A Proposal For
DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT OF AIRSHIPS
FOR TRANSPORTATION OF PASSENGERS AND GOODS
IN UTTARANCHAL
Submitted To
Technology Information, Forecasting & Assessment Council
Department of Science and Technology
Prof. Rajkumar S. Pant
Prof. S. K. Sane
Department of Aerospace Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay
As per the draft civil aviation policy of the Government of India, the main mission is:
To maintain a competitive civil aviation environment, which ensures safety and security in accordance with international standards, promotes efficient, cost-effective and orderly growth of air transport and contributes to social and economic development of the country.
The presence of a safe and reliable air transportation infrastructure directly facilitates international tourism, trade in high value items, perishable goods, and foreign direct investment. On the other hand, bottlenecks in the aviation sector can negatively affect international trade, imports, and exports.
For a state like Uttaranchal, which is not blessed with a well-developed rail and road infrastructure, aviation can play a very important role in increasing the connectivity. It is well know that the initial costs in setting up a rail or road infrastructure are very high, especially in areas with hilly terrain. In such areas, the aviation sector has the capability to connect remote places in a speedy and efficient manner. Further, availability of air transport has lead to the creation of several new industries, the export of fresh tropical fruits from Latin American countries and from the Caribbean to Europe being a case in point. There are several spin-off benefits of Air transportation also. It leads to lower time-cost of trade and quicker movement of goods and cargo, and attracts new businesses to far-flung regions. Air transportation plays a vital role in the economy of any region by linking the suppliers, manufactures and consumers into a productive and efficient pattern of distribution.
Aviation infrastructure will also help in good governance and administration by providing a means for rapid access to the far-flung areas. It will also enable quick response by the government to any requirement, and allow easy monitoring of the developmental projects at remote areas. This will be especially useful during emergencies and times of distress. Sparse communities will not feel left out of the mainstream, which was one of the strong reasons for the demand for the creation of the state in the first place.
Uttaranchal can be topologically assumed to consist of the following three regions:
Figure 1 shows the railway network of Uttaranchal, and the location of the National Highways and major roads in the state.
It is evident that the coverage of the region by major roads is quite sparse, and that the Garhwal and Kumaon regions of Uttaranchal have negligible rail infrastructure. These roads are narrow mountain roads, with limited width and load-bearing capacity, hence the average vehicle speeds are quite low. Due to the presence of hilly terrain, the road are such that the total distance by road is many times larger than the aerial or "as the crow flies" distance. All this results in higher travel time, higher fare and lower comfort levels for the passengers. The cost of setting up and maintaining suitable road and rail infrastructure can be prohibitively high for a under-developed state. There is also an ecological penalty while developing road and rail infrastructure.
Owing to the above-mentioned special factors, Uttaranchal is a good candidate for development of an aerial transportation network for movement of goods and passengers. A question that immediately comes to the mind is whether an underdeveloped state like Uttaranchal can really afford to set up an aerial transportation network. This is because air-transportation is considered a very expensive mode of transportation, which is true in general, especially due to the extremely high cost of setting-up and operating the support infrastructure. However, some of these questions can be answered by use of airships as the mode of transportation.
AIR TRANSPORTATION USING AIRSHIPS
An airship is an airborne vehicle obtaining most of its lift from lighter-than-air gas, usually helium, contained in the envelope. Additional lift can be provided by vectored thrust from the engines but since most is derived from the helium, the engines are needed mainly to drive the vehicle through the air and to provide power for the on-board systems. The result is considerable fuel economy when compared with heavier-than-air machines. It also allows an airship to be more environmentally friendly. An airship usually has a three-axis control system to enable it to go to the desired destination. A gondola is attached below the envelope, inside which the passengers/goods are located.
Airships are fundamentally different from aircraft, since they do not have to rely on the relative motion between the aircraft and the surrounding air to generate the lift force. Hence, airships can fly safely at very low speeds, and can even remain stationary at a specific point in space. They can attain speeds as high as 150 KMPH in level flight. Airships can climb to an altitude of more than 7000 ft above mean-sea level, but when operated from higher altitudes, their climb capacity is somewhat diminished. Hence, they are usually flown approx. 1000 ft above the ground level. This feature makes them very attractive for aerial sightseeing by tourists. Since airships are capable of vertical takeoff and landing, their infrastructure related requirements for operation are minimal. Airships can be safely operated during reasonably calm conditions and even mild rain, however, due to their large size, their dynamics is adversely affected during heavy winds, especially during takeoff and landing. Their large size also poses problems in their storage. There are four basic types of airships, as described below:
Rigid airships have a rigid internal framework, which maintains their shape. The infamous Zeppelin airship (which caught fire just before landing in 1937) was an example of this type. In general, rigid airships have a good weight to volume ratio only when their length exceeds around 120 m. The solid internal framework ios considered too heavy for a small rigid airship. The use of composite material can perhaps obviate this.
Semi-rigid airships were more popular earlier this century. They usually comprise a rigid lower keel construction and a pressurized envelope above that. The rigid keel can be attached directly to the envelope or hung underneath it. The airships of Brazilian aeronaut Alberto Santos-Dumont were of this type. One of the most famous airships of this type was Italia, used by General Umberto Nobile in his attempt to reach the North Pole.
Non-rigid airships, also known as Blimps, are the most common form nowadays. They are large gas balloons whose shape is maintained only by their internal overpressure. The only solid parts are the passenger car and the tail fins. All the airships currently flying for advertisement purposes are of this type; the Goodyear Blimps, the Budweiser and the Metlife Blimps in the USA, and the Fuji Blimp in Europe.
One of the most advanced airships available today is Zepplin NT, which has a 12 seater luxurious passenger cabin (Refer Figure 3).
Figure 3 Picture of Zepplin NT and the passenger cabin (gondola)
The initial costs of imported airships can be quite high, because the fabrication of an airship is a labor-intensive activity. A substantial reduction in the procurement costs of airships may be possible by indigenous manufacture. The capital investment, technical skill and expertise required to manufacture an airship is far less than that required for manufacturing an aircraft or a helicopter. This will have an added advantage of creating employment opportunities for the local population. Further, if it is demonstrated that airships can be gainfully employed for addressing the transportation needs of hilly areas, many new markets would open up such as Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Nepal and Bhutan, to name a few. Airships developed in Uttaranchal could then be supplied to these markets, opening new vistas for economic development.
The objective of this program is the indigenous design and development of an airship and delivery of at-least one flight-worthy operational prototype.
The prototype developed during this Program is intended to be a "proof-of-concept" vehicle, certified by DGCA under the experimental category. Flight test evaluations will be carried out to establish the efficacy of airships as a safe, reliable and economical mode of transportation in Uttaranchal. Appropriate design documentation will also be provided along with the prototype, so that certification under transport category can be obtained in a follow-up Program, paving way for the series production.
The Program will be carried out using the following Management Plan:
NETWORKING WITH OTHER AGENCIES
The Program was discussed in detail with Mr. M. L. Sidana, Director, Aerial Delivery Research & Development Agency, Agra. A general agreement was reached that, in principle, ADRDE will directly collaborate with IIT Bombay in this Program, by sharing the manpower, resources and technical data. The details of the collaboration and the exact nature and extent of ADRDE’s involvement in the Program shall be worked out later.
On the same lines, discussions were also held with Dr. Kota Harinarayana, Program Director, LCA, and prospective industries in the private sector for networking on this Program.
DEFINE SUCCESS/FAILURE CRITERIA
The Program will be deemed to be successful if the following tasks are satisfactorily accomplished:
Preliminary estimates of Program duration - 3 years, as follows:
These time estimates assume that some of these phases will run in parallel.
For each phase of the Program, the date of receipt of the funds at IIT Bombay will be considered as the notional commencement date.
The direct end-user of the airships eventually would be the state of Uttaranchal, who could use them for a variety of applications, some of which are listed below:
This Program will result in development of a knowledge base, pool of expertise and technology that is essential for design and development of airships within the country. Apart from transportation of goods and passengers, airships can be gainfully employed for various other civil and military applications, at various other locations within the country. Hence, the development of a few "proof-of-concept" prototype airships through this Program is likely to lead entrepreneurial ventures related to indigenous production and operation of airships. This will not only lead to economic of the region, but also generate new employment opportunities. Once the technology relevant to this niche product is mastered, there also exists a tremendous export potential for global supply of airships.
There will also be many other spin-offs of the Program like creation of facilities, processes and technological infrastructure, which could be utilized for several other applications.
Phase I Conceptual Design Phase (Duration 6 months)
This phase will set the scene for the two phases that follow, and the following tasks will be carried out in this phase:
The Core Team (Refer Annexure-I) will carry out this Phase at IIT Bombay, with the help of some Internal and External Consultants. The deliverable of this phase of the Program will be a Program Definition Report.
Phase II Preliminary Design Phase (Duration 12 to 18 months)
In this phase, all the major technical decisions related to the prototype will be taken. It is envisaged that the following tasks will be carried out:
Phase III Detailed Design & Development Phase (Duration 18 - 24 months)
The aim of this phase is to see an airship flying in the sky. The specific tasks to be carried out during this phase are: