Airship Industries Skyship 500

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The Skyship 500, a non-rigid airship developed in the UK during the '80s, emerged from the Aerospace Developments AD500 prototype. Airship Industries' formation allowed production to commence, yielding six additional airships. The airship boasts a polyester fabric envelope retaining helium and carrying a gondola housing control cabin, passenger cabin, propulsion systems, and ballast (fixed/jettison-able). Its traditional streamlined shape with cruciform tail surfaces provides rudder and elevator control for yaw and pitch. The undercarriage includes a twin-wheeled oleo-pneumatic strut, ground handling ropes, and mooring point. The polyester envelope is coated in TiO2-loaded Polyurethane to reduce UV degradation and lined with PVDC film for helium retention. Fibre-reinforced composite materials construct most structural components, including the moulded FRP gondola containing control cabin, passenger cabin, power-plant systems, and ballast (fixed/jettison-able). Supporting the gondola are Kevlar cables inside the envelope. Powered by two converted Porsche 930/10 engines, it drives Hoffmann ducted reversible-pitch propellers via lateral drive-shafts and Westland Lynx tail-rotor gearboxes. The pilot and co-pilot control the airship through yokes operating control surfaces. One production airship was modified into a heavy payload version (Skyship 500 HL) with a larger Skyship 600 envelope but retaining Skyship 500 gondola specifications. The Skyship 500 features a crew of two and can carry eight passengers, measuring 52m in length, 14m in diameter, and 18.66m in height with a gross volume of 5,153 m3 and a ballonet volume of 1,334 m3. It has a maximum gas lift of 4,500 kg, a disposable load of 1,260 kg, emergency ballast capacity of 513 kg water in gondola tanks, and fuel capacity of 545 l. The gondola measures 9.24m in length and 2.41m in width, with a cabin measuring 4.2m in length and 1.96m in height. The powerplant consists of two Porsche 930/01/AI/3 cylinder horizontally-opposed piston engines, producing 152 kW (204 hp) each. Performance includes a max speed of 93 km/h, cruise speed of 56 km/h, range of 870 km, endurance of 12 hours, service ceiling of 2,980m, and is avionically equipped with King Silver Crown dual nav/com, ADF, Omega, VOR/ILS, and weather radar. The model was created using Rhinoceros 5 and rendered in Keyshot 5.