The Cameron D-96 was the first hot air

airship An airship, dirigible balloon or dirigible is a type of aerostat (lighter-than-air) aircraft that can navigate through the air flying powered aircraft, under its own power. Aerostats use buoyancy from a lifting gas that is less dense than the ...

, a powered, steerable lighter-than-air craft carrying two or three crew marrying the elongated envelope of an

with the externally localized heat source of a modern

hot air balloon A hot air balloon is a lighter-than-air aircraft consisting of a bag, called an envelope, which contains heated air. Suspended beneath is a gondola or wicker basket (in some long-distance or high-altitude balloons, a capsule), which carri ...

. It was designed and built in the UK and first flown in 1973.

Design and development

Cameron Balloons had been producing

s 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 Nylon is a family of synthetic polymers characterised by amide linkages, typically connecting aliphatic or Polyamide#Classification, semi-aromatic groups. Nylons are generally brownish in color and can possess a soft texture, with some varieti ...

fabric and with a

propane Propane () is a three-carbon chain alkane with the molecular formula . It is a gas at standard temperature and pressure, but becomes liquid when compressed for transportation and storage. A by-product of natural gas processing and petroleum ref ...

burner to feed hot air into the envelope from a gondola suspended below it. However, it has the elongated body shape of conventional

helium Helium (from ) is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol He and atomic number 2. It is a colorless, odorless, non-toxic, inert gas, inert, monatomic gas and the first in the noble gas group in the periodic table. Its boiling point is ...

and

hydrogen Hydrogen is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol H and atomic number 1. It is the lightest and abundance of the chemical elements, most abundant chemical element in the universe, constituting about 75% of all baryon, normal matter ...

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 Volkswagen (VW; )English: , . is a German automotive industry, automobile manufacturer based in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, Germany. Established in 1937 by German Labour Front, The German Labour Front, it was revitalized into the global brand it ...

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 Newbury is a market town in West Berkshire, England, in the valley of the River Kennet. It is south of Oxford, north of Winchester, southeast of Swindon and west of Reading, Berkshire, Reading. It is also where West Berkshire Council is hea ...

. 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 A rudder is a primary control surface used to steer a ship, boat, submarine, hovercraft, airship, or other vehicle that moves through a fluid medium (usually air or water). On an airplane, the rudder is used primarily to counter adverse yaw ...

, 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)

References

{{reflist, refs= {{cite book , title= Jane's All the World's Aircraft 1984-1985, last= Taylor, first= John W. R. , year=1984, publisher= Jane's Publishing Co., location= London, isbn=0710608012, pages=734–5 {{cite book , title=European registers handbook 2010 , last= Partington , first=Dave , year=2010, publisher= Air Britain (Historians) Ltd, isbn=978-0-85130-425-0 {{cite journal , date=11 June 1977 , title=The balloon makers , journal=

Flight Flight or flying is the motion (physics), motion of an Physical object, object through an atmosphere, or through the vacuum of Outer space, space, without contacting any planetary surface. This can be achieved by generating aerodynamic lift ass ...

, 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 {{cite web, url=http://www.bbac.org/pdfs/BBAC_Sporting_Handbook_v5.pdf, title=British balloon and airship club handbook - Other notable flights, page=20, access-date=1 September 2012, archive-date=23 September 2015, archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150923182823/http://www.bbac.org/pdfs/BBAC_Sporting_Handbook_v5.pdf, url-status=live {{cite web, url=http://www.icicle.org.uk/index.php?page=history, title=Icicle history, access-date=1 September 2012, archive-date=1 March 2012, archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120301071314/http://www.icicle.org.uk/index.php?page=history, url-status=live {{cite web , url=http://www.caa.co.uk/application.aspx?catid=60&pagetype=65&appid=1&mode=summary&aircrafttype=Cameron%20D-96&dereg=true&dataindex=1, title=D-96 on CAA register , access-date=1 September 2012 http://www.caa.co.uk/docs/1419/srg_acp_bas08-01.pdf {{cite web, url=http://www.caa.co.uk/docs/1419/srg_acp_bas08-01.pdf, title=CAA technical data sheet, access-date=1 September 2012, archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120523204229/http://www.caa.co.uk/docs/1419/srg_acp_bas08-01.pdf, archive-date=2012-05-23, url-status=dead

External links

Cameron D-96 image
Airships Balloons (aeronautics)