Abstract—Feeder is one of the airships of the Multibody Advanced Airship for Transport (MAAT) system, under development within the EU FP7 project. MAAT is based on a modular concept composed of two different parts that have the possibility to join; respectively they are the so-called Cruiser and Feeder, designed on the lighter than air principle. Feeder, also named ATEN (Airship Transport Elevator Network), is the smaller one which joins the bigger one, Cruiser, also named PTAH (Photovoltaic modular Transport Airship for High altitude),envisaged to happen at 15km altitude. During the MAAT design phase, the aerodynamic studies of the both airships and their interactions are analyzed. The objective of these studies is to understand the aerodynamic behavior of all the preselected configurations, as an important element in the overall MAAT system design. The most of these configurations are only simulated by CFD, while the most feasible one is experimentally analyzed in order to validate and thrust the CFD predictions. This paper presents the numerical and experimental investigation of the Feeder “conical like” shape configuration. The experiments are focused on the aerodynamic force coefficients and the pressure distribution over the Feeder outer surface, while the numerical simulation cover also the analysis of the velocity and pressure distribution. Finally, the wind tunnel experiment is compared with its CFD model in order to validate such specific simulations with respective experiments and to better understand the difference between the wind tunnel and in-flight circumstances. Keywords—MAAT project Feeder, CFD simulations, wind tunnel experiments, lateral wind influence. I. INTRODUCTION HE Feeder airship is part of the MAAT system [1]-[2]. The ATEN feeders perform linking operations between cruisers and ground based airport hubs. They are designed to lift up and down, from the ground to the interception altitude, where they join the PTAH to form a unique system. The PTAH remains in flight at an economical altitude and proper speed, and it has static hovering capabilities to enable the ATEN feeder docking operations. This economical altitude is defined to be between 13 and 15 km. Fig. 1 illustrates the MAAT system concept, in continuous development. A. Suñol is with the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels 1050, Belgium. (e- mail: anna.sunol.jimenez@vub.ac.be). D. Vucinic is with the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels 1050, Belgium (e-mail: dean.vucinic@vub.ac.be). S. Vanlanduit is with the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels 1050, Belgium (e-mail: svlandui@vub.ac.be). T.Markova, is with Tesis, Moscow, Russia. (e-mail: markova@flowvision.ru). A. Aksenov is with Tesis, Moscow, Russia. (e-mail: andrey@tesis.com.ru). I. Moskalyovis with Tesis, Moscow, Russia. (e-mail: miv@flowvision.ru). The aerodynamic analysis presented in this paper, is focused on one selected Feeder configuration, which has the particular conical shape, as shown in Fig. 2, designed by the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia (UNIMORE) [1], being the MAAT project leader. The main movement of the Feeder is vertical- like an elevator -since it interconnects the Cruiser and the ground airport hub. This vertical movement is performed by the Feeder variable volume characteristics, based on the buoyancy principle, enabling its up and down movement. However, the Feeder is expected to face the horizontal winds during the traversed altitudes, which are often experienced as being part of the typical meteorological conditions. Moreover, Feeder must be able to move horizontally, in order to join the Cruiser. In this paper, the influence of the low-speed wind at high altitudes is studied, with special aim to estimate the aerodynamic loads and the pressure distribution during the Feeder prescribed movement. The presented results are obtained via numerical simulations [3] and wind tunnel experiments [4], and further on, validated by their comparison [5], [6]. A second CFD simulation studying the wind tunnel conditions is carried out, in order to shed light on the difference between in-flight and wind tunnel conditions. The main reason behind performing a CFD simulation of the wind tunnel experiment is due to the difference in the Reynolds number between the in-flight and wind tunnel conditions. The experiments have been performed in the Mechanical Engineering lab at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB). The used CFD numerical simulation software is Flow Vision, by Tesis, which has been used by VUB in several EU projects [7]. Fig. 1 MAAT system A. Suñol, D. Vucinic, S.Vanlanduit, T. Markova, A. Aksenov, and I. Moskalyov Experimental and Numerical Study of the Effect of Lateral Wind on the Feeder Airship T World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology International Journal of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering Vol:7, No:4, 2013 564 International Scholarly and Scientific Research & Innovation 7(4) 2013 scholar.waset.org/1307-6892/2434 International Science Index, Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering Vol:7, No:4, 2013 waset.org/Publication/2434