Korea Stratospheric Airship Program and Current Results

Abstract

Korea decided to develop a stratospheric airship in December 2000 as a 10-year program. The program consists of 3 Phases. In 1 Phase, a 50m unmanned airship will be developed with basic research for stratospheric airship to secure technologies required for 2 Phase development. During the 2 Phase development, a prototype stratospheric airship will be launched. The 2 Phase development plan will take concrete shape based on the result of the 1 Phase. Stratospheric airship will be commercialized through 3 Phase development. During last 2 years, KARI (Korea Aerospace Research Institute) has been developing a 50m unmanned airship system as its 1 Phase Program. KARI finished design of the system, manufacturing of components and sub-systems, tests of components and sub-systems, and total system check for flight test. In this paper, KARI’s general plan and approach for developing stratospheric airship are described and the characteristics of KARI’s 50m unmanned airship system are introduced with test results.