Surveillance Airship

Air surveillance is important for country’s defense. This objective is achieved using satellites, drones and sometimes with high altitude balloons. I thought about a hybrid design of high-altitude balloon and a multi-wing plane.

Classical spherical balloon shape induces a lot of drag and is not ideal for almost stationary surveillance work. I thought about shaping the balloon like a wing to reduce drag and increase its controllability. A similar design had been tested for meteorological balloons (Developing a Wing-Shaped Captive Balloon). The wing form was thin and didn’t have enough volume for floatation. Therefore, two gasbags were installed at the ends of the wings. This article changed my idea. My new design would have multiple high aspect ratio composite wings to achieve high lift-to-drag ratio. Assisted by airship form airbags at the ends of the multi-wings. As a result, the lifting of the airship is achieved by the two balloons and the multiple wings. Wings increase the steering capability of the airship compared to standard balloons. Therefore, high altitude surveillance airship can air-patrol a specific location for a long duration without refueling.

The upper wing will be covered with solar panels to recharge the nickel-hydrogen batteries. NASA developed NiH batteries can operate at sub-zero temperatures negating the need for heaters. I propose the airbags of the airship to be filled by hydrogen gas which would double as air lifter and battery. The low-pressure hydrogen would reduce its capacity but the airship does not need very high-capacity batteries.

The airship would operate at altitudes between 20-25km due to minimum wind speeds at those altitudes. The hydrogen filling process of the airship would be fully automated to reduce the risk. Additionally, the airship will have vents to exhaust its hydrogen gas in case of emergency. Therefore, the air ship would land on the ground without hydrogen on its airbags. The multi-wings assisted by parachutes will allow the airship to land safely in case of emergency.