How to Make an RC, Flying Rigid Airship Model - British Airship R 80

This is a brief video bout a project to build a somewhat-scale model of the British airship R 80.
Specifications:
Length -2meters
Diameter - 50 cm
control - 3 channel, vectoring main propeller and small rear propeller in the tail for turning
The construction is a balsawood frame (braced with thin thread), made from 1/32 balsa strips and consisting of 15 rings (10 sided). Although the actual R 80 was a 21 sided shape, I reduced my model to 10 sides to save weight. The frame is covered with silver tissue paper. At the nose and on the tail surfaces I used red, white and blue tissue to replicate the R 80's colour scheme.
The single gas envelope fills the full interior of the ship, It is was a simple construction from gores of mylar safety blanket material. So far it has kept the airship aloft for about 2-3 hours at a time.
As this was mostly just an experiment, I didn't buy any expensive electronics for control, instead I used the receiver and motors from two small rc cars, joined to a single battery. This system is fairly light weight but works very badly, even after I extended the antennas to get more range, the range is still only about 30cm. Thus the airship is essentially uncontrollable in its current state. However, now that I know the rest of the airship works quite well, I have ordered an actual lightweight receiver, esc and servos to replace the rc car system. Once I install the new control system, hopefully the airship should fly quite well.

[@quinnkalheim8842]

This is a project to build a relatively inexpensive rc rigid airship. The frame is balsa wood strips, the outer cover is silver tissue paper and the gas cell inside is two glued Mylar safety blanket gores glued with thinned UHU por. The control is a single vectoring prop in the engine car and a small motor in the tail fin for turning.

[@chrismofer]

excellent work very inspiring. I'd love to build and old timey dirigible such as this for indoor flying :)

[@quinnkalheim8842]

@@chrismofer Thanks!

[@greenseaships]

I like that a real effort was made to model the 80, particularly its unique command gondola.

[@quinnkalheim8842]

thank you, I tried hard to get the gondola to look like the original

[@chickensandwich402]

I was in the process of making a 6ft 1:80 scale L-10 a couple months ago, though I lost the motivation to keep making it. This video definitely gave me motivation to resume the project, know that I know I'm not the only one using balsa strips and mylar to make rigid airship rc's lol

[@quinnkalheim8842]

Thanks, if you would like some more motivation, here is a website that inspired me, it is in German, so I had to use google translate. www.das-nurfluegelteam.de/fred_ludwig/luftschiff.html

[@Jjames763]

What the heck? This is _so good!_ Instantly recognizable as the R80, even without the number printed on it. Excellent work.
I always did wish the R80’s rear gondola arrangement caught on sooner. With the addition of actually stable tricycle landing gear instead of bump bags, the vast advancements of much later, N-class nonrigid airships in terms of ground handling and control could have been achieved so much sooner.

[@quinnkalheim8842]

Thanks a lot

[@kitingmare]

This is so cool! We need more rigid airship models :D I've seen a lot of blimps (especially at the model ariship regattas in Friedrichshafen) , but barely any rigids.

[@quinnkalheim8842]

Thanks

[@stevem7868-y4l]

I built many years ago, a type of airship, using 8 tea lighters as lift, it had pitch and rudder, but no moving power, it was quite buoyant, but alas, not enough to take a motor and prop, plus it took about 3 hours to get enough heat into the envelope to get lift, i used white bin liners as a skin, around a balsa and paper frame, all went in the bin, as wasnt a viable project

[@nathanstoysandmore]

what are the links to the parts you used?
and how did you inflate the mylar safety blankets so you can refuel them on multiple flights?
really good model by the way.

[@user-rv9zg9yf4o]

Soo coool

[@davidkavanagh189]

Absolutely fascinating! What is the lifting gas? I'm assuming helium?

[@quinnkalheim8842]

Thanks, it was helium, but I have also tried it with a hydrogen generator I built to save on cost as the gas leaks out over time due as the envelope is made by me and not as good as a somthing like a commercial mylar balloon

[@davidkavanagh189]

@@quinnkalheim8842 Fascinating. I'd be really interested to know more about the hydrogen setup!

[@quinnkalheim8842]

@@davidkavanagh189 Thanks, Here is the video that I based my hydrogen generator on, it is not the fastest at producing gas but it works well and was not too hard to build: ua-cam.com/video/gH-jhN3mV60/v-deo.html

[@AndrewHyams]

fantastic, would love to see this getting to stretch its legs in a bigger space!

[@quinnkalheim8842]

definitely, once I have better electronics in it, I will try to take it to a gym or somewhere with more space

[@user-rv9zg9yf4o]

​@@quinnkalheim8842 if you want i can help you make inexpensive rc control i used it on lots of my models even on airships ua-cam.com/video/DKQcKCY-3ds/v-deo.htmlsi=WDd6THtG9pUQ4Ivo

[@user-rv9zg9yf4o]

​@@quinnkalheim8842 hi, I'm also have builded rc airships, you can see videos of airships on my channel, i used diy arduino remote control, it is very good and cheap, if you want i can help you with rc, where can i contact you ?

[@grimtoons6695]

what music did you use

[@grimtoons6695]

Also what you should do is extend the middle in order to be able to lift more

[@bryceandfriends-ww1vw]

i am working on an 18 foot rc rigid using 1mm carbon fiber for the frame
9 22 inch orbz balloons filed with hydrogen for lift
and 4 wltoys v931 brushless motors for power

[@quinnkalheim8842]

Good luck, I hope it goes well

[@spriteblood]

Holy cow! I am currently bulding something very similar and my kids ruined some first prototypes when they used them as cages. Also I am trying with tissue paper which you get very cheap on Temu. The challenge is to make it harder like on RC planes without breaking the wooden construction. So many construction challenges. You have Discord or something? I would really like to start a little community on this topic, I think it's so underrated

[@quinnkalheim8842]

Thanks, there are a few community's dedicated to rc airships, here are some of the resources I have found. (here is main community for rc airships where you could post any questions or build logs) www.rcgroups.com/blimps-balloons-airships-and-lighter-than-air-models-62/ (here are some other useful resources) www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?605572-Plantraco-Custom-Zeppelin-%28NOT-blimp%21%29 facebook.com/groups/smallairshipunion/, www.starksravings.com/shenandoah/shen_model.htm