The Foundation for Advanced Research (FAR) has begun work on a wind-resistant airship project for cargo transportation. The air vehicle, named 'Skipper,' was introduced by Ian Chibisov, the head of the air vehicles project group at FAR, at the Technoprom-2023 forum.
It is expected that the 'Skipper' fuselage will be 100 m long, and with a cargo of 33 tons, it will be able to cover a distance of 3,000 km. The maximum payload will be 60 tons, the maximum speed (at ground level) – 206 km/h.
The Fund has just started the preliminary design. It is still at a very early stage. We were contacted by logisticians who handle northern deliveries. They proposed a solution with cyclic drive units. The main thing here is wind resistance. That is, we need to make the airship as operational as possible or at least bring it to the level of helicopter technology in terms of wind loads.
The leader of the air vehicle project group at FAR believes that such an air transport vehicle would be useful not only for cargo transportation to hard-to-reach 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, but is exclusively for development... for establishing and developing the oil and gas complex where such an opportunity currently does not exist. There are indeed many such fields that are explored but not developed due to lack of accessibility.