PADD Home Page

The Programme on Airship Design and Development (PADD) was launched at IIT Bombay in 2001, with team members drawn from various national aerospace organizations and private sector companies in India. PADD aims at developing airship technology in India for various scientific and commercial applications for various roles such as aerial surveillance, disaster management, and advertisement & product promotion. In the first phase of PADD, conceptual design studies of airships for transportation of goods and passengers over mountainous terrain under 'hot and high' conditions were carried out. Techno-economic feasibility of leasing airships for operation in India was investigated, and a Project Definition Report for development of two types of airship was proposed in future phases: the PADD Demo and the PADD PaxCargo.

This study project was sponsored by Technology Information Forecasting & Assessment Council (TIFAC), and was completed in 2003. As part of this study, two remotely controlled airships, the PADD Micro (with a payload capacity of 1.0 kg) and PADD Mini (with a payload capacity of 3.5 kg) were designed and developed. The PADD team was invited to carry out a flight demonstration of these airships at the 90^th Indian Science Congress at Bangalore in 2003. These airships have also been demonstrated at other locations in the country, such as Gliding Center, Pune, and Park College of Engg. & Technology, Coimbatore.

In 2004, a Lighter-than-Air Systems Laboratory was set up in the Aerospace Engineering Department of IIT Bombay, in which many R&D and technology development projects related to design, analysis, fabrication and testing of LTA systems have been carried out. Details of these projects are available here.

Project Title	Duration
Feasibility study of Stratospheric Airships as a High Altitude Platform for High Integrity Psuedolite Based precision Navigation System	2004-2005
Multi-disciplinary Shape Optimization of Aerostat Envelopes	2004-2006
Dynamic Neural Networks and its hardware implementation for control of an airship	2004-2006
Long Distance Wireless Communication for rural connectivity using a tethered Aerostat	2006- ongoing
Pre feasibility study of powered Hot Air Balloon for Multipoint River Ferry	2006- ongoing (in association with NAL Bangalore)