Aerostat

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Aerostat

The word aerostat was originally French

French language

French is a Romance language spoken around the world by around 80 million people as first language, by 190 million as second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired tongue, with significant speakers in 54 countries....
and is derived from the greek

Greek language

Greek is an Indo-European languages native to the southern Balkan peninsula, the language of the Greek people. It forms an independent branch within Indo-European....
aer (air) + statos (standing). An aerostat is a lighter than air

Lighter than air

Lighter than air refers to gases which are buoyancy in air because they have density lower than density of air .Some of these gases are used as lifting gases in aerostat, which include balloon , moored balloons, and airships, to make the whole craft, on average, lighter than air....
object that can stay stationary in the air. Aerostats include free balloon

Balloon (aircraft)

A balloon is a type of aircraft that remains aloft due to its buoyancy. A balloon travels by moving with the wind. It is distinct from an airship, which is a buoyant aircraft that can be propelled through the air in a controlled manner....
s, airship

Airship

An airship or dirigible is a aerostat that can be steered and propelled through the air using rudders and propellers or other thrust. Unlike other aerodynamics aircraft such as fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters, which produce lift by moving a wing, or airfoil, through the air, aerostatic aircraft, such as airships and Balloon , stay...
s, moored balloon

Moored balloon

A moored balloon is an inflated fabric structure, often shaped like an airship and usually filled with helium that is restrained by a cable attached to the ground or a vehicle....
s and tether

Tether

A tether is a cord that anchors something movable to a stationary point. There are a number of applications for tethers, but the primary use is limiting the movement of animals....
ed Helikite

Helikite

A helikite is a combination of a helium balloon and a kite to form a single, aerodynamics sound tethered aircraft, that exploits both wind and helium for its lift....
s. Such a vehicle consists of a lightweight skin

Skin

The skin is the outer covering of the body, also known as the epidermis. It is the largest organ of the integumentary system made up of multiple layers of epithelial biological tissue, and guards the underlying muscles, bones, ligaments and organ s....
filled with a lifting gas

Lifting gas

A lifting gas is required for aerostats to create buoyancy. Its density is lower than density of air . Only certain lighter than air gases are suitable as lifting gases....
to create buoyancy

Buoyancy

In physics, buoyancy is the upward force that keeps things afloat. The net upward buoyancy force is equal to the magnitude of the weight of fluid displaced by the body....
. Originally designed to cope with the difficult weather conditions found in Britain, the Helikite

Helikite

A helikite is a combination of a helium balloon and a kite to form a single, aerodynamics sound tethered aircraft, that exploits both wind and helium for its lift....
has become the most common type of aerostat made in Europe, with many thousands constantly in use for lifting cameras, flying long-wire antennas, bird control, science and the military. Technically, aerostats are capable of providing "aerostatic" lift in that the force upwards arises without movement through the surrounding air mass.

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Encyclopedia

The word aerostat was originally French

French language

Greek language

Lighter than air

Balloon (aircraft)

Airship

Moored balloon

A moored balloon is an inflated fabric structure, often shaped like an airship and usually filled with helium that is restrained by a cable attached to the ground or a vehicle....
s and tether

Tether

A tether is a cord that anchors something movable to a stationary point. There are a number of applications for tethers, but the primary use is limiting the movement of animals....
ed Helikite

Helikite

Skin

Lifting gas

A lifting gas is required for aerostats to create buoyancy. Its density is lower than density of air . Only certain lighter than air gases are suitable as lifting gases....
to create buoyancy

Buoyancy

Helikite

Lift (force)

In the context of a fluid flow relative to a body, the lift force is the Vector #Vector components of the aerodynamic force that is perpendicular to the oncoming flow direction....
which requires the movement of at least some part of the aircraft

Aircraft

An aircraft is a vehicle which is able to flight by being supported by the air, or in general, the atmosphere, of a planet. Examples include balloons, airplanes and helicopters....
through the surrounding air mass. However, in reality most aerostats (except spherical

Sphere

A sphere is a symmetrical geometrical object. In non-mathematical usage, the term is used to refer either to a round ball or to its two-dimensional surface....
balloons) obtain lift from both aerodynamic lift and pure gas lift at some time or other. Aerostats are generally tethered lighter-than-air objects. Types of tethered aerostat include spherical balloons, blimps and Helikites.

Spherical balloons have the lowest surface-area

Surface area

Surface area is how much exposed area an object has. It is expressed in square units. If an object has flat Face , its surface area can be calculated by adding together the areas of its faces....
-to-volume

Volume

The volume of any solid, liquid, plasma, vacuum or theoretical object is how much three-dimensional space it occupies, often quantified numerically....
ratio

Ratio

A ratio is an expression which compares quantities relative to each other. The most common examples involve two quantities, but in theory any number of quantities can be compared....
and they lift well in low or nil wind

WIND

The Global Geospace Science WIND satellite is a NASA science spacecraft launched at 04:31:00 EST on November 1, 1994 from launch pad 17B at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Merritt_Island%2C_Florida, Florida aboard a McDonnell Douglas Delta II 7925-10 rocket....
. However, unless they are very large, in most winds they quickly begin to be pushed down to the ground. In light winds very large rounded balloons are used to lift people for recreational flight

Flight

Flight is the process by which an object moves either through the air, or movement beyond earth's atmosphere , by aerodynamically generating Lift , propulsion or Lighter than air using buoyancy, or by simple ballistic movement....
, as in Bournemouth

Bournemouth

Bournemouth is a large town in the Bournemouth in Dorset, England. The town has a population of 163,444 according to the United Kingdom Census 2001, making it the largest settlement in Dorset....
, England

England

native_name =|conventional_long_name = England|common_name = England|image_flag = Flag of England.svg|image_coat = England COA.svg|symbol_type = Royal Coat of Arms...
. Blimp shaped balloons were originally designed as barrage balloons just before the First World War

World War I

World War I, or the First World War , was a global military conflict which involved the Great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War I and the Central Powers....
. The name is likely to have derived from the British Army abbreviation of Balloon-Limp. Thousands of Blimps were used in both world wars. Blimps have changed little in design since World War One. The British L.Z. type of World War Two was based upon the French Caquot type of 1915. A British L.Z. barrage was sent to the USA

United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
in 1942 where it was copied and became the ZK Type made by Goodyear. Today most blimps are used for advertising

Advertising

Advertising is a form of communication that typically attempts to persuade potential customers to Purchasing or to consume more of a particular brand of Product or Service ....
in fair weather

Weather

Weather is a set of all the Phenomenon occurring in a given atmosphere at a given time. Weather phenomena lie in the hydrosphere and troposphere....
. Some massive blimps are used for lifting radar

Radar

Radar is a system that uses electromagnetic radiation waves to identify the range, altitude, direction, or speed of both moving and fixed objects such as aircraft, ships, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain....
or surveillance camera

Camera

A camera is a device that records images, either as a still photograph or as moving images known as videos or movies. The term comes from the camera obscura , an early mechanism of projecting images where an entire room functioned as a real-time imaging system; the modern camera evolved from the camera obscura....
s. Blimps are essentially sausage shaped to reduce frontal area and wind resistance. Blimps have stern fins to keep the blimp pointing into the wind. When they are correctly made they are more stable than spherical balloons, however their large surface area to volume ratio means they need to be large to lift a reasonable payload. Also, as a general rule blimps need to be large to cope with high winds. Blimps long thin shape necessitates a device to equalize pressure

Pressure

Pressure is the force per unit area applied to an object in a direction surface normal to the surface. Gauge pressure is the pressure relative to the local atmospheric or ambient pressure....
in the envelope called a ballonet

Ballonet

Ballonets are air-filled flexible containers that are located inside the Aerostat of a non-rigid airship or semi-rigid airship airship. Such an airship can have one or more ballonets, commonly one Bow and one Stern....
if they are to go over 900ft altitude, and to cope with large atmospheric

Atmosphere

An atmosphere is a layer of gases that may surround a material body of sufficient mass, by the gravity of the body, and are retained for a longer duration if gravity is high and the atmosphere's temperature is low....
temperature

Temperature

In physics, temperature is a physical property of a Physical system that underlies the common notions of hot and cold; something that feels hotter generally has the greater temperature....
changes.

When set at an angle to the wind, blimps can produce aerodynamic lift especially from their stern fins. When blimps do this it is called "kiting". As the wind increases further this lift causes the stern to rise and the nose

Nose cone

The term nose cone is used to refer to the forwardmost section of a rocket, guided missile or aircraft. The cone is shaped to offer minimum aerodynamic resistance....
to lower. The low nose is further pushed down by the wind leading to an instability called "porpoising". To reduce porpoising the tethers are set to further raise the nose in high winds, however this increases the drag

Drag

Drag may refer to:...
on the blimp causing the blimp to lose height and the tether to lay over to give "quatenary" problems. The handling and cost implications of the blimps large size means they are not commonly used by the general public. However, the military

Military

A military is an organization authorized by its nation to use force, usually including use of weapons, in defending its country by combating actual or Threat of force ....
sometimes use large blimps for surveillance and radio relay

Radio relay

Radio stations that cannot communicate directly due to distance, terrain or other difficulties sometimes use an intermediate radio relay station to relay the signals....
due to their ability to stay in the air for long periods of time

Time

Time is a component of the measurement used to sequence events, to compare the durations of events and the intervals between them, and to quantify the motions of objects....
in reasonable weather.

Helikites are a combination of kite and aerostat. They fly to greater altitude and in higher winds than comparably sized blimps. They are a tethered aerostat made of a combination of an oblate spheroid helium balloon and a kite. Helikites can be very small or large as required, because even the smallest are very stable in high winds and fly thousands of feet high. Helikites were designed, named and patent

Patent

A patent is a set of exclusive rights granted by a state to an inventor or his assignee for a term of patent in exchange for a disclosure of an invention....
ed by Sandy Allsopp in 1993. They are made by Allsopp Helikites Ltd, in Damerham

Damerham

Damerham is a village in Hampshire, England, located near to Fordingbridge.The village gave its name to a Ham class minesweeper, HMS Damerham....
, Hampshire

Hampshire

Hampshire , sometimes historically Southamptonshire, Hamptonshire, , or the County of Southampton, is a Counties of England on the south coast of England....
, England. Helikites are lighter than air and so will also fly in no wind to thousands of feet. However, they also utilise aerodynamic lift in a stable manner when wind is available. Due to their rounder shape, Helikites have a better surface-area-to-volume ratio than blimps so have greater aerostatic lift in no wind. Unlike all other aerostats, Helikites are so stable that they require no adjustment whatever the wind conditions. Helikites are a semi-rigid design, with solid carbon-fibre hard-points for securely attaching equipment. This makes them useful for time-critical situations such as military use and for stable photography.

SkyDoc aerostats are a hybrid balloon/aerostat. Shaped like a spheroid, sort of a squashed pumpkin, the SkyDoc has a fabric skirt that catches the wind. This creates tremendous lift and stability similar to that of a sea anchor. SkyDocs are manufactured in the United States by Floatograph Technologies, LLC. The rock like stability has lead clients such as the U.S. Army, Navy, NASA and numerous universities to use the SkyDoc aerostat all over the globe from Iraq to Easter Island to both the North and South Poles.

Aerostats are used for lifting military airborne radar equipment, parachute training, for advertising, lifting meteorological

Meteorology

Meteorology is the interdisciplinary scientific study of the Earth's atmosphere that focuses on weather processes and forecasting . Studies in the field stretch back millennia, though significant progress in meteorology did not occur until the eighteenth century....
equipment, raising antennas

Antenna (radio)

An 'antenna' is a transducer designed to transmitter or receive Electromagnetic radiations. In other words, antennas convert electromagnetic waves into electrical currents and vice versa....
, gaining line of sight

Line-of-sight propagation

Line-of-sight propagation refers to electro-magnetic radiation including light emissions traveling in a straight line. The rays or waves are diffracted, refracted, reflected, or absorbed by atmosphere and obstructions with material and generally cannot travel over the horizon or behind obstacles....
for ad hoc

Ad hoc

Ad hoc is a List of Latin phrases which means "for this [purpose]". It generally signifies a solution designed for a specific problem or task, non-generalisable and which cannot be adapted to other purposes....
radio relay stations, lifting video

Video

Video is the technology of electronics Videography, recording, processing, storing, transmitting, and reconstructing a sequence of still images representing Scene in motion....
equipment and digital cameras, for jungle marker balloon use and birdscaring

Bird scarer

A bird scarer is any one of a number devices designed to scare birds, usually employed by farmers to dissuade birds from eating recently planted arable crops....
.

Gallery

Types of aerostats:

Aerostat

Gallery

See also

External links