The AIRSHIP/SKYCRANE can operate over the entire length of a containership, and its NIST ROBOCRANE rigging carrying LOADFRAME with payload can extend or retract to negotiate freeboard (i.e the distance from the oil platform or containership's waterline to the upper deck level, measured at the center of the ship) and reach alongside smaller, shallow-hull cargo ships, it therefore offers altitude adjustment for far more agile and efficient cargo transfer operations to or from a Sea Base under varying sea states than deck-base cranes. Altitude adjustment and stationkeeping are kev factors. This increase continues logarithmically up to the top of the “friction” layer at 2000-3000 feet. A typical wind blowing over water increases, say from 3 knots on the surface, to 4 knots at 7 feet up, and to 5 knots at 15 feet. Wind speeds generally increase as height or altitude increases. Flying at low speeds and low ceiling heights, approximately at mean sea level (MSL), well below pressure height, above cargo ships, conserves helium for reduced operating costs.
When decoupled, the Airship/Skycrane/Loadframe operates at low maximum ceilings over a body of water. For example, air resistance becomes a force for stationkeeping and gliding of the Skycrane with Loadframe above a supply ship in a sea lane and for maintaining safe distances and same relative speed to or from a containership or onshore structure. For payload transfer operations, air resistance of the entire multibody system can be factored into planned flight path trajectories and can be used to aerodynamically maneuver individual components. Frictional resistance, created by currents around an AIRSHIP/SKYCRANE/LOADFRAME is a major factor.
Although the aerodynamic design of a large lighter-than-air body has a low resistance coefficient, the boundary surface area relevant for air resistance is huge. Air resistance is one of the most important factors in determining the tethered Airship/Skycrane's size, stability and propulsive capacity. Crucial aspects contributing to the multibody system dynamics are the near real-time reactive computations and predictive motions of the Airship and the tethered Skycrane with NIST Robocrane and suspended loadframe (with or without payload). For at-sea cargo transfer operations, the core issue is the synchronizing or “tuning” of relative motions of the AIRSHIP/SKYCRANE and LOADFRAME, the supply ship or containership. Employing the Multibody Aircrane reduces the “footprint” of logistics operations by allowing precise payload pickup or dropoff within a designated target area, such as a cargo deck aboard a ship or even an inland Landing Zone (LZ) located in difficult to reach locations, like tundra, jungles, unimproved or damaged ports, or even in disaster areas. These very heavy payloads could weigh as much as 200 to 500 tons. This embodiment incorporates multibody systems dynamics, mobile robotics and tether dynamics to perform a wide variety of very heavy lifting tasks, such as the resupply of ships underway, payload transfer of supplies, heavy equipment and fluids between ships or to or from onshore facilities and other very heavy lifting tasks on land or sea. When these sub-components are combined to form a single airframe, with fuselage and wing span, this configuration creates aerodynamic (kinetic) and aerostatic (buoyancy force) lift, with more efficient power and propulsion, and a airframe for higher speed subsonic forward flight. Precise Point-to-Point Transfer of Very Heavy Payloads-This VTOL (Vertical Takeoff & Lift) air-crane, as an integrated semi-autonomous, stable, inflatable multibody system, contains three distinct subcomponents, an AIRSHIP, SKYCRANE and LOADFRAME, along with a tethered control line system, that during cargo transfer operations, provide active relative positioning, predictive motion control and active ballast control to achieve fast-paced and precise, point-to-point accuracy in transferring very heavy cargoes. I claim: The MULTIBODY AIRCRANE is specificallyġ.
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