloon, which flies solely in the direction of the wind and can only maneuver in altitude in an attempt to catch the wind in the desired direction, the airship is capable of moving relative to the surrounding air masses in the direction chosen by the pilot. For this purpose, the aircraft is equipped with one or more engines, stabilizers and rudders, and also has an aerodynamic (“cigar-shaped”) shape. At one time, airships were “killed” not so much by a series of catastrophes that horrified the world, but by aviation, which developed at an extremely fast pace in the first half of the twentieth century. The airship is slow - even a plane with piston engines flies faster. What can we say about turboprops and jet cars. The large windage of the hull prevents the airship from accelerating to airplane speeds - the air resistance is too high. True, from time to time they talk about projects of ultra-high-altitude airships that will rise to where the air is very rarefied, which means its resistance is much less. This will supposedly allow it to reach speeds of several hundred kilometers per hour. However, so far such projects have been developed only at the concept level.

On August 17, 2006, pilot Stanislav Fedorov reached in a thermal airship Russian production"Augur" AU-35 ("Polar Goose") with an altitude of 8180 meters. Thus, a world record that had stood for 90 years and belonged to the German airship Zeppelin L-55 was broken. The Polar Goose record was the first step in the implementation of the High Start program, a project of the Russian Aeronautical Society and the Metropol Group of Companies to launch light spacecraft from high-altitude airships. If this project is successful, an advanced aerostat-space complex will be created in Russia, capable of economically launching private satellites weighing up to 10-15 kilograms into orbit. One of the intended uses of the “High Start” complex is the launch of geophysical rockets to study the circumpolar regions of the Arctic Ocean.

While losing to aviation in speed, controlled balloons have a number of important advantages, thanks to which, in fact, airship construction is being revived. Firstly, the force that lifts the balloon into the air (the Archimedes force, known to everyone from school), is completely free and does not require energy, unlike the lifting force of the wing, which directly depends on the speed of the device, and therefore on the engine power. An airship needs engines mainly for moving in a horizontal plane and maneuvering. That's why aircraft This type can make do with motors of significantly less power than would be required by the aircraft with the same payload. From here, and this is the second thing, comes the greater environmental friendliness of airships compared to cruise aviation, which is extremely important in our time.

The third advantage of airships is their virtually unlimited carrying capacity. The creation of super-lifting aircraft and helicopters has limitations in the strength characteristics of structural materials. For airships, there are no such restrictions, and an airship with a payload of, for example, 1000 tons is not at all fantastic. Let's add the possibility here long time being in the air, no need for airfields with long runways and greater flight safety - and we have an impressive list of advantages that quite balance out the slowness. However, slowness, as it turned out, can rather be attributed to the advantages of airships. But more on that a little later.

In airship construction there are three main types of construction: soft, rigid and semi-rigid. Almost all modern airships are of the soft type. In English-language literature they are referred to as “blimp”. During World War II american army actively used “blimps” to monitor coastal waters and escort of ships. Airships with a rigid frame are often called "zeppelins" in honor of the inventor of this design, Count Friedrich von Zeppelin (1838 - 1917).

Helicopter competitor

Our country is one of the world centers of the resurgent airship construction. The industry leader is the Rosaerosystems group of companies. After talking with its vice-president Mikhail Talesnikov, we found out how modern Russian airships work, where and how they are used, and what awaits us ahead.

Today, two types of airships created by Rosaerosystems designers are in operation. The first type is the two-seat airship AU-12 (shell length 34 m). Devices of this model exist in three copies, and two of them are used from time to time by the Moscow police to patrol the Moscow Ring Road. The third airship was sold to Thailand and is used there as an advertising medium.

Semi-rigid airships are distinguished by the presence in the lower part of the shell, as a rule, of a metal truss that prevents deformation of the shell; however, as in a soft structure, the shape of the shell is maintained by the pressure of the lifting gas. The semi-rigid type includes modern German airships “Zeppelin NT”, which have a supporting frame made of carbon fiber inside the shell.

Much more interesting work for airships of the AU-30 system. The devices of this model are distinguished by larger dimensions (sheath length 54 m) and, accordingly, greater load capacity. The AU-30 gondola can accommodate ten people (two pilots and eight passengers). As Mikhail Talesnikov told us, negotiations are currently underway with interested parties about the possibility of organizing elite air tours. Flight at low altitude and low speed (this is the advantage of low speed!) over beautiful natural landscapes or architectural monuments and can truly become an unforgettable adventure. Similar tours take place in Germany: airships of the revived Zeppelin NT brand take tourists over the picturesque Lake Constance, in the very region where the first German airship once took flight. However, Russian airship builders are confident that the main purpose of their devices is not advertising and entertainment, but to perform serious industrial tasks.

Here's an example. Energy companies that operate power lines must regularly monitor and diagnose the condition of their networks. The most convenient way to do this is from the air. In most countries of the world, helicopters are used for such monitoring, but rotary-wing aircraft have serious disadvantages. In addition to the fact that the helicopter is uneconomical, it also has a very modest range of action - only 150-200 km. It is clear that for our country, with its many thousands of kilometers of distance and extensive energy economy, this is too little. There is another problem: the helicopter experiences strong vibrations in flight, causing sensitive scanning equipment to malfunction. An airship that moves slowly and smoothly, capable of traveling thousands of kilometers on a single refueling, on the contrary, is ideal for monitoring tasks. Currently, one of the Russian companies that has developed scanning equipment based on laser technology, as well as software for it, is using two AU-30 airships to provide services to energy workers. An airship of this type can be used for various types of monitoring earth's surface(including for military purposes), as well as for mapping.

The multi-purpose airship Au-30 (a multi-purpose patrol airship with a volume of more than 3000 cubic meters) is designed to fly for long periods of time, including at low altitude and low speed. Cruising speed 0−90 km/h // Main engine power 2x170 hp // Maximum flight range 3000 km // Maximum height flight 2500 m.

How do they fly?

Almost all modern airships, unlike the zeppelins of the pre-war era, are of the soft type, that is, the shape of their shell is maintained from the inside by the pressure of the lifting gas (helium). This is explained simply - for relatively small-sized devices, a rigid design is ineffective and reduces payload due to the weight of the frame.

Despite the fact that airships and balloons are classified as lighter-than-air vehicles, many of them, especially when fully loaded, have the so-called constriction, that is, they turn into heavier-than-air vehicles. This also applies to the AU-12 and AU-30. We already said above that an airship, unlike an airplane, needs engines mainly for horizontal flight and maneuvering. And that's why "mostly". The “overhang,” that is, the difference between the force of gravity and the Archimedean force, is compensated by a small lifting force that appears when the oncoming air flow runs into the airship shell, which has a special aerodynamic shape—in this case, it works like a wing. As soon as the airship stops, it will begin to sink towards the ground, because the Archimedean force does not completely compensate for the force of gravity.

The two-seat airship AU-12 is designed for training aeronautical pilots, patrolling and visual monitoring of roads and urban areas in the interests of environmental monitoring and traffic police, control over emergency situations and rescue operations, security and surveillance, advertising flights, high-quality photography, film, television and video filming for advertising, television, cartography. On November 28, 2006, for the first time in the history of Russian aeronautics, the AU-12 was issued a type certificate for a two-seat airship. Cruising speed 50 - 90 km/h // Main engine power 100 hp // Maximum flight range 350 km // Maximum flight altitude 1500 m.

The airships AU-12 and AU-30 have two take-off modes: vertical and short-range. In the first case, two screw engines with variable thrust vector move to a vertical position and thus push the device away from the ground. After gaining a small height, they move to a horizontal position and push the airship forward, resulting in a lifting force. When landing, the engines return to a vertical position and switch to reverse mode. Now the airship, on the contrary, is attracted to the ground. This scheme allows us to overcome one of the main problems in operating airships in the past - the difficulty of stopping the device in a timely manner and accurately mooring it. In the days of the mighty Zeppelins, they had to be literally caught by the cables lowered down and secured near the ground. The mooring teams in those days numbered tens and even hundreds of people.

During a run-on takeoff, the engines initially operate in a horizontal position. They accelerate the device until sufficient lift is generated, after which the airship rises into the air.

"Sky Yacht" ML866 Aeroscraft Interesting new generation airship projects are being developed on the North American continent. The Wordwide Eros corporation intends to create the “celestial super-yacht” ML 866 in the near future. This airship is designed according to a hybrid scheme: in flight, about 2/3 of the weight of the machine will be compensated by the Archimedean force, and the device will rise upward thanks to the lifting force that arises when the incoming air flows around the shell of the ship. For this purpose, the shell will be given a special aerodynamic shape. Officially, the ML 866 is intended for VIP tourism, however, given that Wordwide Eros receives funding in particular from the government agency DARPA, which deals with defense technologies, it is possible that the airships will be used for military purposes, such as surveillance or communications. And the Canadian company Skyhook, together with Boeing, announced the JHL-40 project - a cargo airship with a payload of 40 tons. This is also a “hybrid”, but here the Archimedean force will be supplemented by the thrust of four rotors, creating thrust along the vertical axis.

The pilot performs altitude maneuvering and lift control, in particular, by changing the pitch (angle of inclination of the horizontal axis) of the airship. This can be achieved both with the help of aerodynamic rudders attached to the stabilizers, and by changing the centering of the device. Inside the shell, inflated with helium under slight pressure, there are two balloons. Ballonets are bags made of airtight material into which outside air is pumped. By controlling the volume of the balloon, the pilot changes the pressure of the lifting gas. If the ballonet inflates, the helium contracts and its density increases. At the same time, the Archimedean force decreases, which leads to a decrease in the airship. And vice versa. If necessary, you can pump air, for example, from the bow balloon to the stern one. Then, when the alignment changes, the pitch angle will take positive value, and the airship will move to the nose-up position.

It's easy to see that modern airship has quite complex system control, which involves operating the rudders, varying the mode and thrust vector of the engines, as well as changing the alignment of the apparatus and the pressure of the lifting gas using balloons.

Heavier and higher

Another direction in which domestic airship builders are working is the creation of heavy cargo-passenger airships. As already mentioned, for airships there are practically no restrictions on carrying capacity, and therefore in the future real “air barges” may be created that will be able to transport almost anything by air, including super-heavy oversized cargo. The task is simplified by the fact that when the linear dimensions of the shell change, the carrying capacity of the airship increases in cubic proportion. For example, the AU-30, which has a 54 m long shell, can carry up to 1.5 tons of payload. The new generation airship, currently being developed by Rosaerosystems engineers, with a shell length of only 30 m more, will carry a payload of 16 tons! IN long-term plans group of companies - construction of airships with a payload of 60 and 200 tons. Moreover, it is in this segment of airship construction that a small revolution should occur. For the first time in many decades, an airship made according to a rigid design will take to the air. The lifting gas will be placed in soft cylinders, rigidly attached to a frame covered with an aerodynamic shell on top. A rigid frame will add safety to the airship, since even in the event of a serious helium leak, the device will not lose its aerodynamic shape.

Death of the Giants

History of air disasters since a large number victims has its origins in the era of airships. The British airship R101 took off on its maiden flight on October 5, 1930. On board he carried a government delegation led by Air Transport Minister Christopher Birdwell Lord Thompson. A few hours after takeoff, R101 descended to a dangerous height, crashed into a hill and burned out. The cause of the disaster was design errors. Of the 54 passengers and crew members, 48 ​​were killed, including the minister. 73 American sailors died when the airship Akron, caught in a storm, crashed into the sea off the coast of New Jersey. It happened on April 3, 1933. People were killed not by the blow of a fall, but by ice water: There were no lifeboats on the airship and only a few cork vests. Both dead airships were pumped with explosive hydrogen. Helium airships are much safer.

Another interesting project, for which R&D has already been carried out in the Rosaerosystems group of companies, is the geostationary stratospheric airship "Berkut". The idea is based on the properties of the atmosphere. The fact is that at an altitude of 20-22 km the wind pressure is relatively small, and the wind has a constant direction - against the rotation of the Earth. In such conditions, it is quite easy to fix the device at one point relative to the surface of the planet using engine thrust. The stratospheric geostationary can be used in almost all areas in which geostationary satellites are currently used (communications, transmission of television and radio programs, etc.). At the same time, the Berkut airship will, of course, be significantly cheaper than any spacecraft. In addition, if a communications satellite fails, it cannot be repaired. In case of any malfunctions, the Berkut can always be lowered to the ground to carry out the necessary maintenance and repairs. And finally, “Berkut” is an absolutely environmentally friendly device. The airship will take energy for engines and relay equipment from solar panels, placed on the top of the shell. At night, power will be provided by batteries that have accumulated electricity during the day.

Airship "Berkut" Inside the shell of the Berkut there are five woven containers with helium. At the surface of the earth, the air pumped into the shell will compress the containers, increasing the density of the lifting gas. In the stratosphere, when the Berkut is surrounded by rarefied air, the air from the shell will be pumped out, and the containers will inflate under helium pressure. As a result, its density will drop and, accordingly, the Archimedean force will increase, which will keep the apparatus at altitude. "Berkut" was developed in three modifications - for high latitudes (HL), for middle latitudes (ML), for equatorial latitudes (ET). The geostationary characteristics of the airship allow it to carry out surveillance, communication and data transmission functions over a territory covering an area of ​​more than 1 million km 2 .

Even closer to space

All airships discussed in this article are of the gas type. However, there are also thermal airships - actually controlled hot air balloons, in which heated air serves as the lifting gas. They are considered less capable than their gas counterparts, mainly due to their lower speed and poorer handling. The main areas of application of thermal airships are air shows and sports. And it is in sports that Russia has the highest achievement.

On August 17, 2006, pilot Stanislav Fedorov reached a height of 8180 m on the Russian-made thermal airship “Polar Goose”. However, practical applications may also be found for sports airships. The Polar Goose, rising to a height of 10-15 km, can become a kind of first stage of the space launch system. It is known that during space launches a significant amount of energy is spent precisely at the initial stage of ascent. The farther the launch site is from the center of the Earth, the greater the fuel savings and the larger the payload that can be put into orbit. That is why cosmodromes are trying to be located closer to equatorial region to gain (due to the flattened shape of the Earth) a few kilometers.