Saucer-shaped airship: Is it stronger lighter and better?

The classical rigid airship uses a heavy envelope which accounts for the large buoyancy balloon. This comes on account of aerodynamics. My first concept was a thin and long "cigar" where the cockpit, passenger compartment and cargo room are located at opposite ends for balance. A "fishbone" skeleton connects the two ends by passing through the envelope. I quickly abandonned this idea. Later, I thought of another design, where the different compartments are built AROUND the envelope instead.

The rigid airship's skeleton is like a spoked doughnut. It looks like a bicycle wheel but with a wider hoop. The doughnut serves as reinforcement of the envelope and is large enough for passengers. It is not necessary for the whole ring to serve as a passenger lounge. However, putting passengers and cargo at opposite ends will give a good balance.

The advantages I see are:

• Structure serves as lounge and skeleton, therefore reducing material usage and weight.
• placing engines on different areas directly over the skeleton is easy
• the body is circular and lense-shaped, allowing the ship to handle side-winds better.
• the buoyancy balloon is behind the front side and not above it, therefore reducing drag.
• the connection of the balloon to the ship is a long stitch line around the balloon. Therefore, the weight of the ship hanging to the balloon is well distributed along the stitch line.
• the top side is not as curved as that of the conventional airships. This means that solar panels will receive more direct sunlight. Solar-powered airships are already used as unmanned surveillance stations.

posted about 7 years ago

Christmas Snow‭

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