Variable Lift Airship Prize Rules

Variable Lift Airship Prize Rules:

This prize will be awarded to the first individual or group to have a successful flight that meets this document's requirements for a low cost, variable lift airship. 

The prize winner shall receive an award of $2000 for fulfillment of all requirements. A prize of $1000 shall be awarded for fulfillment of all requirements with payload weight and internal volume requirements halved. 

The prize seekers must schedule a flight with SmallBlimps to prove award eligibility. This flight must not be scheduled within 30 days of any other scheduled attempt. All schedule requests are subject to the approval of SmallBlimp administrators.

The proving flight must meet all of the following requirements:
1. The aircraft must carry at least 1 occupant and enough ballast to meet a total payload minimum of 200 kg.
2. The aircraft must have a habitable volume of at least 10 cubic meters. 
3. The aircraft must demonstrate the ability to transition from storage to flight and back to storage without any interference from any personal not carried during the flight.
4. The aircraft must fully qualify as an ultralight aircraft under FAR part 103 regulations.
5. The aircraft's stall speed must be less than 20 mph.
6. The aircraft must fly a "figure 8" at an altitude of at least 3 times the craft's span.
7. The aircraft's total cost must be less than $20,000. This must be proven to SmallBlimp administrators with a log of all materials and an estimate of construction man ours. Man hours will be valued at 10 dollars per hour.
8. The aircraft must be able to travel at least 30 miles per gallon of gasoline (or the price based equivalent in other fuels) it carries. This must be demonstrated in flight or proven to SmallBlimp administrators based on flight data and calculations. 

Any thoughts?

OK this'll work to get started.
~
Maybe the way you're using "hybrid" could be defined since it is used a few different ways in the airship field and that would make it plainer that the contest is for an HTA vessel.

ok I made a few changes.

Is there support for this or any other competition framework? Are they any suggestions?

Is the concept "hybrid" defined only by item #4 on your list?  I think you should flesh it out more.  I assume you mean a craft that is slightly heavier than air and relies on both static and dynamic lift?

Excellent point. The human tendency is to refer to one type of hybridization and think it is the only type. 

Hybrid means amalgamating two, or more, regimes in one platform. The two regimes can be anything. Hybrid just means it's an evolved design from the conventional. Period. I think we need to stop using the word "hybrid."  And instead, spell out the two regimes with a slash between them thusly;

I have edited the requirements to include ultralight specifications. I also added a stall speed requirement.

But to answer the earlier question, it is not important for the airship to have hybrid lift. Rather it is important that it have variable lift. So I have renamed it to emphasize this. This should be clearer and allow for types other than the aerodynamic hybrids this was originally intended for. 

Another possible ambiguous hybrid (actually the one that came to mind when I wrote my post above) is hybrid lift gas; a ship that uses either a blended lift gas, or two different, but separate, kinds of lift gas, such as Helium and hot air, or helium/hydrogen etc.

Very cool prize idea;  I want more clarification as to what the definition of "variable lift" is; shouldn't there be some specification other than the title of the prize?  What kind of variation in lift must be demonstrated how?  Thanks.

It's not in the requirements that it be variable lift. It is expected that it must be variable lift to meet the requirements. I don't need to specify how it works, just what we want it to do.

If you can think of an easy way to stipulate that it be variable lift, I would like to hear it. But it won't be easy to rule out regular UL airplanes. 

Since any airship can fly at a non-zero angle of attack - all airships are variable lift.

It's not in the requirements that it be variable lift. It is expected that it must be variable lift to meet the requirements. I don't need to specify how it works, just what we want it to do.
If you can think of an easy way to stipulate that it be variable lift, I would like to hear it. But it won't be easy to rule out regular UL airplanes. 

-dude6935

This sounds like a hidden requirement.

I guess it's an implied requirement because it isn't a secret. It is stated in the title that it's a variable lift airship.

Is your variable lift aerodynamically or aero-statically generated?

Either or both. It doesn't matter. My preference is aero, but it doesn't matter for the prize. 

5. The aircraft must fly a "figure 8" at an altitude of at least 3 times the craft's wing span.

-dude6935

This is the reason I asked. If one does not use wings, what criteria applies here?

That is to show that the craft can break out of ground effect. I could just say span I guess. But I can't say diameter because that assumes that it is a body of revolution.  

Since the long axis is the axis that lift is generated from, if you specify an altitude of twice the length, you're guaranteed to be out of ground effect.

Every reference I have seen relates ground effect primarily to wingspan and height.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ground_effect_in_aircraft

Absolutely right.

In a wingless craft the body is the wing.