This disclosure relates to a system that provides an environmentally friendly method to clean air over towns and cities. The system utilizes tourmaline filters and rocks, sunlight, and water to simulate the cleaning properties of waterfalls in order to create an ionized surface within a cylindrical tube and creates raindrops and mist to simulate precipitation. The system eliminates pollutants instead of transferring them to the surrounding environment.

A flight vehicle includes a drone with a pair of shaped protrusions mechanically coupled to the drone. One of the shapes is a hollow lift-producing shape, such as being a balloon filed with a lighter-than-air gas, and the other of the shapes is below the drone. The shape below the drone may be a hollow shape that does not produce lift, for example being a balloon filled with air. The shapes may be similar in size and shape, so as to provide similar drag characteristics. The shapes may be opposite ends of a support, such as a stick, rod, or other (relatively) slender structure. The vehicle includes a payload, such as radar calibration equipment or an antenna. The drone may be used to counteract wind forces on the flight vehicle, and/or to otherwise position the flight vehicle.

A system comprising an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) having wing elements and tail elements configured to roll to angularly orient the UAV by rolling so as to align a longitudinal plane of the UAV, in its late terminal phase, with a target. A method of UAV body re-orientation comprising: (a) determining by a processor a boresight angle error correction value bases on distance between a target point and a boresight point of a body-fixed frame; and (b) effecting a UAV maneuver comprising an angular role rate component translating the target point to a reoriented target point in the body-fixed frame, to maintain the offset angle via the offset angle correction value.

A hybrid airship has both aerostatic and aerodynamic lift comprising: an engine, a flexible external envelope (2) and at least one primary enclosure Ep filled with lifting gas (G). The primary enclosure Ep having an elastic wall P.sub.1 separating this enclosure from compartment C.sub.1, the latter having an elastic wall P.sub.i separating compartment C.sub.1 from compartment C.sub.i, the latter having an elastic wall P.sub.i+1 separating the compartment C.sub.i from compartment C.sub.i+1, and so on up until elastic wall P.sub.J+1 separating compartment C.sub.J from compartment C.sub.J+1 where J corresponds to a whole number greater than or equal to 1, each compartment C.sub.i being equally delimited by the flexible exterior envelope. The hybrid airship includes a) a valve V.sub.i between each compartment C.sub.i and its adjacent compartment C.sub.i+1, and b) a controller (22) for the valve V.sub.i.

An unmanned and remotely controlled airship has a system of multirotors combined with an inflatable envelope. The airship may be lifted/powered by a power system that has three or more rotors. The airship may be constructed using rods, connectors, the main system/control box and the rotors. The airship system may have a systemic symmetry for weight distribution and flight control and may be, for example, a symmetric ellipsoid envelope/blimp.

Some embodiments described herein relate to an aircraft that includes a support frame, at least one gas compartment, and multiple propulsion units. The gas compartment(s) can be coupled to the support frame and configured to contain a gas having a gas density less than the density of atmospheric air surrounding the aircraft during operation. Similarly stated, the gas-filled gas compartment(s) can produce a gas lifting force on the support frame. The propulsion units can each be configured to selectively produce a propulsive force with a thrust vector with a non-zero component along a vertical axis of the support frame. The maximum gross weight of the aircraft can be greater than either the gas lifting force of the maximum vertical propulsion force and less than the sum of the gas lifting force and the maximum vertical propulsion force.

The invention relates to an aircraft having a supporting structure (12) and a shell (10) that can be filled with a gas and which is tensioned by the supporting structure (12). According to the invention, said supporting structure (12) comprises a plurality of rod or tube-shaped sections (24-30) which define a circular, oval or polygonal main clamping plane for the shell (10).

The present invention is a variable geometry aircraft that is capable of morphing its shape from a symmetric cross-section buoyant craft to an asymmetric lifting body and even to a symmetric zero lift configuration. The aircraft may include variable span, length, and camber. The variability of the structure and the flexible envelope allows the aircraft to adjust its aspect ratio along with the camber of the upper and/or lower surfaces to achieve varying shapes. This transformation changes both the lift and drag characteristics of the craft and may be accomplished while the craft is airborne.

This disclosure describes an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) including an inflatable membrane (e.g., a balloon) and a compressed gas chamber containing a gas (e.g., helium, hydrogen, etc.) for inflating the membrane. When the UAV is approaching or departing from a location where noise reduction is desirable (e.g., a delivery location), the membrane may be inflated so as to increase the buoyancy of the UAV and allow the propulsion system (e.g., utilizing propellers, etc.) to be operated with less thrust and correspondingly with less noise. Once the UAV has departed and reached a certain distance from the location, the membrane may be deflated and retracted back into a storage area of the UAV.

An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) includes a body, a plurality of rotated propulsion systems, and at least one air bag. The rotated propulsion systems are connected to the body and each includes a blade and an actuator configured to actuate the blade. The air bag is disposed on the body.