Airships were widely used in the 1940s and were the first aircraft that made the idea of a controlled and powered flight a reality but soon declined in popularity due to their capabilities being overshadowed by airplanes, when it came to speed and maneuverability. However, they are still used today where the need to hover over a particular spot is required such as tourist ventures, advertising, camera platforms to view sporting events and so on and so forth.
Even though the credit has been given to Germany for creating the best series of these ‘lighter-than-air’ airships, Russia also launched its own ‘dirigible’ almost at the same time from St. Petersburg. However, in recent times, the Moscow-based RosAeroSistemy has embarked on an ambitious project which is to build a dirigible specifically for transport purposes with a capacity of 180 tons and with the ability to travel a distance of 9300 miles.
Based on the ideas of the space pioneer Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, the DT-N1 (Dirizhabl (zeppelin) Tsiolkovsky – #1) will be 268 meters long and 64 meters wide, which will cruise at a speed of 120 km/h and 179 km/h. Its all-metal body will contain a volume of 400,000 cubic meters, and will not be the first all-metal zeppelin to be produced in Russia.
What is heartening to know is that these zeppelins are not only economically but also ecologically friendly as compared to its ‘faster’ cousins, airplanes. With nine diesel engines to propel and balance the airship, its objective lies in transporting heavy and off-gauge loads that are too expensive or too difficult to be moved by means of conventional transport.
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