Caisson of the airship serves as the floor and ballast compartment. It must be both sealed and strong, which is why its production calls for particular care and strict oversight.

In this video, we share the stages of manufacturing the caisson of the NOVA-2 airship.

🔹 Assembly using Cleco fasteners
A metal sheet is placed onto a pre-fabricated metal frame and temporarily secured with Cleco fasteners. This ensures precise geometry and allows the fit of the components to be verified before final fastening.

🔹 Riveting with blind rivets
Once the structure has been verified, the components are permanently joined. Blind rivets are used — a solution that enables work on assemblies where access is possible only from one side.

Before riveting, the sheet is set on sealant, which ensures a tight joint and the necessary sealing of the ballast compartment.

In this way, a load-bearing, sealed element of the gondola is formed — the structural foundation on which the further integration of the NOVA-2 airship’s systems will be built. You can learn more about the caisson manufacturing process in the video.

We will cover how other airship components are made in upcoming videos. Stay with us, much more ahead!

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*The translation is done with the help of artificial intelligence.

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