Development of 50m Class Airship Structures

복합재를 이용한 50m급 비행선 구조개발

KARI developed 50m class unmanned airship. The airship employ the pressure envelope design principle. The envelope must be considered as a main structural element of the airship. The envelope ＆ three ballonets are fabricated by polyfiber composite laminates. Other structural components (gondola, tailwing, nosecone ＆ engine mounts) are manufactured by carbon fiber ＆ glass fiber laminates. In order to develop a big unmanned airship, a large amount of structural design, analysis and tests had to be made. The paper describes the structural configuration of the 50m class uumanned airship which are basic starting point of the structural development of an airship. The paper includes the various designing processes, components development tests and analysis results. Envelope ＆ ballonets development processes which are very different to conventional airplane design are given in details with actual analysis & test results. The paper also describes the structural design and analysis results for other composite made structures. Each components were tested by static design limit loads and structural safety were confirmed. The paper shows the manufactured structural components and assembled airship.