Airship Design [Paperback]

Charles P Burgess (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 12, 2004

Originally published in 1927, this volume was intended to fill the dual role of textbook for the student of airship design and handbook for the practical engineer. The design of airships, particularly of the rigid type, is mainly a structural problem; and theoretical aerodynamics has nothing like the relative importance which it bears in airplane design. This is to be expected when we consider that the gross lift of an airship depends solely on the specific gravity of the gas and the bulk of the gas container, and not at all on shape or other aerodynamic characteristics which determine the lift of airplanes.

Product Details

• Paperback: 340 pages
• Publisher: University Press of the Pacific (February 12, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1410211738
• ISBN-13: 978-1410211736
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,505,674 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Old but still good, January 12, 2006

By 

James Logajan (Springfield, Oregon USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Airship Design (Paperback)

This book makes a good companion to the more recent book "Airship Technology" edited by Khoury and Gillett. Despite its age, "Airship Design" is still worth purchasing for anyone interested in airship design. Some knowledge of calculus and basic physics and engineering fundamentals is required to get the most out of the book. Since there isn't any detail provided on Amazon on the book's contents at the time of this review, here's a quick rundown on the chapter titles, which are mostly self-explanatory:

Chapter I The Types of Airships

Chapter II Size and Performance

Chapter III Volumes, Areas, and Linear Dimensions

Chapter IV Load, Shear, and Moments

Chapter V Aerodynamic Forces

Chapter VI Strength of Nonrigid Airships

Chapter VII Longitudinal Strength of Rigid Airships

Chapter VIII Gas-Pressure Forces and Transverse Strength

Chapter IX Design of Girders

Chapter X Steps in Design

Chapter XI Common Airship Fallacies

There is useful material in this book that does not appear in the Khoury book and vice versa. For those interested in rounding out an airship library, the book "Airship Aerodynamics Technical Manual" by the War Department, short as it is, is one I would also recommend - and the price is reasonable and the target audience was airship student pilots, meaning the math involves only algebra and trigonometry - no calculus.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good book, dated, but still essential for an airship designer/enthusiast, October 7, 2006

By 

AeroEngineer (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Airship Design (Paperback)

I used this book when I worked for an airship company, this book, Khoury and Pressure Airships are practically the only publically published english language airship books.

There are some excellent German books that deal with more modern materials and methods as well as some older Russian literature that deal specifically with this subject. The concepts are sound but I never fully trusted the equations, they have too many assumptions built in based on 1920's airships. One of the later chapters deals with the non-feasibility of some advanced concepts and they were not feasible in the 1920's, today they are definitely feasible.

Of course most "modern" airships are non-rigid balloons anyways so their is not much change there. Goodyears ships are from the 1950-1960 era, they are just WELL maintained and obviously the electronics are newer.