news

한어Русский языкEnglishFrançaisIndonesianSanskrit日本語DeutschPortuguêsΕλληνικάespañolItalianoSuomalainenLatina

Source: Global Times-Global Network

[Global Times-Global Network reporter Fan Wei] A Global Times reporter learned from the Aviation Industry Corporation of China on August 21 that the "Xiangyun" AS700 manned airship independently developed by the group crossed the three provinces of Hubei, Hunan and Guangxi for the first time, flew nearly 1,000 kilometers, and successfully completed the transfer from Jingmen, Hubei to Guilin, Guangxi. This is the longest flight time and longest range flight ever achieved in the field of self-developed manned airships in my country.

It is understood that the "Xiangyun" AS700 manned airship took off from the Zhanghe Airport in Jingmen, Hubei at 6:01 am on the 20th, passed through the Taohuayuan Airport in Changde, Hunan and the Wugang Airport in Shaoyang, landed for airship status inspection and rest, and successfully arrived at the Yueliangshan take-off and landing point in Yangshuo, Guilin, Guangxi at 12:44 the next day. The total flight time of the airship was 12 hours and 44 minutes, with a flight altitude of 500 meters to 1990 meters and a flight speed of 60-80 kilometers per hour.

This type of airship adopts a conventional single-bladder layout, a streamlined airbag shape, four "X"-shaped rigid trapezoidal tail fins, and a single-point single-pillar non-retractable landing gear. The maximum take-off weight is 4150kg, the maximum range is 700km, the maximum flight time is 10h, and the maximum number of passengers is 10 (including 1 pilot).

An airship is a lighter-than-air aircraft that relies on air buoyancy to stay aloft and carry mission equipment and crew. The weight of the hull is closely related to the volume of the airbag. The heavier the hull structure, the larger the volume of the airbag is required to ensure buoyancy. However, airbag materials and helium are expensive. Increasing the volume of the airbag requires higher development costs and may also lead to a series of problems such as the need to replace the engine with a larger displacement.

AS700 project R&D team members told the Global Times that the "Xiangyun" AS700 manned airship has conducted research and design on lightweight and low-cost materials in terms of low-cost composite material/airbag material selection technology, lightweight composite material structure design and typical connection technology, rigid-flexible connection structure optimization technology, and rigid-flexible structure nonlinear strength analysis technology. Finally, they have mastered the lightweight and low-cost structure design technology, which has reduced the material development cost by 30% while reducing the weight of the airship structure, greatly improving the market competitiveness.

As for the safety issue that the public is most concerned about, the AS700 manned airship adopts a high-safety redundancy design. The airbag part of the airship adopts high-strength, low-leakage, low-temperature resistant, and anti-aging non-metallic multi-layer composite materials, which greatly improves the stability of the main structure of the airship. At the same time, the airship uses inert gas helium as the buoyancy gas, and is equipped with helium emergency release and ballast water emergency throwing functions. In emergency situations such as the complete loss of power of the airship or failure of the control system, it can not only ensure the slow landing of the airship, but also assist in the control of the lift of the airship by controlling the thrust vector steering angle. Multiple safety facilities provide all-round protection for the safety of the AS700.

In addition, the AS700 manned airship has the characteristic of low requirements for take-off and landing sites. The airship adopts a bilateral distributed vector control design to control and drive the steering movement of the ducts on both sides of the airship, providing flexible and reliable thrust vectors for the take-off, landing and aerial attitude changes of the airship. This allows the AS700 to take off and land smoothly on a simple airport or grass with a radius of not less than 100 meters, providing strong guarantees for the vertical and short-distance take-off and landing of the airship. It can meet multiple scenario applications such as "low altitude + transportation logistics", "low altitude + intelligent mapping", "low altitude + emergency rescue", and "low altitude + urban security".

It is understood that the AS700 manned airship has successfully obtained a model license at the end of 2023 and has been included in the national first major technical equipment promotion and application guidance catalog. At present, the project team is working on the goal of early commercial operation of the airship from aspects such as airship pilot training, maintenance personnel training, and the introduction of air travel operation regulations. It is expected to open up all links of manned airship commercial operation within the year and help the development of my country's low-altitude economic industry.