Discussions

Sailblimp concept (battling the wind)

Posted by Elijah Pemberton on November 27, 2010 at 12:03pm
After reading a few pages of comments on some of the UAV blimp techniques here, the general consensus appears to be that a bigger blimp will not be knocked around as much by wind, making them (somewhat) impractical for UAV.

I was wondering what other stabilization techniques you guys know of. For example, have there ever been sails (like sailboat sails) attached to a LTA dirigible? In my mind it seems possible that if you maintain tack on a few lightweight (and collapsible) sails, a blimp could even use the wind as a form of propulsion.

I'm willing to put some time into this idea - are there any flight sims that would let me combine the two before I try out a tethered prototype?

What other methods do you guys know about?

sailing_against_the_wind.jpg

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Replies

  • Wes Collins September 20, 2011 at 9:57am

    Hi.  I am an airship designer.  I primarly work with manned thermal dirigibles (Hot air airships), but also have some traditionally lifted designs that I am working on as well.

     

    You are correct about the dirigible frame being a more sturdy airframe design, but the fact that the craft is lighter-than-air makes it very difficult to control in stiff winds.  The future of airship design is in ships that can attain an altitude of 35,000 feet or more to access the jet stream.  You can achieve your concept without sails by creating a unit that can attain jet stream heights.  Use solar powered electric propulsion systems for primary thrust, and then use the jet stream as a speed boost if you want to fly the thing overseas. 

     

    As far as sail-power under the jet stream, while I believe it is possible, much research needs to be done to ensure stable control of the unit so that it does not go sailing into the nearest apartment building or worse.  I think, with the research that has been done so far, that a jet-stream boost system is the closest that comes.

  • ken wood November 29, 2010 at 10:39am
    Elijah,
    Yes sailing is the correct metaphor. What if you devised a blimp that could change its shape based upon wind direction?
    The issue of course is how do you counteract the force of the wind. Going into the wind one would need to reduce the exposure but retain the buoyancy (lift).
    So, then there would need to be a way to inflate-deflate sections of the shape-shifter blimp.
    Getting complicated isn't it?

    Check out this sail maker website: http://www.sailcut.com/Main_Page

    They have a free sail CAD program that may help you with design.
  • anaximander November 27, 2010 at 4:42pm
    If you put another sail below to balance it then you could avoid the roll... as for moving downwind, with some cunning use of sail you could bend airflow about to steer, but your speed would decrease as you got further off the wind and you'd mostl likely end up with your speed being a sine wave kinda shape, with the peak when you're running straight before the wind, and zero when you're at right angles to it. Moving into the wind would be mostly impossible without using a motor or something to provide a counterforce - in marine sailing vessels, it'd be the sea providing that counterforce, of course.
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