Several concerns of advanced airships for thrust-vectoring application on dynamic study

In recent years, several demonstrating flights of big airships in varied countries again witness the extreme significance of this giant vehicle. Unfortunately, the over dependence on buoyancy can produce large inertia and low dynamics result in limited applications. The vectoring propulsion, by generating controllable forces and moments, is an effective mean to solve aforementioned shortcomings. This paper considers the mechanism in the generation of the vectoring power and uses for reference of some key achievements in conventional aircrafts, like helicopters and tilt rotors, and carries out profound discussions in airships vectoring technology in which the membrane flexibility, pylon degrees, flight conditions and layout strategy are considered. During discussion, the continuous integral expression and FEM expression of structures and three computing models of aerodynamic force are compared in regard to different blade geometry and external air conditions of airship and the validity of the algorithms. A complete prediction, on stability, dynamics and optimization, is carried out in which advanced analytical theories are introduced. This highly coupled system reveals the fact that the vectoring technology of airship still deserves further investigation.