An idea and the beginning of plans: ultralight airship

[dman762000]

You know I've been doing this steampunk thing for years now and I have seen a lot of stuff about making/bringing back dirigible aircraft. What I have seen is a tendency to think big. "I want a formal dining room and space for 200". There is a well tread area of aviation called ultralight aircraft that I want to focus on. What about building a dirigible ultralight style? Aluminum tube framing, open cockpit, small powerplants and props, and just enough space for two. I'm going to begin to make calculations and may need to tap the wealth of knowledge the local august persons represent to figure it all out. Everything I come up with, plans, specifications requirements freely available to the world so that others can build their own should they choose.

One question though, does anyone remember Gallagher and the pedal powered zepp he flew on one of his shows? Anyone know what that was called or where one could get plans for one?
Thanks for all the help in advance!

[RJBowman]

I had an idea to build a one-man airship that you would pilot like a hang glider; an idle fantasy that I had no intention to carry out. It would be easier to do now that batteries and drone motors have become much better developed in recent years.

[J. Wilhelm]

You know I've been doing this steampunk thing for years now and I have seen a lot of stuff about making/bringing back dirigible aircraft. What I have seen is a tendency to think big. "I want a formal dining room and space for 200". There is a well tread area of aviation called ultralight aircraft that I want to focus on. What about building a dirigible ultralight style? Aluminum tube framing, open cockpit, small powerplants and props, and just enough space for two. I'm going to begin to make calculations and may need to tap the wealth of knowledge the local august persons represent to figure it all out. Everything I come up with, plans, specifications requirements freely available to the world so that others can build their own should they choose.

One question though, does anyone remember Gallagher and the pedal powered zepp he flew on one of his shows? Anyone know what that was called or where one could get plans for one?
Thanks for all the help in advance!

I had an idea to build a one-man airship that you would pilot like a hang glider; an idle fantasy that I had no intention to carry out. It would be easier to do now that batteries and drone motors have become much better developed in recent years.

1862 Giffard Single Occupant Airship

A couple of thoughts on this:

1. The path you've chosen is one that has already been traveled over 100 years ago, but with materials that were weaker and heavier than what we have today. Use new materials to improve over past performance.

2. Don't overestimate human strength. Once you are buoyant and up in the air, there will be little difference between your efforts and those done by people over 100 years ago. Aerodynamic drag will be similar if not identical, and the strength of air currents will be the same. Thus if early adventurers found that it was too difficult to pedal their way through the wind, you will find the same problem.

3. As a corollary, I suggest you remember that the holy grail of human flight has always been propulsion. Airships are no exception, even if you don't have to spend energy to stay aloft.

I'd suggest you follow Mr. Bowman's suggestion and avail yourself of electric propulsion, with the warning that the energy density of the best lithium ion batteries is still vastly inferior to density of hydrocarbon fuels.  For range, I would still adopt a hybrid method with storage of energy being done by fuel, a generator, and relatively small batteries to drive electric propellers.

4. You mentioned you'll start calculations. Did you get a hold of an airship design handbook?

If not or not available, and as someone who knows something about aircraft design, though admittedly not airship design, I strongly suggest you follow a "Sizing Procedure" that is standard in heavier than air  aircraft design. Honestly I'd pick a very basic handbook (aircraft design books by Raymer for example) and think through what I'd need to translate the sizing procedure to an airship or dirigible. Just because an airship is not using a wing doesn't mean that the Aircraft Sizing Procedure doesn't apply. Newton's Laws of Motion are exactly the same, and that is how you start to pencil an airplane.

Technically you design an aircraft first by defining what the mission will be and then calculate the basic forces impinging on the aircraft (Inverse Design Problem).

The mission is how far you want to fly. How fast you want to climb. How many turns you want to make, etc.  Then you will draw a free body diagram to analyze the forces the aircraft will experience under those conditions: around the Dynamic Center (center of forces) you have Drag (at your design speed and altitude), realistic estimate of thrust under climb (most difficult  condition), turns, and cruise (least difficult), dry weight, fuel weight (variable)and payload/ passengers. Technically, as you move faster the Dynamic Center moves aft from the center of gravity (but in your case that may not be of concern - I'll assume your speed is very low, so Center of Gravity is the same, that's what you use for the Free Body Diagram).

Once you know the equations for the forces in the free body diagram, you will research what you need to achieve those forces; an airplane needs a wing of a certain size, an airship an envelope of a certain size. An engine capable of producing certain thrust. Aerodynamic surfaces big enough to enable turning the nose to the wind to reduce drag, prevent the craft from flat-spinning during turns and, in straight flight as well (no, airplanes and airships do not always point straight in the direction you're traveling, you can have non zero azimuth and yaw angles).

My two cents, and good luck!

[RJBowman]

It might be worth looking into glow plug engines for model airplanes, though they have a disadvantage that you have to hand start them. Maybe someone produces one with an electric starter.

There's a big one called the Super Tigre G4500 that weighs two kilos and produces 4.5 horsepower.

A small motorcycle or moped engine might also be an option.

[J. Wilhelm]

It might be worth looking into glow plug engines for model airplanes, though they have a disadvantage that you have to hand start them. Maybe someone produces one with an electric starter.

There's a big one called the Super Tigre G4500 that weighs two kilos and produces 4.5 horsepower.

A small motorcycle or moped engine might also be an option.

With so many mobility devices out there, I'm sure you can adapt something relatively easily and safely. It's the difference between the early 1900s and today.

[dman762000]

Seems as though I have been beaten to the punch. They exist so coming up with my own plans should be a snap

https://youtu.be/xOJvtaiNp5c?si=Bje5s1f6Ej38wTXi

Ultralight style airship!

[J. Wilhelm]

Seems as though I have been beaten to the punch. They exist so coming up with my own plans should be a snap

https://youtu.be/xOJvtaiNp5c?si=Bje5s1f6Ej38wTXi

Ultralight style airship!

Yes and no, they haven't. That's a rather flat and large wing if you look at it. And it's generally neutrally buoyant, that is, without forward speed it stays on the ground. The envelope doesn't hold that much volume, so it's a hybrid wing-envelooe. You can't stop the engine without going down.

[dman762000]

Well, it is a start and I was thinking of making mine sort of a miniature Airlander as far as the envelope was concerned.

[dman762000]

Well I have found this
https://www.omnicalculator.com/everyday-life/helium-balloons
Which tells me that if I am carrying me and another person my size and the airframe and engines and coverings don't weigh more than 500 lbs it will take 766 3ft weather gallons to lift it. So I need to design a semi-rigid frame that will hold at least that many. A lot to calculate.

[J. Wilhelm]

Well I have found this
https://www.omnicalculator.com/everyday-life/helium-balloons
Which tells me that if I am carrying me and another person my size and the airframe and engines and coverings don't weigh more than 500 lbs it will take 766 3ft weather gallons to lift it. So I need to design a semi-rigid frame that will hold at least that many. A lot to calculate.

Well, for starters, you're talking about Helium. That's is an issue and a handicap for the volume of the envelope. So one of the things that modern designers are looking to do is to change the traditional materials for the airframe to new materials, just to try to recover the buoyancy they had in the old days of Hydrogen dirigibles. Are you thinking of using weather balloons as bladders?

I just read this article today, I don't know if it'd be of interest to you...

https://spectrum.ieee.org/lta-airship-faa-clearance

[dman762000]

Weather balloons seem to be the easiest thing to aquire that I could use. The goal here is to design something that any hobbiest can build. I am thinking along the same lines that the early ultralight builders were. They designed craft that could be built in garages out of materials available at the local hardware store. I want that same kind of simplicity. Does anyone know where to find the FAA regs on experimental aircraft?