History

The history of the project "Locomoskyner" begins from the 80th , when the unique project "Thermoplane" was developed in the USSR. In 1988 - 1992 at the design engineering department "Thermoplane" of the Ulyanovsk Aviastar factory, a vehicle of unusual construction, designed for long-distance transportation of super-heavy cargoes, was engineered and created.

A thermo plane is a big disk 140-320 meters diameter depending on its modification. At the bottom of the disk there was a cargo section and crew cabins. It was suggested, that the thermoplane could cover the distance of up to 8 thousand kilometers, with a maximum speed of 250 km/h, and carried up to 2000 ton cargoes. Cost value of its usage was just a little bit higher than he cost of railway usage.

Thermoplanes were planned to use as flying cranes for cargo transportation to sparsely populated areas. Lift force of the thermoplane was achieved by means of helium and warm air use. Inside the disk there were two tanks. One of them was filled with helium, which lifted more than half of the vehicle mass. The second one was designed for hot air. By means of heavy-duty air heaters it was possible to manage the speed of ascent, to control the altitude (elevation) and to board. It was suggested, that spatial movement should be performed by turboprop engines. The bigger is the aircraft, the bigger is its cargo capacity. The differential characteristic of the thermoplane was usage for lift force apart from the helium section of the airship, the section of air, heated by the engines (the idea, expressed by K.E.Tsiolkovsky in the  90-th,XIX century).
For that time it was a forward project. But after the collapse of the Soviet Union this brunch turned out to be uneconomical and unattractive, the project of the thermoplane was closed.

Almost 30 years had passed before the project attracted attention to itself again, and it was decided to re-start it. Need for long-distance transportation of heavy cargoes reanimates the giants of the heavens-airships. These aerostatic vehicles gain more and more acceptance in the most diverse fields and brunches. The project "Locomoskyner" is a progress of the "Thermoplane". The creators of the vehicle put into life Soviet solutions, developing them and applying technical gadgets.

As a result of "LocomoSky" company work, an acting model of a new aerostatic thermoballasted aircraft has appeared- a locomoskyner.

Load-lifting capacity of this vehicle is 600 tons, that is about 5 times more than the maximum cargo weight of the plane "Ruslan" - the biggest all-cargo aircraft at present. Its diameter will be 260 meters. Two thirds of the Locomoskyner volume are filled with helium and one third - with air, which is warmed or cooled, depending on the task- to get off or to alight. The only thing necessary for lending is plane surface: frozen water, field, grassy clearing.

Locomoskyner can transport any heavy over-sized cargoes. Steamers, modular constructions for dwelling, and factory-made ammonia coolers, steam generators, separators, compressors, some atomic reactors- are the all, what is now transported with definite difficulties by rail. Many industrial hubs can be transported in a completely build-up form. Thus, there won't be any need in construction and assembly work at sight. It is possible to avoid heavy expenses on laying motor roads and railways during field development.

Now the company "LocomoSky" has already finished the detailed engineering of the first vehicle. It will be able to transport 60 tons cargoes. Such load lifting capacity will help to provide almost 90% of oversized cargo transportation. Then it will be time for more "heavy" variants - with a capacity up to 600 ton.