Scribd
Upload
74 views2 pages

Rigid and Non-Rigid Airships

Rigid airships have a rigid internal framework that maintains their shape and protects gas cells, while non-rigid airships rely on overpressure to maintain shape. Rigid airships are advantageous for larger sizes due to better weight distribution, while non-rigids are simpler to build but less stable. Key differences between rigid and non-rigid airship designs are summarized in a table.

Uploaded by

Deepak Poudel
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
74 views2 pages

Rigid and Non-Rigid Airships

Rigid airships have a rigid internal framework that maintains their shape and protects gas cells, while non-rigid airships rely on overpressure to maintain shape. Rigid airships are advantageous for larger sizes due to better weight distribution, while non-rigids are simpler to build but less stable. Key differences between rigid and non-rigid airship designs are summarized in a table.

Uploaded by

Deepak Poudel
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 2

Rigid and non-rigid airships

Rigid airships have a rigid internal framework, which maintains their shape and carries all the loads
and thus protects the lifting gas cells, which are non-pressurised. This design increases a bit of the
weight but provides a lot of benefits, the weight issues is only a concern with small airships due to
the surface-volume ratio. In other words, the rigid airships have a good weight to volume ratio only
when their length exceeds around 120 m. But if we make smaller ships with rigid airship design then
the solid internal framework will be too heavy for them so we have to use the non-rigid concept for
the design of micro airships. As discussed earlier, the rigid airship has to be much larger just to offset
its deadweight, which can easily require 50 percent of the total lift. In rigid airships, even with one or
more gas cells deflated, they could maintain their shape and thus their stability. Similarly, the
leakage of the non-pressurized gas cells is slower. Similarly other advantages and disadvantage
aspects of rigid airships include:

1. Multiple gas cells which function like bulk-head, so that if one or more cells fail the ship will
still remain aloft
2. The triple cover system, one to hold the lifting gas, one consisting of the shape forming
duralumin frame-work and one outer cover to shed rain and snow, to reflect rather than
absorb heat,
3. Invulnerability against lightening
4. Accessibility to inspection and repair
5. There is no chance of kinking in the hull due to aerodynamics forces and moments so we get
the advantage of making them much larger in size than non-rigid and semi rigid airships.
6. But rigid airships generate increased difficulties and challenges in construction and
manufacturing due to the high cost of tooling, manufacturing and complicated assembly of
structure

In case of non-rigid airships, their shapes are maintained only by their internal overpressure
(pressure level in excess of the surrounding air pressure is used to keep it stiff and support the
control surfaces and gondola which are attached to it). The overpressure of today’s blimp would
make them more buoyant as well but they are slow compared to rigid airships. In this design, the
lifting gas is pushed out of every pinhole. This design can be efficient at a relatively small size
because its mass is easily overcome. Non-rigid airships are the most commonly used for of airships
today because of their ease of construction and storability. Some other advantages and
disadvantage aspects of non-rigid airships are:

1. The rigid airship has to be large to hold enough gas to lift its rigid internal framework and
other dead lift whereas the blimp can be made smaller
2. Non rigid airships have simple structures and are easy to design build and maintain
3. In comparison to rigid airships, the fabrication cost of non-rigid airship is lower and the
manufacturing time cycle is also shorter
4. Non rigid airships overcome the issues of weight penalty inherent in the use of rigid
structures
5. Very difficult or almost impossible (micro non-rigid airship) for stability and control during
high wind operation
6. Storage and shipping of helium for a large non-rigid airship may be a problem
7. Also, the inflation of the envelope and the installation of empennage, nose structure and
gondola must be carefully dealt with due to the possible interaction with the pressurized
hull
8. The strength requirement of the envelope materials for non-rigid airships is higher than that
of rigid airship and also there is limitation due to hoop stress in non-rigid airship
9. Possibility of nose collapse during high flight speed

These discussions can be summarized in the following table:

Parameters Rigid Non-rigid


Manufacturing cost High Low
Time and complications of High Low
manufacturing and fabrication
Speed of operation High Low
Propulsion system required for Heavier Lighter
same payload capacity
Possibility of damage and Low High
collapse during operation
Ease of stability and control High Low
Strength requirement of Low High
envelope material for
comparable size
Problem for storage and Low High
shipping of helium for
comparable size
Dead weight High Low
Required size of airship for High Low
similar payload capacity
Efficient for Greater size and higher Smaller size and lower payload
payload capacity capacity
Vulnerability to lightening Low High
Problem and rate of leakage of Low High
helium
Drag for similar size and shape Low High

You might also like

pFad - Phonifier reborn

Pfad - The Proxy pFad of © 2024 Garber Painting. All rights reserved.

Note: This service is not intended for secure transactions such as banking, social media, email, or purchasing. Use at your own risk. We assume no liability whatsoever for broken pages.


Alternative Proxies:

Alternative Proxy

pFad Proxy

pFad v3 Proxy

pFad v4 Proxy