Timeline for What geographic characteristics for a world would be needed/be most beneficial for airships to be a common mode of transportation?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
7 events
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| Oct 1, 2014 at 18:45 | comment | added | mechalynx | @BrianS I understand that, I'm just saying that dense population centers and tall buildings would be already caused by lack of space, the latter being a sufficient reason to build airships, especially in highly mountainous and cliff-heavy terrain. The question of "why not outward" is there to question the reasons they would have to build upward if they weren't already living in an area that forces them to use airships already. I'm not sure anything I wrote is actually clear though - my english is failing me today. | |
| Oct 1, 2014 at 18:39 | comment | added | Brian S | @ivy_lynx, My assumption in such a setting is that they've already expanded outwards as much as possible. They've run out of room. | |
| Sep 30, 2014 at 20:45 | comment | added | mechalynx | @BrianS That's an interesting idea, but I think it would require more work than a mountainous landscape to justify appropriately (why not expand outward instead of upward?) - and the easiest justifications are mountains or islands, which are sufficient in and of themselves. Tall cities would of course compound the problem, but it would have to be solved before that, that's all. | |
| Sep 30, 2014 at 20:23 | comment | added | Brian S | Also, extremely dense population centers could potentially substitute for mountains: varying elevation isn't the issue at hand for this answer, but rather limited space for takeoff and landing. If building a runway required the space of 1,000 homes while a landing pad required the space of 10 and your country is facing overpopulation, the choice is obvious. | |
| Sep 30, 2014 at 20:19 | comment | added | Brian S | +1, my first thought was about the VTOL capability of airships, which becomes much more necessary if you don't have space for a runway. In the real world, we have other VTOL craft such as helicopters and tiltrotors, but those took longer to develop than airships. Certainly Harrier jump jets (with STOL capability) would have never been invented in a world where CTOL is impractical. | |
| Sep 30, 2014 at 19:25 | comment | added | mechalynx | I like this one the best, along with either Philipp's idea of a layered atmosphere (which may however have strong environmental implications, that the OP may or may not be ok with) or, combining a very rocky and mountainous (and/or heavily islanded) geography with lots of gaseous vents, possibly underwater as well. It would establish a plentiful source of gases and perhaps even a strongly gas-vent-based economy to match. | |
| Sep 30, 2014 at 15:29 | history | answered | Colin Pickard | CC BY-SA 3.0 |