26th Congress of International Council of the Aeronautical Sciences
including the 8th AIAA Aviation Technology, Integration, and Operations (ATIO) Conference
14 - 19 September 2008, Anchorage, Alaska, USA
Paper ICAS 2008-10.1.2 (AIAA 2008-8851)

LOW COST TRANS-RIVER AERIAL-FERRY USING A NOVEL LTA SYSTEM

S. Banerjee, A. A. Raina, R. S. Pant
IIT, India

Keywords: LTA, Hot Air Balloon, Steam, Aerial Ferry, Tether Propulsion

An aerial-ferry system is proposed for crossing rivers having multiple land portions in between, rendering water-ferries useless. Gas filled airships are costly or hazardous for this application. The vehicle size is reduced by using super-heated steam as LTA gas, and controllability issues are addressed by an innovative tether-propulsion system.

contact AIAA to acquire the full paper