SkyShip 600

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A Skyship 600 starts the tour

The Skyship 600 is a civilian impact airship , which is mainly used for passenger tours and aerial advertising . The airship was developed from its predecessor, the SkyShip 500 , in the 1980s and flown for the first time in 1984.

history

1993, the British Ministry of Defense had a Skyship 600 of Westinghouse Airships, Inc. bought. It was christened "Prince of Wales". It should be used, among other things, for surveillance purposes over the Northern Ireland conflict. At that time, plans were to purchase up to four Skyships.

On August 6, 1998 , the airship N602SK set an official FAI world record for impact airships of all sizes with 14 hours and 8 minutes of uninterrupted flight time . It lasted until September 15, 2004 when it was outbid by a Lightship A-150 . In September 1990, a Skyship 600 controlled by David Burns had already been in the air for 52 hours, albeit unofficially.

A Skyship 600 has been in regular use in Switzerland for Skycruise Switzerland and for monitoring tasks since 2002 . Two Skycruise-Skyships 600 were stationed there during the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens .

Also, the cargo lifter AG had a Skyship 600B (602 N CL, or D-LCLA). It had been bought in England and was refurbished in the Cargolifterhalle near Berlin, in order to then use it for pilot training and for some test flights. It was nicknamed "Charly" and was given to the Swiss Skycruise after the bankruptcy.

The last Skyship 600B built was baptized " Santos-Dumont " (N606SA). It was manufactured in Weeksville / USA, the first flight was on January 18, 2002. It was built for a French customer. The Porsche engines of the earlier models were replaced by Textron-Lycoming IO-540 engines with 220 kW (300 hp) each, which are now located directly behind the propellers (no longer inside the cabin) and are swiveled with them. The FAA certification took place on December 23, 2002. The envelope was manufactured by TCOM LP and has a volume of 6800 m³. The passenger capacity has been increased to 13. In September 2003 the ship was to go into a three-month trial operation for the US Navy in Southern California, during which monitoring work (LASH system) was to be tested.

Around the turn of the millennium until at least 2003, the Airship Management Service or Global Skyship Industries worked on an enlarged successor, the SkyShip 1000 . Thereafter, no further details about the status of the work are known, so far (September 2005) such a ship has not been built. It is a civilian offshoot of the military Sentinel 1000 project from the 1990s with space for up to 24 passengers.

SkyShips 600

  • 600-01, first flight: March 1984
  • 600-02, first flight: September 1985
  • 600-03, first flight: July 1985
  • 600-04, first flight: June 1986
  • 600-05, first flight: November 1986
  • 600-06, first flight: February 1987
  • 600-07, first flight: August 1987

(Source: Airshipsonline)

Current Skyship 600 (incomplete):

  • G-SKSG, in the late 1980s in England and the USA with various advertising banners
  • G-SKSC, 1990 over England
  • N601SK Skycruise , is on the road in Europe, previously Cargolifter D-LCLA
  • N602SK, stationed as Fuji-Blimp in the USA (as of 2005)
  • N605SK, previously registered as HB-QIZ for the Swiss Skycruise .
  • N606SA " Santos-Dumont ", Skyship 600B, built in Weeksville / USA, first flight on January 18, 2002. In September 2003 the ship should go into a three-month trial operation for the US Navy in Southern California.
  • N610SK, transferred from Miami to the Dominican Republic at the end of January 2003, was supposed to make sightseeing flights there

Technical data Skyship 600

  • Length: 61 m
  • Height: 20.3 m
  • Width: 19.2 m
  • Volume: 7,200 m³ of helium
  • Drive power: 375 kW
  • Payload: 1,740 kg
  • Passengers: up to 13 + captain and co-pilot
  • Cruising speed: approx. 72 km / h
  • Top speed: approx. 105 km / h
  • Travel altitude: about 150 to 1,000 m
  • Service ceiling: about 2,575 m
  • Range: approx. 740 km without additional tank / approx. 1,900 km including additional tank
  • Drive: two Porsche 930/67 / AI / 3 turbo engines with 188 kW (255 PS) / 5200 rpm each
  • Propeller: Hoffmann 5 blades, HO
  • Fuel: AvGas 100 LL, MOGAS, 666 l approx. 490 kg fuel supply on board
  • Cover material: Polyester, Tedlar, Mylar, TCOM Proprietary

Gondola:

  • Length: 11.83 m
  • Width: 2.56 m
  • Headroom: 1.92 m
  • Toilet available

team

  • 20 people including pilots, mechanics, electricians, ground crew, etc.

Accidents

  • In September 2012, a Skyship 600 collided with a JLENS aerostat at TCOM's airship site in Elizabeth City , North Carolina . The JLENS aerostat was prepared and tested by TCOM for the US Army on the site when the airship detached itself from its airship mast due to windy weather conditions and collided with the balloon. Both the airship and the balloon were destroyed in the accident.

See also

literature

  • Bock, JK / Knauer, B .: Lighter than air: transport and carrier systems . Verlag Frankenschwelle, Hildburghausen 2003, ISBN 3-86180-139-6 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ www.globalskyships.com ( Memento from December 31, 2005 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ↑ Army JLENS Destroyed in Major Blimp Collision; Program Hero Up; from April 8, 2011 ( Memento from December 14, 2014 in the Internet Archive )