Research Article
Open Access
Airships: 100 Years of a Slide Rule, Thermodynamic Stability Equations Re-casted
1
Center of Advanced Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, National Autonomous University of Mexico, Mexico City, Mexico
* Corresponding Author:
Ruben Avila,
[email protected]
Volume 1, Issue 1
2025
Received: 21 January 2025
Accepted: 31 March 2025
Published: 30 April 2025
You have full access to this open access article
·
CC BY 4.0 License
Article Information
Published in
Computational Environmental Heat Transfer
Volume/Issue
Volume 1, Issue 1, 2025
Pages
6-18
Abstract
The theoretical fundamentals of aerostatics governing airship flight are revisited and presented in a simple manner. In the analysis it is assumed that the airship is flying in a standard atmosphere, and that both the atmospheric air and the gas inside the envelope of the airship are governed by a polytropic thermodynamic process. The equations formulated in this paper are used to solve some of the problems that were formulated in 1923 by the designers of a slide rule. The slide rule was used by the north-american pilots of the "Blimps" in the 1920s. The models presented in this paper should be considered not only to calculate the aerostatic equilibrium of the new generation airships, but also to evaluate the aerostatic performance of the balloons, that will be used in the future, to transport experimental devices to the surface of the terrestrial planets.
Keywords
airship aerostatic
thermodynamic
blimp conditions
standard atmosphere
taut conditions
outer space balloons
Data Availability Statement
Data will be made available on request.
Funding
This work was supported without any funding.
Conflicts of Interest
The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
Ethical Approval and Consent to Participate
Not applicable.
References
- White, W. (1976) Airships for the future. Sterling Publishing Co., Inc., New York.
[Google Scholar] - Meyer, P. (1980). Luftschiffe: die Geschichte der deutschen Zeppeline. Wehr & Wissen.
[Google Scholar] - Kleinheins, P., & Meighörner, W. (Eds.). (2005). Die Großen Zeppeline: Die Geschichte des Luftschiffbaus. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer Berlin Heidelberg.
[Google Scholar] - Burgess, C. P. (2004). Airship Design. University Press of the Pacific.
[Google Scholar] - Khoury, G. A. (Ed.). (2012). Airship Technology, Second Edition. Cambridge Aerospace Series.
[Google Scholar] - Carichner, G. E., & Nicolai, L. M. (2013). Fundamentals of Aircraft and Airship Design: Volume 2—Airship Design and Case Studies. American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc..
[Google Scholar] - Rodríguez, E., & Rodríguez, E. (1987). Diagnóstico Económico-Tecnológico de los dirigibles como medio de transporte. Secretaría de Comunicaciones y Transportes, Dirección General de Desarrollo Tecnológico.
[Google Scholar] - Jacobo, C., & Zimán, D. (1984). El dirigible y el transporte público. Elementos, 2(12), 19-24.
[Google Scholar] - Sahlberg, B. (1986). LTA Lighter than Air, Final Report 1985-A Feasi bility Study. The Market, Tech nical And Infrastructural Pros pects for LTA-Tech nology in Sweden. Tech nical Report STU-553-1986, Styrelsen För Teknisk Utveckling, Swedish.
[Google Scholar] - Hillsdon, R. H. (1992). An analysis of viable roles for airships in the 21st century. AIRSHIP, 98, 9-20.
[Google Scholar] - Taylor, J. A. (1992). Airship applications for the first decade of the twenty-first century. AIRSHIP, 98, 20-31.
[Google Scholar] - Hayes, D. E. (1994). Airship applications. AIRSHIP, 104, 10-14.
[Google Scholar] - Delahunt-Rimmer, P. (1997). A model to evaluate the commercial applications of airships. AIRSHIP, 118, 26-30.
[Google Scholar] - Stockbridge, C., Ceruti, A., & Marzocca, P. (2012). Airship Research and Development in the Areas of Design, Structures, Dynamics and Energy Systems. International Journal of Aeronautical and Space Sciences, 13(2), 170-187.
[CrossRef] [Google Scholar] - Weaver, E. R., & Pickering, S. F. (1923). An Airship Slide Rule. US Government Printing Office.
[Google Scholar] - Arnstein, K., & Klemperer, W. (1936). Performance of airships. Aerodynamic Theory: A General Review of Progress Under a Grant of the Guggenheim Fund for the Promotion of Aeronautics, 49-133.
[CrossRef] [Google Scholar] - Prandtl, L., & Tietjens, O. G. (1957). Fundamentals of Hydro & Aeromechanics. Dover Publications, Inc.
[Google Scholar] - Reynold, W. C., & Perkins, H. C. (1977). Engineering Thermodynamics. McGraw-Hill, Inc.
[Google Scholar]
Cite This Article
APA Style
Avila, R., & Syed, S. R. (2025). Airships: 100 Years of a Slide Rule, Thermodynamic Stability Equations Re-casted. Computational Environmental Heat Transfer, 1(1), 6–18. https://doi.org/10.62762/CEHT.2025.496709
Export Citation
RIS Format
Compatible with EndNote, Zotero, Mendeley, and other reference managers
TY - JOUR AU - Avila, Ruben AU - Syed, Shoaib Raza PY - 2025 DA - 2025/04/30 TI - Airships: 100 Years of a Slide Rule, Thermodynamic Stability Equations Re-casted JO - Computational Environmental Heat Transfer T2 - Computational Environmental Heat Transfer JF - Computational Environmental Heat Transfer VL - 1 IS - 1 SP - 6 EP - 18 DO - 10.62762/CEHT.2025.496709 UR - https://www.icck.org/article/abs/CEHT.2025.496709 KW - airship aerostatic KW - thermodynamic KW - blimp conditions KW - standard atmosphere KW - taut conditions KW - outer space balloons AB - The theoretical fundamentals of aerostatics governing airship flight are revisited and presented in a simple manner. In the analysis it is assumed that the airship is flying in a standard atmosphere, and that both the atmospheric air and the gas inside the envelope of the airship are governed by a polytropic thermodynamic process. The equations formulated in this paper are used to solve some of the problems that were formulated in 1923 by the designers of a slide rule. The slide rule was used by the north-american pilots of the "Blimps" in the 1920s. The models presented in this paper should be considered not only to calculate the aerostatic equilibrium of the new generation airships, but also to evaluate the aerostatic performance of the balloons, that will be used in the future, to transport experimental devices to the surface of the terrestrial planets. SN - 3068-5486 PB - Institute of Central Computation and Knowledge LA - English ER -
BibTeX Format
Compatible with LaTeX, BibTeX, and other reference managers
@article{Avila2025Airships,
author = {Ruben Avila and Shoaib Raza Syed},
title = {Airships: 100 Years of a Slide Rule, Thermodynamic Stability Equations Re-casted},
journal = {Computational Environmental Heat Transfer},
year = {2025},
volume = {1},
number = {1},
pages = {6-18},
doi = {10.62762/CEHT.2025.496709},
url = {https://www.icck.org/article/abs/CEHT.2025.496709},
abstract = {The theoretical fundamentals of aerostatics governing airship flight are revisited and presented in a simple manner. In the analysis it is assumed that the airship is flying in a standard atmosphere, and that both the atmospheric air and the gas inside the envelope of the airship are governed by a polytropic thermodynamic process. The equations formulated in this paper are used to solve some of the problems that were formulated in 1923 by the designers of a slide rule. The slide rule was used by the north-american pilots of the "Blimps" in the 1920s. The models presented in this paper should be considered not only to calculate the aerostatic equilibrium of the new generation airships, but also to evaluate the aerostatic performance of the balloons, that will be used in the future, to transport experimental devices to the surface of the terrestrial planets.},
keywords = {airship aerostatic, thermodynamic, blimp conditions, standard atmosphere, taut conditions, outer space balloons},
issn = {3068-5486},
publisher = {Institute of Central Computation and Knowledge}
}
Article Metrics
Publisher's Note
ICCK stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and Permissions
Copyright © 2025 by the Author(s). Published by Institute of Central Computation and Knowledge. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made.
Preserved at
Portico
Portico
Scan to read this article