Objective
The purpose of the project is to demonstrate the energy conservation that can be achieved using an airship for maritime surveillance when compared with present systems, for instance helicopter or marine vessel. The airship, with a speed of 60 knots, the ability to hover and a long endurance capability, is thus able to carry out both surveillance and intervention over extended periods without the requirement for support from helicopters or fast surface craft.
By wind tunnel tests, it had been determined the minimum drag configuration. Because of the substantially increased torque of the skyship 600's engines compared with that of the skyship 500's, it has been necessary to carry out a substantial re-design of the main propulsion system gearboxes (of Westland manufacture) and other technical optimizations in order to achieve the necessary fuel consumption. Mission profiles have been defined.
On the basis of typical mission and consumption of petrol ship and helicopter, and of results from skyship trials, it is possible to obtain an annual energy saving of about 2000 TOE. The French Navy held trials in November 1984 using a skyship 600 to evaluate the benefits of an airship carrying out established naval tasks relating to surveillance, search and rescue and pollution control. The missions profiles could be operated in 90 to 95% of the weather conditions encountered. During only 5 to 10% of the time would either a helicopter or a surfacevessel be required to assist on specific investigations.
For this demonstration, Airship Industries constructed a "Skyship 600", a derivative of the skyship which was undergoing flight trials prior to this application (Skyship 500 Programme). The construction of the principal components of the Airship (e.g. hull, tailfins, cabin, engine, props, etc...) was undertaken by several European industries.
The measurement programme was carried out in four phases:
1. Mission profiles were established after discussions with several military departments and were considered to be representative of the tasks which normally would be undertaken in operational conditions.
2. Execution of theoretical studies to obtain comparative data in order to establish estimated fuel consumptions for an airship, a representive type of helicopter and various types of surface vessels carrying out the mission profiles.
3. Demonstration of fuel flows for the airship to confirm the estimated figures. The demonstrations were carried out on non-operational flights using adata recorder during certification testing.
4. Operational trials with the French Navy on the Channel to establish that the airship could successfully complete the mission profiles.
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Programme(s)
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Funding Scheme
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Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Coordinator
W1H 1FA London
United Kingdom
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.