Author(s)

Xu Ning¹, Ping Liu^1,2*, Zhihong Pan¹

¹Jiangsu University of Science and Technology, Zhenjiang, China.
²Southeast University, Nanjing, China.

Stratospheric airship is a special near-space air vehicle which has lots of advantages than other traditional flying aircrafts, such as long endurance, strong survival ability, low cost, excellent resolution detector etc. In addition, the stratospheric airship can be an ideal stratospheric bearing platform. This paper firstly gave an overview describing some technical differences between the stratospheric airship and the traditional airship, including the working environment, design specifications, structure characteristics, energy system, flying modes, and so on. Some technical difficulties including the materials, power system which apply to the stratospheric airship and deformation of the huge hull, super-heating effect, and station-keeping were discussed. Furthermore, technical target, technical specifications, design concept, and overview of flying tested about two stratospheric demonstration airships which were representative achievements of the research on the stratospheric airship in China were introduced. Finally, the predictions about the progress and direction of development were discussed.

Stratospheric Airship, Demonstration Test, Membrane Structure

Ning, X. , Liu, P. and Pan, Z. (2021) The Mechanical Characteristics and Experimental Study of the Stratospheric Airship. Journal of Applied Mathematics and Physics, 9, 183-196. doi: 10.4236/jamp.2021.91013.