Design and Energy Systems of Stratospheric Airships

Abstract

In this paper the comprehensive review of the research and development done on different constructions and concepts of stratospheric airships. The stratosphere, with the characteristic of stable atmosphere and weakly vertical convection, is the ideal location to deploy, aerial platforms. Therefore, study in the stratospheric airship becomes the focus in many countries in recent years. There has been worldwide interest in stratospheric airships and many projects have been launched. Through the researches and experiments of these projects, it is known that the wind-resistant dynamic positioning is the key problem for long-endurance station keeping, which is closely related to the airship aerodynamics. Therefore, the aerodynamic design of stratospheric airships has attracted many aerospace engineers to explore it. The application of stratospheric airships involves land and resources observation, ocean monitoring, space observation, atmosphere measurement, environmental protection, military reconnaissance and surveillance, etc. Stratospheric airship, as one of the important development direction of future aircraft, would meet the demand of diurnal cycle ultra-long duration flight. In this paper the comprehensive review of the research and development done on different constructions and concepts of stratospheric airships. The stratosphere, with the characteristic of stable atmosphere and weakly vertical convection, is the ideal location to deploy, aerial platforms. Therefore, study in the stratospheric airship becomes the focus in many countries in recent years. There has been worldwide interest in stratospheric airships and many projects have been launched. Through the researches and experiments of these projects, it is known that the wind-resistant dynamic positioning is the key problem for long-endurance station keeping, which is closely related to the airship aerodynamics. Therefore, the aerodynamic design of stratospheric airships has attracted many aerospace engineers to explore it. The application of stratospheric airships involves land and resources observation, ocean monitoring, space observation, atmosphere measurement, environmental protection, military reconnaissance and surveillance, etc. Stratospheric airship, as one of the important development direction of future aircraft, would meet the demand of diurnal cycle ultra-long duration flight.