Airships
Past and Future
by
Dr. Mark Ardema
Santa Clara University
The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) San Francisco Section announces a seminar on Airships - Past and Future by Dr. Mark Ardema of Santa Clara University. This seminar will be held March 23, 2000. The time for this presentation is 10 am to 12 noon. The venue of the seminar is Ballroom of Moffett Training and Conference Center, Building 3, at NASA Ames Research Center.
The site is located at coordinates A3 in NASA Ames map which can be downloaded from http://www.arc.nasa.gov/about_ames/area_map.html. The main gate of NASA Ames is on Moffett Field and can be reached from 101 North and South, Central Express Way, and El Camino via Castro Street. At this time, arrangements can only be made for US Citizens and Permanent Residents to come on Base.
If you plan to attend this seminar, please send an email to gchatterji@mail.arc.nasa.gov with your name, your residency status (citizen or permanent resident), affiliation (Ames or not). This will ensure that you will be reminded of the seminar and also arrangements will be made for you with the badging office for your visit if you do not work at Ames. Be sure to bring a photo identification to show at the badging office.
Airships have played a colorful and important part in the history of aviation. This history is reviewed briefly, with emphasis on what lessons can be learned from past airship designs and operations.
Many interesting airship designs have emerged over the last few decades. These range from new versions of the classical full-buoyant airships to "hybrids" which combine buoyant and dynamic lift. Some of these designs will be reviewed and one of them - the Buoyant Quad Rotor - will be described in detail.
Equally important as choosing the right vehicle design is choosing a mission for which the airship is competitive. One such mission is the transportation of heavy out-sized cargo, which will be discussed.
Finally, the current airship development activity in Germany will be reviewed.
Dr. Mark Ardema is currently a professor in the Mechanical Engineering Department at Santa Clara University. From 1986 - 1998 he was Chairman of the Department. Prior to coming to Santa Clara, he spent 21 years at NASA Ames Research Center in a variety of research and management positions. From 1974 - 1980 he was the technical manager of NASA's modern airship program and from 1980 - 1982 he served as Research Assistant to the Ames Director. He obtained his Ph.D. degree from the University of California at Berkeley in 1974.
Professor Ardema's research interests have included optimal control, differential games, singular perturbations, trajectory optimization, structural analysis, and aerospace vehicle preliminary design. He has over 140 publications in these areas. He is an Associate Fellow of the AIAA and is a current Associate Editor of the Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics. In 1994 he was named Outstanding Researcher in the School of Engineering at Santa Clara University.