Aeroship: A Hybrid Flight Platform

摘要

This paper describes the simplest hybrid configuration, called an aeroship, that integrates an airship module and a wing to meet demanding requirements in takeoff/landing, low-speed flight, and control/maneuver for certain challenging flight missions. A flight performance analysis of an aeroship is given, particularly on the optimum ratio between the aerostatic lift and the total weight to achieve the maximum lift-to-drag ratio. To critically examine the conceptual design and performance analysis, a remote-controllable model aeroship is built and tested in flight. The results obtained by using a stereo-videogrammetric system in flight testing are consistent with the performance analysis.