Balloons, airships and kites – lighter than air: past, present and future

Abstract

Such studies were pioneering at the time. The experiment was conducted by M Montgolfier and it is reported that an account of his lift calculations (1) and the details of the 'experiment' were sent to the Académie Royale des Sciences on 2 July 1783 by the Minister of Finance. The event was so incredible that, apparently, local people who saw the balloon floating in the air believed that the moon had fallen from the heavens to herald the Last Judgment.Evidence for other unmanned flights includes the Nazca Indians of Peru and the Kongming lanterns in China in the Second century BC. Flying of egg shells was 'popular' in the 17th century and in 1709 the Brazilian born Bartolomeu de Gusmão demonstrated the propulsion of a ball to the roof by combustion. ABSTRACTOne hundred years on from the advent of aeronautics at Queen Mary, University of London, developments in lighter than air technology have progressed at a somewhat slower pace than the technology for heavier than air. Innovations afforded by the 'discovery' of helium, the development of the modern day hot air balloon and the application of new materials have all contributed to today's technical innovations. A review is given of the past history of lighter than air, a note is made of the current state of the art and a brief overview of future applications is discussed. The author's personal experience in long distance gas balloon flights is mentioned.

Ceramic engine considerations for future aerospace propulsion

“…A wing/airship arrangement can particularly be found in one of proposed wing/propulsion modules by Liu and Liou (2006), as well as in many envisioned airship concepts for the future (Snodgrass, 2007). Despite the fact that airships are constantly proposed for different missions (Wang et al , 2009; Dorrington, 2005; Newcome, 2006; Folks, 2008; Miller et al , 2005), a basic system engineering perspective reveals that many safety assessment processes associated with airships are more convoluted than airplanes. Different system usage choices at different phases of operation and shared functions between systems are examples of these complexities (Schaefer, 2002).…”