Aerostat

A modern aerostat used by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the Tethered Aerostat Radar System (TARS)

An aerostat (from Ancient Greek ἀήρ (aḗr) 'air', and στατός (statós) 'standing', via French) is a lighter-than-air aircraft that gains its lift through the use of a buoyant gas. Aerostats include unpowered balloons and powered airships. A balloon may be free-flying or tethered. The average density of the craft is lower than the density of atmospheric air, because its main component is one or more gasbags, a lightweight skin containing a lifting gas (which could be heated air or any gas of lower density than air) to provide buoyancy, to which other components such as a gondola containing equipment or people are attached.[1][2] Especially with airships, the gasbags are often protected by an outer envelope.

Aerostats are so named because they use aerostatic lift which is a buoyant force that does not require movement through the surrounding air mass, resulting in VTOL ability. This contrasts with the heavy aerodynes that primarily use aerodynamic lift which requires the movement of a wing surface through the surrounding air mass. The term has also been used in a narrower sense, to refer to the statically tethered balloon in contrast to the free-flying airship.[3] This article uses the term in its broader sense.

  1. ^ Chambers, Allied (1998). The Chambers Dictionary. Allied Publishers. p. 541. ISBN 9788186062258. the gas-bag of a balloon or airship
  2. ^ The Oxford Illustrated Dictionary. Great Britain: Oxford University Press. 1976 [1975]. p. 281. fabric enclosing gas-bags of airship
  3. ^ Wragg, David W. (1973). A Dictionary of Aviation (first ed.). Osprey. p. 8. ISBN 9780850451634.