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US 12,722,766 B2Granted
Airship
AssigneeSkyLifter Ltd
InventorsJeremy George David Fitton, David Graham Taylor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An airship comprising an airship body, a ballast assembly comprising at least one ballast pod (3) coupled to the airship body, and a payload lifting device (4, 6) coupled to the airship body and configured to lift a payload wherein the ballast assembly is configured to vary a weight force applied to the airship body by said ballast pod (3) when a payload is applied to the payload lifting device (4, 6) while the ballast pod (3) is coupled to the airship body and is in contact with a planetary surface (8).
Claims14
An airship comprising:
- an airship body;
- a ballast assembly comprising a plurality of ballast units coupled to the airship body;
- and
- a payload lifting device coupled to the airship body and configured to lift a payload;
- wherein the ballast assembly is configured to vary a weight force applied to the airship body by said ballast units when the payload is applied to the payload lifting device while the ballast units are coupled to the airship body and are in contact with a planetary surface;
- wherein each of the ballast units and the payload lifting device are each independently movable relative to each other and to the airship body and the payload lifting device is configured to lift the payload while at least one of the plurality of ballast units is in contact with the planetary surface;
- and
- wherein each ballast unit has a respective cable of adjustable length and a respective ballast unit winch configured to independently adjust the length of each cable to lift each ballast unit wherein the airship is configured to maneuver by selectively varying the length of a plurality of said cables when said plurality of ballast units is in contact with the planetary surface.
5 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.