It's very nice to see that there are people in preliminary airship design as well.

This is also my main topic.

I'm a research and teaching associate at Technical University in Berlin into airships for years.

I want to present something that is for the preliminary airship design.

Pretty crucial part is the fin sizing process.

Just for my background

I'm from the Aerabium Airship Club

which is based in Berlin

but

everyone can be a member in it.

Why did I start investigating on fin sizing?

I participated in airship racing for 15 years now.

As you can see here on the bottom

there is the airship race in Friedrichshafen.

The big question is always, okay, we have the envelope, we have the engines, but how

big should I make the fins?

We have also at Technical University a project for students to come to the institute.

They get first touch with aerodynamics

flight mechanics

stuff like this

and they can choose

a project with airships as well.

They also needed some kind of fin sizing mythology.

I tried to improve this somehow

and that's why I came to this point.

At this point, I also want to invite you to the airship race this year in Friedrichshafen,

end of October.

Everyone who comes with their own airship gets free entrance

free helium.

Take this invitation.

Let's start with the big questions.

What I hear regularly in talks with people

especially in the controller industry

like

do we really need fins?

We can just install everywhere engines

and with the controllers

we can just steer it

perfectly straightforward.

If we need fins, what size do we really need?

It's a crucial part of having small fins in comparison to big ones due to drag

due to

the bending moment on the envelope.

This is basically it.

Do we need fins?

I can say it clearly depends on the application

because when you want to build an airship

that is here inside this room

very small

just flying around