The Au-30 is a multi-role airship designed for executing continuous flights including flights at a low altitude and low speed. The main area of application is patrolling. The basic concepts of this airship design used are as follows: possibility of vertical takeoff and landing and short takeoff and landing; flight without lifting gas consumption; propeller thrust vector control in a vertical plane; application of an additional steering engine; application of modern materials and onboard equipment.

2007 October, 27 Au-30 No 3003 (Total Pole Airship) airship made the first flight at Marseilles airport. The crew: Putintsev, Demin (Russia), Maniere (France), Corky (U.S.A.). Airship was delivered to France for Jean-Louis Etienne North Pole expedition (February, 2008).

Au-30 airships are designed and produced by RosAeroSystems. OSKBES MAI developed a design and produces gondolas, controls and tails for these airships.

The airship gondola is fastened to the envelope by means of a rigid attachment between the gondola and envelope and catenary belts are also used. The framework of the airship gondola consists of four compartments: a cockpit, cargo-and-passenger compartment, services compartment and technical compartment. Power units are located outside, at the rear on the left and on the right side of the gondola, and a self-orienting landing gear leg is below it.

The cockpit is in the forward end of the gondola, it is designed or a two-person crew and provides a wide field of vision.

Radio and electrical technical units are mainly mounted under the floor of the cockpit and are easily accessed both from the outer hatches and via the hatches in the floor. The cockpit is separated from the other compartments by a demountable partition with a door in it. Behind the cockpit there is a cargo-and passenger cabin, which is of a constant transverse section and it has a level floor, which allows the carriage of cargo, special equipment and passengers. In the technical compartment of the gondola there are fuel and oil tanks, ballast tanks and air-and-gas system units.

The propulsion system consists of the left and right power units. Every power unit consists of an engine, a propeller, and an aerodynamic propulsor duct. The duct creates an additional thrust vector, forming a flow behind the propeller and it also provides security of the crew in the case of propeller malfunction. It is also the thrust vector deflection device. The aerodynamic duct also assists in decreasing the level of noise in the gondola. The use of vectored thrust simplifies and increases the reliability of the airship in the takeoff, landing and hovering mode.

The airship control systems are designed in connection with its main dynamic characteristics, they allow flight according to given trajectory parameters and provide high level of controllability in all conditions of the flight and movement on the ground. The airship PD 360 is controlled in the fore-and-aft and vertical direction, in pitch and heading. On different stages of flight the control over the same kinematics parameters is carried out by different systems. The airship fore-and-aft control is executed by propulsive device thrust changes.

In case of a power unit malfunction, the altitude of flight is controlled by means of the thrust vector of the other power unit, or dropping liquid ballast with a capacity up to 150 liters or dumping of fuel or discharging part of the lifting gas through the gas valves. Aerodynamic rudders are deflected by means of a duplex fly-by-wire system providing pitch and heading control at a positive airspeed.

(From http://rosaerosystems.ru website)