Tsiolkovsky’s airship

Model of the Tsiolkovsky balloon.

With this device of an airship we achieve the following benefits: 1) fire safety, 2) elimination of leakage of hydrogen and air through the shell, 3) sheer controllability without loss of gas and ballast, 4) wide change in lift, 5) significant size and carrying capacity, as a result of this high translational speed with low energy consumption, 6) convenient (building a shell by electric welding on a horizontal plane and the uselessness of an expensive shipyard, 7) the extreme simplicity and speed of this building, 8) cheap and durable mother l. When the airship is 300 m long, the steel shell has the thickness of the roofing iron. Corrugated, it is extremely solid, so it does not need special storage facilities (hangars). All this together makes airships of this type the cheapest and most perfect means of transport, especially precious in vast countries with poorly developed communications.

Tsiolkovsky with an airship model

Tsiolkovsky’s airship is the first technically sound project of a large cargo airship , which was proposed in the 80s of the XIX century by Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky .

Content

Description

Unlike many of his contemporaries (for example, O.S. Kostovich ), Tsiolkovsky proposed to build a huge, even by today's standards - volume up to 500,000 m³ - airship of a rigid construction with metal cladding (for comparison, the largest rigid airships “ Hindenburg ” and “ Count Zeppelin II ”had a volume of only 200,000 cubic meters).

The design studies of Tsiolkovsky’s idea, carried out in the 30s by the staff of the USSR Airship Building (1932-1940, in 1956, the enterprise was revived under the name DKBA), showed the validity of the proposed concept. However, the airship was never built: for the most part, work on large airships due to numerous accidents was curtailed not only in the USSR, but throughout the world, and, despite numerous projects to revive the concept of large airships, these projects are still as a rule, do not go off the pockets of designers.

Tsiolkovsky wrote:

the first drawback of such a soft airship is that depending on the weather, the airship either falls or rises. .. The second drawback of a balloon-free airship is the constant danger of fire , especially when using fire engines. .. The third drawback of a soft airship is its volume and shape are constantly changing, so the gas shell forms wrinkles and large folds, as a result of which horizontal controllability becomes unthinkable.

(Airship, stratoplane and starship as three steps of the greatest achievements of the USSR ^[1] )

History

Tsiolkovsky was engaged in the mechanics of controlled flight, as a result of which he designed a controlled balloon (the word “airship” was not yet invented). Tsiolkovsky was the first to propose the idea of an all-metal airship and built its model.

In 1885, having 28 years old, I firmly decided to give myself to ballooning and theoretically develop a metal controlled balloon.
- From the autobiography of K. E. Tsiolkovsky

Balloons with rubberized fabric sheaths used at that time had significant drawbacks - the fabric quickly wore out and the life of the balloons was short. In addition, due to the permeability of the tissue, the hydrogen , which was then filled with balloons, escaped, and air penetrated into the shell. An explosive gas was formed (hydrogen + air), a random spark was enough, and an explosion occurred.

Metal airship. Application materials for the invention. 1929

Tsiolkovsky developed a balloon of its own design, which resulted in the voluminous essay “Theory and experience of a balloon having an elongated shape in the horizontal direction” ( 1885 - 1886 ) ^[2] . It gave a scientific and technical justification for creating a completely new and original design of an airship with a thin metal shell. Tsiolkovsky gave drawings of general views of the balloon and some important components of its design. The main features of the airship developed by Tsiolkovsky ^[3] :

The volume of the shell was variable , which made it possible to maintain a constant lifting force at different flight heights and the temperature of the air surrounding the airship. This possibility was achieved due to corrugated sidewalls and a special tightening system.
Tsiolkovsky evaded the use of explosive hydrogen ; his airship was filled with hot air. The airship lift height could be adjusted using a separately developed heating system. The air was heated by passing the exhaust gases of the motors through the coils.
The thin metal shell was also corrugated, which made it possible to increase its strength and stability . The corrugation waves were perpendicular to the axis of the airship ^[4] .

The first printed work on airships was “A controlled metal aerostat” (1892), in which the scientific and technical substantiation of the design of an airship with a metal shell was given.

The thought of a metal balloon stuck in my brain. Sometimes she bored me, and then for months I was engaged in another, but in the end, I returned to her again

, - the scientist wrote in his work “A Simple Teaching on the Airship and Its Construction”.

A progressive project for its time, the Tsiolkovsky airship was not supported; the author was denied subsidies to build the model. Tsiolkovsky’s appeal to the General Staff of the Russian army was also not successful. Work on the airship did not receive recognition from official representatives of Russian science. Tsiolkovsky had neither the means nor even the moral support for further research.

In 1931, they tried to build an airship of Tsiolkovsky’s design at the Dirigablestroy plant, but this was not possible due to the low technological level of the enterprise. However, an airship model of 1,000 cubic meters was built and tested. Engineers were convinced that Tsiolkovsky’s basic theoretical assumptions about the advantages of his all-metal airship were working.

Interesting Facts

Mayakovskaya metro station

The columns and arches of Mayakovskaya metro station are covered with corrugated stainless steel . The framing details were specially made for the metro at the Dirizhablstroy factory, using equipment designed to create the production of the skeleton of all-metal airships, the design of which was initiated by K. E. Tsiolkovsky ^[5] .
Monocoque frameless airships - the design of airships with metal casing arose in the 1890s in order to reduce air resistance . In the 1920s, the use of aluminum alloy cladding began. In the entire history of the airship, only four such airships were built, and only one of them - the experimental American ZMC-2 successfully (although infrequently) flew for several years. ^[6]
Thermoplane - in the late 1980s and early 90s, the Thermoplan project appeared in Russia, the distinguishing feature of which was the use of lift in addition to the helium section of the airship and the section with air heated by engines (the idea expressed by K. E. Tsiolkovsky in 90s of the XIX century ).

Notes

↑ s: Airship, stratoplane and starship as three steps of the greatest achievements of the USSR (Tsiolkovsky)
↑ The entire manuscript was not published during the author’s lifetime. Its various parts in a modified form were included in other publications. Most were published in the magazine Aeronaut in 1905-1908 under the name Aerostat and Airplane. Even earlier, part of the manuscript was included in the book “Metallic controlled balloon” ( 1892 , issue 1; 1893 , issue 2). The part was published in the article “Independent horizontal motion of a controlled balloon” in the journal “Bulletin of Experimental Physics and Elementary Mathematics” (Odessa, 1898, No. 258–259). The lifetime edition of 1934, "Selected Works of K. E. Tsiolkovsky" (edited by J. A. Rapoport) includes chapters I — XIII. The final two chapters (XIV — XV) by Tsiolkovsky were not given to the press, as they needed additional verification and proofreading. All 15 chapters, with additional drawings, calculations and comments, were published in collected works (Moscow, USSR Academy of Sciences, 1959 , vol. III)
↑ The word “airship” entered the Russian language later, and in his early works Tsiolkovsky traditionally calls the aircraft designed by him an aerostat, although according to the principles of design and control it was just an airship
↑ Later studies in the laboratory of Ludwig Prandtl showed that this arrangement of corrugations leads to an increase in the roughness of the shell and, as a result, to a significant increase in air resistance
↑ Olga Grigorieva . Press conference under cover of night Archival copy of December 30, 2013 on the Wayback Machine // Vesti-Moscow , 09/18/2008
↑ The David Schwartz’s airship, built in 1897, was the first airship to have metal cladding, but the ship’s airship had an internal skeleton, and therefore cannot be considered monocoque.

[1] s: Airship, stratoplane and starship as three steps of the greatest achievements of the USSR (Tsiolkovsky)

[2] The entire manuscript was not published during the author’s lifetime. Its various parts in a modified form were included in other publications. Most were published in the magazine Aeronaut in 1905-1908 under the name Aerostat and Airplane. Even earlier, part of the manuscript was included in the book “Metallic controlled balloon” ( 1892 , issue 1; 1893 , issue 2). The part was published in the article “Independent horizontal motion of a controlled balloon” in the journal “Bulletin of Experimental Physics and Elementary Mathematics” (Odessa, 1898, No. 258–259). The lifetime edition of 1934, "Selected Works of K. E. Tsiolkovsky" (edited by J. A. Rapoport) includes chapters I — XIII. The final two chapters (XIV — XV) by Tsiolkovsky were not given to the press, as they needed additional verification and proofreading. All 15 chapters, with additional drawings, calculations and comments, were published in collected works (Moscow, USSR Academy of Sciences, 1959 , vol. III)

[3] The word “airship” entered the Russian language later, and in his early works Tsiolkovsky traditionally calls the aircraft designed by him an aerostat, although according to the principles of design and control it was just an airship

[4] Later studies in the laboratory of Ludwig Prandtl showed that this arrangement of corrugations leads to an increase in the roughness of the shell and, as a result, to a significant increase in air resistance

[5] Olga Grigorieva . Press conference under cover of night Archival copy of December 30, 2013 on the Wayback Machine // Vesti-Moscow , 09/18/2008

[6] The David Schwartz’s airship, built in 1897, was the first airship to have metal cladding, but the ship’s airship had an internal skeleton, and therefore cannot be considered monocoque.