The Thermoplan is a given name of the prototype of

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

n lenticular-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 dif ...

airship An airship or dirigible balloon is a type of aerostat or lighter-than-air aircraft that can navigate through the air under its own power. Aerostats gain their lift from a lifting gas that is less dense than the surrounding air. In early ...

Design features

The key feature of Thermoplan is its combined structure with primary section having a

torus of revolution In geometry, a torus (plural tori, colloquially donut or doughnut) is a surface of revolution generated by revolving a circle in three-dimensional space about an axis that is coplanar with the circle. If the axis of revolution does not tou ...

shape (one variant was to construct this section hermetic and fill with

helium Helium (from el, ἥλιος, helios, lit=sun) is a chemical element with the symbol He and atomic number 2. It is a colorless, odorless, tasteless, non-toxic, inert, monatomic gas and the first in the noble gas group in the periodic table. ...

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 ** Thin-shell structure Science Biology * Seashell, a hard ou ...

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 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 ** Thin-shell structure Science Biology * Seashell, a hard ou ...

volume was 10660 cu. m. (376 450 cu. ft.) with its diameter of 40 m. The prototype had 2

Klimov GTD-350 The Klimov GTD-350 (initially Isotov GTD-350) is a Soviet gas-turbine turboshaft engine intended for helicopter use. Designed in the early 1960s by the Isotov Design Bureau the engine was later produced by Klimov and PZL, production ending in t ...

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 a ...

Project history

The project was started in the late 1970s in the

Moscow Aviation Institute Moscow Aviation Institute (National Research University) (MAI; russian: Московский авиационный институт, МАИ) is one of the major engineering institutes in Moscow, Russia. Since its inception MAI has been spearhe ...

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

Gazprom PJSC Gazprom ( rus, Газпром, , ɡɐzˈprom) is a Russian majority state-owned multinational energy corporation headquartered in the Lakhta Center in Saint Petersburg. As of 2019, with sales over $120 billion, it was ranked as the larges ...

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 problems caused by the economic crisis of the 1990s. 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 until 1924 as Simbirsk, is a city and the administrative center of Ulyanovsk Oblast, Russia, located on the Volga River east of Moscow. Population: The city, founded as Simbirsk (), was the birthplace of Vladimir Lenin (born ...

. However, without success and 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