The yaw stability analysis for stratospheric airships in float situation

When a stratospheric airship free floats at pressure altitude, the sideslip angle of the airship is neither random nor against the wind, but is stable on certain values. According to classical potential flow theory, a simplified two-dimensional ellipse and three-dimensional ellipsoid are firstly analyzed respectively, which implied that the airship could present crosswind orientation. The numerical investigations (CFD) on the yaw stability based on a bare hull and a finned airship are employed for verifying the theory conclusion. It is found that the finned airships can remain stable when its sideslip Angle is 55–70°, which is less than 90° of the stable angle of the ellipsoid and bare hull, but statically unstable at low sideslip angles, its static instability is similar to that of dynamic flight. Then the fight data of three stratospheric airships is analyzed. The yaw stability in flight data generally agrees with expectations drawn of theoretical and numerical simulation. These investigations serve to provide references for yaw control and configuration design of airships.