Abstract: In order to study the structural mechanical properties of the airship, a reduced scale airship model considering the cutting pattern effect was established. The biaxial tensile test of woven fabrics was carried out firstly. According to a series of biaxial tensile tests, the stress response surface of the mechanical parameters of envelop material was fitted and a material model subroutine was prepared. Based on the simulation of the cutting process with Abaqus, the finite element model of the initial configuration was established and the inflation process of the model was numerically simulated. Finally, the reduced scale airship model was designed and fabricated to perform the inflation test, and the deformation characteristics of the envelop under different internal pressures were measured. Results showed that there was an obvious difference between the initial configuration of the airship considering cutting effect and the ideal rotory model. The error of the gore’s maximum deformation of the cutting model was within 12% and decreased with the increase of the internal pressure. The cutting effect had a non-negligible role in the airship fine-modeling analysis.

Key words: airship; reduced scale model; cutting pattern effect; stress response surface; fine-modelling