Brazil’s Agência Nacional de Aviación Civil (ANAC) issued the Type Certificate for Airship do Brasil’s ADB-3-3 airship on Thursday 22 December. The ADB-3-3 is a non-rigid envelope airship («Blimp») derived from a North American project (model 138S) that was acquired by Airship do Brasil and transferred to the company in 2018. The aircraft operates with one engine and an envelope of 3,908 m3 (138,000 cubic feet) and has a seating capacity of six. It is forty-nine metres long and has an operational ceiling of 2,700 metres.
Due to material obsolescence and recommendations from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) in the United States (US), production of the 138S model has been discontinued.
Instead, as reported by our Brazilian media partner Aeroin, the ADB-3-3 complies with NTSB recommendations and modernizes the airship design. All obsolete materials have been removed, bringing the airship to the forefront of avionics systems.
Certification process
ANAC received the application for certification of the ADB-3-3 model from Airship do Brasil in 2018. Based on the application, the processes associated with the certification of the model were initiated, with the completion of documentary evaluations, engineering data analysis, prototype manufacturing follow-up, design conformance checks and performance of the necessary ground and flight tests to demonstrate compliance with the applicable requirements.
The certification process involved several Agency professionals, including technicians, engineers of various specialties and pilots.
