The Thermoplan is a given name of the prototype of

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

lenticular Lenticular is an adjective often relating to Lens (optics), lenses. It may refer to: *A term used with two meanings in botany: see *Lenticular cloud, a lens-shaped cloud *Lenticular galaxy, a lens-shaped galaxy *Lenticular (geology), adjective de ...

-shaped

hybrid Hybrid may refer to: Science * Hybrid (biology), an offspring resulting from cross-breeding ** Hybrid grape, grape varieties produced by cross-breeding two ''Vitis'' species ** Hybridity, the property of a hybrid plant which is a union of two diff ...

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 ...

Design features

The key feature of Thermoplan is its combined structure with primary section having a torus of revolution shape (one variant was to construct this section hermetic and fill with

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 ...

instead of the shell helium section). This section supports the

shell Shell may refer to: Architecture and design * Shell (structure), a thin structure ** Concrete shell, a thin shell of concrete, usually with no interior columns or exterior buttresses Science Biology * Seashell, a hard outer layer of a marine ani ...

which has two sections one filled with helium and second with air that can be heated by the airship engines exhaust gas or cooled naturally. This design, based on the concept of a " rozière", greatly improves the manoeuvrability compared to an all-helium type. The

disc Disc or disk may refer to: * Disk (mathematics), a two dimensional shape, the interior of a circle * Disk storage * Optical disc * Floppy disk Music * Disc (band), an American experimental music band * ''Disk'' (album), a 1995 EP by Moby Other ...

shape is also intended to improve manoeuvrability and to help resist winds up to .

Shell Shell may refer to: Architecture and design * Shell (structure), a thin structure ** Concrete shell, a thin shell of concrete, usually with no interior columns or exterior buttresses Science Biology * Seashell, a hard outer layer of a marine ani ...

volume was 10660 cu. m. (376 450 cu. ft.) with its diameter of 40 m. The prototype had 2 Klimov GTD-350 engines (with 400 h.p. each), 1

Vedeneyev M14P The Vedeneyev M14P is a Russian nine-cylinder, four-stroke, air-cooled, petrol-powered radial engine. Producing , its design dates from the 1940s (Kotelnikov 2005), and is itself a development of the Ivchenko AI-14 engine. The engine has been ...

motor (360 h.p.) and 2 electric power unit for vertical propulsion (50 h.p. each). Flight crew was 2

pilots An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its directional flight controls. Some other aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are also considered aviators because they are ...

Project history

The project was started in the late 1970s in the

Moscow Aviation Institute Moscow Aviation Institute () is an engineering research university in Moscow, Russia. It is designated a National Research University. Since its inception the institute has been spearheading advances in aerospace technology both within Russia a ...

by a small team of students led by Yury Ishkov under scientific direction of . In the second half of 1980s with a help of then MAI rector Yuri Ryzhov they obtained support from

Gazprom PJSC Gazprom ( rus, Газпром, , ɡɐsˈprom) is a Russian State-owned enterprise, majority state-owned multinational Energy industry, energy corporation headquartered in the Lakhta Center in Saint Petersburg. The Gazprom name is a contract ...

for the start-up Design Bureau "Thermpolan" and first scaled prototype ALA-40 was constructed at the Ulyanovsk Aviation Production Complex and rolled-out in 1992. That was a rather small airship, and a full-scale model was not built at that time due to the economic crisis of the 1990s in the USSR. In the late 2000s there was an attempt to revive this project under the new name ''Locomoskyner'' by the Russian company ''Lokomosky'' in

Ulyanovsk Ulyanovsk,, , known as Simbirsk until 1924, is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, city and the administrative center of Ulyanovsk Oblast, Russia, located on the Volga River east of Moscow. Ulyanovsk has been the only Russian UNESCO Ci ...

. However, this was not successful and the programme was cancelled.

References

External links

Historical video on hybrid airships with extensive Thermoplan coverage
{{in lang, ru Airships of Russia Russian inventions Hybrid vehicles Experimental aircraft Moscow Aviation Institute

Design features

Project history

See also

References

External links