A Russian company specialising in airships is planning to build a hard-shelled zeppelin capable of lifting 180 tonnes at a time – more than any modern cargo plane.

Exactly a century ago, in 1908, the first Russian airship blasted off in the then capital St Petersburg.

Today, after successfully building scaled-down zeppelins, the Russian company RosAeroSistemy is planing to realize the ideas of the rocket scientist – Konstantin Tsiolkovsky. The Russian pioneer of space theory predicted that airships with hard shells could be highly reliable and maneuverable once the right technology was developed.

The DT-N1 (Dirizhabl (zeppelin) Tsiolkovsky – #1) project is about building an airship 268 meters long, 64 meters wide, capable of carrying a 180-tonne cargo. Its maximum speed will be 179 km/h, with a cruising speed of 120 km/h. It will have a range of 5,000km.

The airship’s all-metal body will have a total volume of 400,000 cubic meters.

DT-N1 will not be the first all-metal zeppelin built in Russia. In the 1930s, USSR engineers managed to put together two working models of 1,000 and 3,000 cubic meters respectively. But due to persistent equipment failures the project was shelved.

At the same time, the world leader in zeppelin construction – Germany – also closed its airship projects because the hydrogen used to elevate them was highly explosive and caused several fatal crashes.

Modern zeppelins do not use hydrogen and their state-of-the-art mechanics and engines are computer-controlled.

The DT-N1’s nine diesel engines will both propel and balance the airship.

The new zeppelins could be used to transport heavy and off-gauge loads which are either impossible or too expensive to move by ordinary means.

Zeppelin production is considerably cheaper than airplane construction. It is also more ecologically friendly as airships do not need the expensive infrastructure that aircraft demand.

There are 17 experimental, passenger and touring zeppelins registered in Russia. Some have already broken international records in recent years.

In 2006 the Russian airship Polyarny gus’ (Polar goose) set an altitude record for zeppelins, soaring more than 8,000 meters and beating a record set 89 years earlier by German balloners in 1917.

In September 2008, Russia’s dirigible AU-30 set a new world non-stop flight record for airships of its type by flying 626 kilometers at an average speed 60 km/h. The previous record of 374.7 kilometers was set by a British airship GA-42 in 1990.

At the moment, 14 countries are engaged in the research of zeppelins.

Interesting facts:

In 1931 the legendary “LZ-127 Coung Zeppelin” reached the North Pole. Before that it circled the Earth three times and completed a trans-Atlantic flight from Hamburg to Rio de Janeiro.

In 1937, the German zeppelin LZ 129 Hindenburg came down in New Jersey after a hydrogen explosion, forcing Germany to dismantle its airships the next year.

It has been proven that helicopters are incapable of carrying loads of more than 50 tonnes, while a zeppelin can in theory transport 1,000 tonnes – and even more.

The benefits of widespread airship use include shorter delivery periods, improved cargo safety and a reduction in shipping and warehouse costs.

By doubling the size of a zeppelin, carrying capacity increases by a factor of eight while construction expenses quadruple.

If covered with solar cell batteries, a zeppelin with a 50,000 cubic meter volume (cell surface – 7,000 sq. meters) could generate up to 10 KW of electricity, thus covering about 15% its own needs.

The diamond company De Beers uses a helium-filled airship for geological exploration, to search for diamonds in Botswana. This zeppelin is the only one in existence that conducts geological explorations.

Helium airships are being produced by 14 companies around the world.

Starting in April 2007, Venezuelan police began using unmanned HAN-402 zeppelins for patrolling the country’s capital Caracas. This airship was produced by South Korean company HanGis and cost $465,000.

American Wetzone Engineering Company is designing an airship capable of carrying 1,000 tons of water to fight forest fires.