This paper deals with the control of lighter-than-air vehicles, more specifically the design of an integrated guidance, navigation and control (GNC) scheme that is capable of navigating an airship through a series of constant-altitude, planar waypoints. Two guidance schemes are introduced, a track-specific guidance law and a proportional navigation guidance law, that provide the required signal...

This paper presents a modelling of an unmanned airship.We are studying a quadrotor flyingwing. The modelling of this airship includes an aerodynamic study. A special focus is done on the computation of the added masses. Considering that the velocity potential of the air surrounding the airship obeys the Laplace’s equation, the added masses matrix will be determined by means of the velocity pote...

Airships are necessarily exposed to the atmospheric electrical environment, which includes electric fields, electrostatic charges, and lightning. Protection from hazards presented by these environments is necessary. One of the main issues is protection of the envelope, which is usually filled with helium. Helium poses special problems in this regard, even though it is an inert gas, because elec...

Feeder is one of the airships of the Multibody Advanced Airship for Transport (MAAT) system, under development within the EU FP7 project. MAAT is based on a modular concept composed of two different parts that have the possibility to join; respectively they are the so-called Cruiser and Feeder, designed on the lighter than air principle. Feeder, also named ATEN (Airship Transport Elevator Netwo...

In this paper, the authors analyze and compare two airship configurations for the Elettra Twin Flyer prototype, an innovative airship concept which is remotely-controlled and intended for monitoring, surveillance, exploration and reconnaissance missions. The aim of the comparison is to determine the most appropriate solution in terms of performance, cost and maneuvering capabilities. In particu...

An optimal calculation method for the mechanical properties of near-space capsule materials was proposed. First, biaxial tensile tests under low ratios were carried out on envelope a airship. The experimental results showed that values elastic modulus and Poisson’s ratio, which are significantly affected by warp weft stresses, not constant. Second, ratio airship obtained using traditional metho...