The Rise And Fall of Airships and Again Rise (Golden Age) of Airships

What is an Airship?

“An airship or dirigible is a type of aerostat or lighter-than-air aircraft that can be steered and propelled through the air using rudders and propellers or other thrust mechanisms. Unlike aircraft that use aerodynamics, such as fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters that produce lift by moving an airfoil through the air, aerostatic aircraft stay aloft by having a large “envelope” filled with a lifting gas that is less dense than the surrounding air. (Wikipedia)”

History

Mankind has had dreams of flight for centuries. Italian scientist Galileo (1564-1642) has proven that air had a certain weight. English chemist Henry Cavendish invented Hydrogen in 1766. Montgolfier Brothers were the inventors of the hot air balloon. They succeeded in launching the first manned flight in 1783. 

This successful flight has led to discussions on how to steer the balloons. French Engineer Henri Giffard invented a smaller and lighter steam engine and the age of dirigible balloons started in 1850’s. 

The date July 2, 1900 is very important. Ferdinand Zeppelin (German officer) designed a dirigible (Length: 126m, powered by two 16HP internal combustion engines) and this flying machine made a successful flight over the lake Konstanz (Germany) at that date. After this the dirigibles were named as Zeppelin. 

Zeppelin’s were used as a flying platform for long range bombardments during the World War I. The production of GRAF Zeppelin was completed in 1928.  GRAF Zeppelin was the pioneer of transoceanic voyage. GRAF Zeppelin completed 590 flights (144 of which are transoceanic) until its retirement in 1937.

Hindenburg was another milestone in the history of Zeppelins. Hindenburg had a length of 254m and was propelled with 4 diesel engine (1100HP each). She made 10 regular flights carrying a total of 1002 voyagers in 1936. However a big tragedy took place on May 6, 1937.  Hindenburg suddenly caught fire while descending in Lakehurst (New Jersey, USA) and was destroyed completely. 35 of  the 97 voyagers were killed. 

Zeppelin manufacturing facilities were destroyed during the World War II.

There were some attempts in building airship (Zeppelin) also in UK. R100 and R101 Airships were designed and manufactured in 1929. 

There were excellent Airship designs in USA during the same dates. Airship ZMC-2 had an Aluminum skin and excellent performance for 10 years.  USS AKRON & MACON Airships were designed as Aircraft carriers and had a payload of 72.930kg. There were 5 F9C Curtis high speed war plane inside each one.  

Airships Today 

Aviation community did not hear from airships until 1990’s. 

A German company (Cargolifter) started to design an airship which will carry 160 tons of freight. This futuristic design had a length of 260 meters and a max. diameter of 65 meters with aluminum bulkheads as structure and named as “CL160 flying crane”.  A 1 to 8 scaled prototype was tested successfully in 1999. However the full scale platform has not been completed. The company filed for bankruptcy in 2002. 

By the year 2010, there were many news about airships. There were many orders of airships for Reconnaissance and Surveillance purposes in USA. 

What made airships very popular in 2010’s? 

Airships can stay aloft in the air longer than any other air vehicle with a very low cost of flight per hour. A new type of air vehicle was introduced: “Lighter Than Air”. US Department of Defense  published “FY2009-2034 Unmanned Systems Integrated Roadmap” in 2009. This roadmap provided Defense-wide vision for unmanned systems and related technologies. Let’s review two examples of Airship projects : 

There were interesting airship contracts in the US in 2010.  DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) contracted Lockheed Martin to build High Altitude, Long Endurance Airship. Under a recently awarded $400 million DARPA program, the “Integrated Sensor is Structure” (ISIS) airship program is promising to revolutionize persistent, theater-wide intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR). 

Lockheed Martin received a $140 million award from the US Army to begin production of additional Persistent Threat Detection Systems (PDTS) to support coalition forces. 

There are also similar airship projects continuing in Russia, UK and Israel. 

Airship Projects In Turkey

Ottoman Army bought an Airship from Germany. It was named “Parseval 10” which was 48 meters long. She only made a few flights until 1913. 

There weren’t any researches or projects until 2007 on airships in Turkey not to mention those airships that were used for commercial advertisement purposes. 

Kuzgun Limited was founded by a group of idealist engineers in 2007 each of whom has more than 20 years of experience in aerospace industry. 

Their foresight is “Airship will be one of the main Airvehicles in near future” 

They have believed that Unmanned Airships will be very efficient air vehicle platforms for Reconnaissance & Surveillance purposes. 

Airships can be classified as non-rigid, semi-rigid and rigid. Non-rigid airships are pressured to maintain both shape and structural integrity. Semi-Rigid airships maintain the envelope shape by internal pressure, but have some form of internal support for the others. Rigid airships have a structural framework which maintains the shape and carries all loads.

Kuzgun Ltd.’s  first project was “Kuzgun_1 Unmanned Airship”. Kuzgun_1 has composite framework structure. Kuzgun_1 can be classified as rigid airship. In fact Kuzgun_1 is also a modular airship (Patent was granted “TR 2011 03453 B” on January, 2014) , which makes it different from the conventional ones. Kuzgun_1 is a proof of a concept. The payload capacity can easily be increased by adding modules. This modularity concept brings forth a great advantage for Helium leakages. There will be catastrophic failure on non-rigid & semi-rigid airships due to Helium leakage since the shape is obtained by pressure. In Kuzgun_1’s modular system, Helium was captured in different cells (modular compartments) which are unpressurized. The remaining modules will be enough for flying if there will be a leakage in one of the modules. Kuzgun_1 is a prototype which completed its flight tests successfully.

“Kuzgun_1 Unmanned Airship” project was sponsored by KOSGEB (Small and Medium Industry Development Organization) and TUBITAK-TEYDEB (Technology and Innovation Funding Programs Directorate) which are both governmental organizations. 

As mentioned before, Kuzgun_1 was a proof of a concept. The length is 4.2 meters and maximum diameter is 1.4 meters. She has 2 electric motors and 2 servos. She uses LiPo batteries as energy source. She will be our base model for the design of larger Unmanned Airships. 

Kuzgun_1 Unmanned Airship  made its maiden flight on October 2008.  

Kuzgun Ltd.’s  second project was “Kuzgun_A1 Tethered Airship  (AEROSTAT)”.  Kuzgun_A1 has the same dimensions as Kuzgun_1 (length 4.2m , max. dia 1.4m). Kuzgun_A1 was also a proof of a concept. She will be our base model for the design of larger tethered airships (aerostats).

Kuzgun_1 Unmanned Airship  and Kuzgun_A1 Tethered Airship  (AEROSTAT) had another flight test together in December 2009. This successful flight test was broadcast on TRT.  

Kuzgun Ltd.’s idealist engineers have been explaining the benefits of Airships for reconnaissance and surveillance purposes to the related groups for more than 8 years. The situation was very disheartening at the beginning of project Kuzgun_1 Unmanned Airship. Almost everyone has ridiculed the project  Kuzgun_1 (except TUBITAK & KOSGEB). Kuzgun Ltd.’s idealist engineers have faced the same attitude even after their successful maiden flights. Year 2010 was a milestone for Kuzgun Ltd. The related groups have realized the fact that Airships were one of the excellent air platforms for reconnaissance and surveillance because USA has declared that there were more than 360 Airships platforms in service in Afghanistan. Kuzgun Ltd.’s idealist engineers were happy since almost everyone has realized that their foresight was correct. 

Kuzgun_1 Unmanned Airship project received two awards : 

Third prize with the project, Kuzgun_1 Unmanned Airship. Hacettepe University Technopolis Innovation Project Competition, 2011.

Finalist with the project, Kuzgun_1 Unmanned Airship. 9th Technology Competition 2010 by TUBITAK, TUSIAD and TTGV.

Kuzgun Ltd.’s idealist engineers don’t want to face the same problems as the pioneers of Turkish Aviation like Hazerfan Ahmet Çelebi, Lagari Hasan Çelebi, Nuri Demirdağ, Vecihi Hürkuş, Selahattin Alan and so on.

 Future Of Airship 

There will be plenty of Rigid Hybrid Airship with Solar Energy in the very near future. Kuzgun Ltd.’s one of the futuristic designs is : 

Kuzgun_AEHA – All Electrical Hybrid Air Vehicle

The project title is All Electrical Hybrid Air vehicle (AEHA).

Design of a Hybrid Air Vehicle with Solar Energy. Hybrid Air Vehicle gets around %70 or %80 of static lift from lighter than air gases and the remaining power from the electrical motors (she will be a combination of Airship and Aircraft ). The surface of the Hybrid Air Vehicle is big enough to place solar cells on it.  

The aim of the project is also to develop a composite geodesic structure and compare its advantages against that of the structures currently used in terms of material and fabrication costs and mechanical performance.