The Foundation for Advanced Research (FPI) has begun work on a project for a wind-resistant airship for cargo transportation. The air vehicle, named "Skipper", was announced by the head of the FPI air vehicle project group, Yan Chibisov, at the "Technoprom-2023" forum.
It is assumed that the length of the "Skipper" body will be 100 m, with a cargo of 33 tons it will be able to cover a distance of 3 thousand km. The maximum payload will be 60 tons, the maximum speed (at ground level) is 206 km/h.
The foundation has only just started the preliminary design. So far, this is only an embryonic story. Logisticians who are involved in northern delivery approached us. They proposed a solution with cyclic propellers. The main story here is wind resistance. That is, it is necessary to make the airship as operationally suitable as, or at least bring it up to the level of, helicopter technology in terms of wind loads.
The head of the FPI air vehicle project group believes that such an air vehicle would be useful not only for cargo transportation to remote areas of Russia, but also for the development of new oil or gas fields.
The most important thing here is payload. Moreover, this solution does not intersect or diminish airfield solutions in any way, but is exclusively for ensuring the development... Ensuring the creation and development of the oil and gas complex where such an opportunity is simply not available now. There are actually many such deposits that have been explored but are not being developed due to lack of accessibility.
