A New Method of Strengthening Longitudinal Static Stability of Airship in Ascent

Abstract

To improve the controllability and maneuverability, airship is usually designed as static instability. But the airship is vulnerable to sudden wind interference in its ascent, resulting in divergent pitching motion. A new aerodynamic shape was put forward which added a inflatable aerodynamic-lift wing at backward of the airship hull. With the method of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), aerodynamic characteristics and longitudinal static stability of the conventional airship and new winged airship were comparative investigated. It can be concluded that the new winged airship was longitudinal stable whereas the conventional airship was instable. It can be applied for restraining the sudden wind interference for airship in ascent.