Russia Developing New Light-weight Airship

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31908, 8 February 1969, Page 5

Russia Developing New Light-weight Airship

(By

ROBERT JACKSON)

By 1970, Russia will have in service the first of a new breed of air-ships—light-weight, safe, and completely fire-proof. The pilots who will be needed are already in training. Now scientists are looking ahead 10 years, to nuclear airships which will stay afloat for seven years without refuelling.

It was 30 years ago that the world’s largest airship—the 803-foot Hindenburg—burst into flames at her mooring-mast at Lakehurst, New Jersey, and took the era of the great airships with her. Or so it seemed.

But now the airship looks like making a dramatic comeback—in the Soviet Union. The rebirth of the white elephant of the sky started more or less by accident, when the members of some 20 Russian flying clubs—whose main interest had been the rebuilding of various types of pre-war light aircraft —began to experiment with small airships. They were so impressed by I their performance that they got together and submitted a report to the Soviet Ministry of Transport Development. In this they pointed out that the airship appeared to provide the ideal solution to a number of urgent transport problems—particularly in remote areas where there was a lack of suitable roads and railways. Newspaper’s Plea This is true of vast areas of the Soviet Union, where 70 per cent of the country —the great Siberian wastes beyond the Ural Mountains—consists either of swampy forests or iron-hard permanently frozen earth. Only helicopters and tracked vehicles can provide effective transport under such conditions, and they can only operate for a relatively brief period during the short Siberian summer. The party newspaper “Izvestia” took up the plea for the return of the airship. In one recent article, a Russian engineer commented that airships were the one method of transport that could ensure the future survival of remote communities in Siberia. “The cost of building numerous airfields and roads in this region,” he went on, “would be equivalent to plating the ground with gold.” Flying Soon Early in 1968, Alexei Trofimov, Vice-president of the Soviet Academy of Science, announced that the construction of at least one new airship was already under way. It would serve as a prototype for bigger airships capable of carrying up to 100 passengers. In fact, the building of the new airship, known as the D-l, was begun almost 30 years to the day after the

last of Russia’s pre-war airships, the V-6, crashed into the side of a mountain while dropping supplies to a Polar expedition and was destroyed. The D-l should be flying by 1970. Basically, the design of the new airship follows that of the famous German Zeppelins of the First World War, which subjected British cities to their first bombing raids. The difference is that the D-l is being built with the accent on absolute safety. Fire Risk Cut Instead of the normal framework of light metal girders, the airship’s construction involves a network of fibreglass plates. These form a double sandwich-type hull, and the space between the two layers is filled with lightweight foam material. This gives the airship great flexibility coupled with extremely low weight, and effectively overcomes the problem of buckling and twisting that beset many earlier airships using the conventional girder-type construction. The fire-risk, too. will be reduced in the D-l by the use of helium gas, a spaceage product which is noninflammable and very light There will be no danger of the D-l suffering the same fate as the unfortunate Hindenburg, which was filled with highly - inflammable hydrogen that turned her into a blazing torch from Stem to stern in a matter of seconds. Neither will it be necessary for the Russian airship to carry ballast or to release gas during landing; the pressure and temperature of the helium will be controlled electronically, allowing the ship to rise and descend at the touch of a button. Thirty years ago, the Hindenburg needed an enormous groundcrew of 200 men to bring her into position at the mooring mast—but this cumbersome procedure is a thing of the past. Freighters Too A single pilot will be able to bring the D-l neatly to rest, using bursts of power from the airship’s single turboprop engine. The engine’s thrust will be reversible, enabling the airship to fly backwards if necessary. The production version of the D-l will carry 100 passengers at a maximum speed of 100 miles an hour, at heights of up to 22,000 feet. The passenger-cabin will be little different from an airliner’s, except that the passengers will be able to enjoy the scenery in a far more leisurely fashion. The D-l and its variants will also serve as freighters and as flying laboratories for geological expeditions to the uncharted areas of Russia’s far north.

They could also be used as flying water-tankers, spraying vast areas of crops with water or chemicals, and as mobile

hospitals for use in a catastrophe such as an earthquake. Millions Saved The first training school for the new generation of airship pilots has already been opened at Nizhni Tagil in the Urals, and plans are also under way for a second generation of Russian airships powered by nuclear motors, which could be in service by the late 19705. It is already technically possible to adapt a nuclear reactor for use in an airship, and such a craft would theoretically be able to stay

in the air for seven years without refuelling. From the point of view of economy, the airship takes a lot of beating. According to the article in “Izvestia,” if airships were used to transport only 10 per cent of the timber felled in Russia’s forests, it would mean an annual saving of 40 million roubles. I At a time when men are on the verge of setting foot on the moon, it seems strange that the “flying machines” of a bygone era should apparently have a place in the future world. But in years to come, the giant silver cigars, with all their beauty and majesty, may be just as familiar a sight in the skies as supersonic airliners—and a darned sight quieter. Copyright. Provincial Press Features.