Cameron D-96
{{Short description|First hot air airship}}
| {{Infobox aircraft begin
| name=D-96 | image= | caption= }}{{Infobox aircraft type | type=Hot air airship | national origin=United Kingdom | manufacturer=Cameron Balloons | designer= | first flight=7 January 1973 | introduced= | retired= | status= | primary user= | more users= | produced= | number built=16 by January 1984 | program cost= | unit cost= | developed from= | variants with their own articles= }} |
The Cameron D-96 was the first hot air airship, a powered, steerable lighter-than-air craft carrying two or three crew marrying the elongated envelope of an airship with the externally localized heat source of a modern hot air balloon. It was designed and built in the UK and first flown in 1973.
Design and development
Cameron Balloons had been producing hot air balloons for five years when they designed the world's first hot air airship or thermal airship. This, the D-96, has much in common with the balloons, being a non-rigid airship, covered in a nylon fabric and with a propane burner to feed hot air into the envelope from a gondola suspended below it. However, it has the elongated body shape of conventional helium and hydrogen filled airships, airscrew propulsion and stabilizing tailfins. With a length to maximum diameter ratio of only about 2.5, the envelope is fatter than that of many airships. The D-96 is powered a 1.6 L Volkswagen engine, modified to run on propane so that engine and burner use the same fuel. Mounted at the rear of the gondola, this drives a large diameter, partly shrouded propeller. This gondola carries propane fuel and a double burner, the pilot and up to two passengers. Hot air is guided into the envelope by a small, funnel-like extension above the burners.
On 4 January 1973 Don Cameron and Teddy Hall demonstrated the first D-96, registration G-BAMK, at the Icicle meeting at Newbury, Berkshire. Some records state that this first flight was made on 7 January or over the weekend of 6–7 January. After some initial testing, Cameron's attention returned to balloon manufacture but interest in the airship was revived in 1976 by an order from the U.S.A. The early flights had revealed some directional stability problems, addressed by progressively increasing the number of tailfins. The instabilities were finally cured by a four-finned, cruciform arrangement, with the fins inflated by air from the propeller slipstream, fed from an intake with a tongue-like scoop through a passage along the keel. A rudder, operated from the gondola by cable, was added to the lower fin. At the same time the gondola suspension was improved so that it no longer distorted the envelope.
Originally the D-96 had an envelope capacity of 96,000 cu ft (2,718 m³), as indicated by its name, but during 1978 the envelope was lengthened, increasing the volume by about 7%. This new envelope was used on subsequent production D-96s.
Operational history
16 D-96s had been built by January 1984 for customers across Europe, in Australia, Canada, U.S.A and Japan; of these, eight appeared on the UK civil aircraft register, though they are all deregistered in 2012. One of these is now on the 2010 French register; another D-96, not previously on the UK register is registered in Spain.
Specifications (1984 version)
{{Aircraft specs
|ref=Jane's All the world's Aircraft 1984-85
|prime units?=met
|genhide=
|crew=One
|capacity=Two passengers
|length m=34.14
|length note=
|dia m=13.72
|dia note=maximum
|height m=
|height ft=
|height in=
|height note=
|volume m3=2920
|volume note=
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|max takeoff weight kg=
|max takeoff weight lb=1786
|fuel capacity=114 L (25 Imp gal; 30 US gal) in three cylinders
|lift kg=
|lift lb=
|lift note=
|more general=
|eng1 number=1
|eng1 type=1.6 L piston, modified to run on propane
|eng1 hp=45
|eng1 note=
|power original=
|prop blade number=2
|prop name=Holfman HO14-183100LD
|prop dia m=1.83
|prop dia note= semi-shrouded pusher
|perfhide=
|max speed kmh=24
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|range km=
|range miles=30
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|range note=approximately.
|combat range km=
|endurance=2 h, in still air. Flight into wind results in cooling of the air in the envelope and the use of more fuel in compensation.
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{{aircontent
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References
{{reflist|refs=
{{cite journal |date=11 June 1977 |title=The balloon makers |journal=Flight |volume=111 |issue=3561 |pages=710 |url=http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1977/1977%20-%201804.html |access-date=1 September 2012 |archive-date=6 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160306154222/https://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1977/1977%20-%201804.html |url-status=live }}
http://www.caa.co.uk/docs/1419/srg_acp_bas08-01.pdf
}}
External links
- [http://www.airliners.net/photo/1903731/ Cameron D-96 image]