Patent Application
20190016433
24 Aircraft, lighter-than-air:
26 Airship and helicopter sustained:
30 Airships:
2. Description of Related Art
A number of concepts for high altitude platforms already exist, such as high altitude balloons, large blimps or dirigibles, unmanned heavier-than-air aircraft (drones) with both conventional and fixed-wing configurations. Heavier-than-air platforms lack the endurance capabilities required for long-term surveillance, and these systems rely heavily on the flow of air to provide lift and enable controls. Maintaining velocity on control surfaces worsens with the reduction in atmospheric density in higher altitudes. Free balloons or tethered balloons are not suitable to security and surveillance. Free balloons are not stationary without tether. Tethered balloons may not be practicable due to the weight of the tether.
Traditional airships tend to be low altitude and seldom reach altitudes above 5000 ft. Modern airships that rely on the buoyancy of a lifting gas may suffer from a number of disadvantages. Maneuverability of traditional airships tends to rely on the design and structural characteristics. Embodied in an elongated-cone shape with fins to correctly direct airflow for control. Below 10-15 km/h there is insufficient airflow over control surfaces making these systems ineffectual. Due to the large size of conventional lighter-than-air structures more than 20 ground crew operators must assist the pilot with takeoff and landing and these platforms require increasingly larger fields for operations, and due to design the storage and maintenance of these platforms is expensive. The effect of these disadvantage are eliminated with the proposed design.
Many experts and officials are concerned with security and surveillance. In a number of applications it would be desirable to have a long-term stationary low altitude platform to provide continuous monitoring, which is particularly important for security and continuous monitoring. The proposed light-weight low-altitude mini-airship will be nearly completely silent with minimal costs for development and operation.
One known kind of stationary high altitude platform is a geo-stationary satellite at nearly 36,000 km above the earth's surface. While these platforms have large “footprints” that can observe vast areas all over the world, these systems may not provide the desired high-resolution imagery and are highly expensive to develop and launch. Non-stationary low earth orbit (LEO) satellites are also available but only hover over a given point momentarily. Therefore, it is advantageous to develop long-term stationary, low altitude, low cost, and low complexity remotely controlled surveillance platforms.
The spherical description of the present system has a double-enveloped hull structure. The double hull will retain the lifting gas better resulting in estimated sustainable flight times of nearly 2 weeks. The outer hull structure provides load bearing and resistance to deformations. The inner two-layered hexagonal hull functions to retain the lifting gas. The proposed platform will have a 100 meter ceiling to avoid commercial or other airspace and will not incur any pressurization issues due to its low flight ceiling. The platform will be no more than 2.25 ft in diameter and 2.625 ft in height. This provides 8-9 cubic ft of interior volume providing a payload capability of nearly 0.5 lbs. The resulting system will provide persistent long-term low altitude surveillance over a 3-5 km radius area over a long period of time.
The principles of the various aspects of the invention may better be understood by reference to the accompanying illustrative figures which depict features of examples of embodiments of the invention, in which
The description that follows, and the embodiments described therein, are provided by way of illustration of an example, or examples, of particular embodiments of the principles of the present invention. These examples are provided for the purposes of explanation, and not of limitation, of those principles and of the invention. In the description, like parts are marked throughout the specification and the drawing with the same respective reference numerals. The drawings are not necessarily to scale and in some instances proportions may have been exaggerated in order more clearly to depict certain features of the invention.
In the embodiment of
In the embodiment of
The lower region of the airship, or gondola 101, houses an equipment holster sewn generally inwardly of the otherwise generally spherical surface of the outer hull. This equipment holster houses a control module connected to operating motors, sensors, and communication devices, hence controlling guidance, direction, and monitoring. In addition, the control module is designated as operable to control inflation of the gas bag to bleed lifting gas in the event of extreme circumstances. The Control module is connected to a communication and sensor array by which control and equipment monitoring signals are sent to a remotely located control station. Control module is also connected to sensors for surveillance and monitoring, as well as sensors for measuring external ambient temperature and pressure; for measuring current and voltage; for measuring gas bag supply; for measuring stored charge; for measuring motor current draw; antenna for receiving global positioning system or other telemetry data; and for measuring relative air speed. Inputs from the various sensors are used to permit the controlling station to be aware of the status of the airship as well as permitting control of the operation of the airship.
The lower region of the airship, or gondola 101, houses an equipment pallet sewn generally inwardly of the otherwise generally spherical surface of the outer hull below the control module. The equipment pallet can serve as a base for equipment and sensors used for one of several functions. The equipment pallet can serve as a communications relay platform, whether for sending and receiving of messages and information, and/or merely acting as a reflector for messages, or for acting as a relay for transmissions operable to boost transited messages and retransmit in case of error. The equipment pallet can also provide a platform for one or more of (a) communications monitoring equipment, (b) thermal imagery equipment, (c) photographic equipment, (d) radar, (e) infrared and near-infrared sensing equipment, (f) pollution sensing equipment, and (g) temperature sensing equipment, (h) humidity sensing equipment, (i) radio frequency sensing equipment, and (j) electro-magnetic sensing equipment.
