The invention features an apparatus for airborne transport of cargo. Such an apparatus includes a controller and an airship having a hull, an airframe that supports the hull, and at least one ballast chamber. The controller is configured to actively ballast the airship by causing the ballast chamber to contain a variable mass of air. The controller thus controls the mass or weight of air in each ballast chamber. In some embodiments, the ballast chamber's mass is the sum of a fixed mass and a variable mass. The variable mass is that of air that has been pressurized by some variable amount to a pressure above atmospheric pressure. The controller causes the variable mass to change by changing the number of air molecules in the ballast chamber, either by causing that number to increase or decrease.
Airship with Self-Ballasting Airframe
2025-02-06
Patent
Electronic Resource
English
IPC: | B64B LIGHTER-THAN-AIR AIRCRAFT , Luftfahrzeuge leichter als Luft |
Engineering Index Backfile | 1900
Engineering Index Backfile | 1906