Questions tagged [airships]
For questions involving large flying objects that are lighter than air.
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When would a cannon be a quick weather device if you put a sock in it?
I’ve had an aerial combat scene written for a while but I’m not sure how to describe the environment that would make it work. In in the heat of pursuit, my very salty Captain is frustrated at his ...
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How to make a hybrid mapping system for aircraft on barren planets without celestial or compass use?
My captains and pirates belt out lots of navigational commands and jargon, but none of it can relate to terrestrial maps. So I’m needing a system they use in transit and combat, that they will ...
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Designing a catamaran as workable masted airship for swashbuckling on the maindecks
I am crafting a hybrid power/sailing airship that needs an exterior scene similar to swashbuckling on the main decks among the sails. Putting a mast on an airship with a big round envelope just isn’t ...
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Possible layouts for a sci-fi military airship [closed]
My story features airships that fly by using applying electrical to a strange mineral to generate antigravity. By altering the current the airship can increase or decrease its height. Since they don't ...
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In a world where gravity pass from 1 G to 5 G in a cycle of 365 days, can planes fly all the time?
I am writing a book and I have this cenario. There is a planet where gravity pass from 1 G to 5 G in a cycle of 365 days. I know that humans can survive till 3-5G, but what about airplanes capability ...
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Saturnian Cloud Cities Pt. 7- Kronothermal Hydrogen Pumps
Recap
So my Cloud-cities, were practically Rigid-Hull Airships made of titanium and graphene to withstand severe wind-speeds and turbulent weather on Saturn. The Cloud-cities in question, are floating ...
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Intelligent bees build a military dirigible -- how is it different?
For this world honeybees have practical philosophies like those of humans. Their architecture is, overall, near identical to the nest design of real honeybees, and they have the same way of life
They ...
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Alternate materials to build an airship
I am etching out a spec evo project involving small carnivorous sapient beings. I intend these creatures to never discover the secret of heavier-than-air flight, so instead they construct highly ...
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Saturnian Cloud-Cities Pt. 6 :- Geothermal Cables Vs Stupendously Large Airships
In my previous questions, I discussed the possibility of cloud cities on Saturn
And there were a few technologies which could be useful for the colony. The cloud-cities in question are giant airships,...
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Saturnian Cloud Cities Pt. 5- Shielding of Cloud-Cities from Saturnian Weather
(Previous Question)
In the (near) future, after space travel has become affordable to even the common man, cloud cities are deployed on Saturn as it has favourable conditions such as Earth-like ...
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Saturnian Cloud Cities Pt. 4- How to deploy the cloud-city
This is my fourth question in the series Saturnian Cloud Cities. Click to see the previous question
The diagram of the cloud city is given below, but I will try to describe it in a nutshell.
The ...
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Are airships practical in a world without much metal?
Following on from my previous question about airship engines, I was planning to limit the development of the internal combustion engine and much modern technology in my world by greatly restricting ...
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Methane as a lifting gas for medieval airships
So, I've read a few posts on this community about medieval airships. What I have seen is so far that, how none of them mentioned about a lifting gas. Lifting gases are hard to get by.
Hydrogen and ...
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Saturnian Zeppelin Cities: can I use Aerographene coated with Titanium as the hull material to prevent getting crushed by atmospheric forces?
(After receiving countless suggestions from users like Sojourner, Wilik, and EngrStudent, I have come up with a solution to a cloud city on Saturn.)
So, I ran a few calculations on Air Density ...
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How to slow and limit the scope of the internal combustion engine in powering an airship
I need to limit the development of the internal combustion engine so that it is only available in small numbers to few individuals and does not progress technically, or at least only progresses slowly....
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Saturnian Cloud Cities Pt. 1- Cloud City
This is my first question in the series "Saturnian Cloud cities". The second question is Ice Harvesting planes
My cloud-city is centred on a low altitude region just below Saturn's cloud ...
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Would a "Rigid" balloon "filled" with a vacuum work better than a hydrogen balloon in an earth atmosphere?
Just as the title says. If you pumped all the air from a balloon and somehow (handwave) kept it from collapsing. Would that balloon produce more lift than a hydrogen filled balloon? How much better ...
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Heated Hydrogen Zeppelin Cells
(Before I begin, I would like to assure everyone present that, yes, I'm fully aware of the lunacy of this idea.)
Let us assume this takes place on a parallel Earth sometime in the early 1900s, during ...
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Can flak or some other method be used to detonate WWI-style artillery shells mid-air?
I'm working on a steampunk-inspired low-fantasy setting where combat is primarily conducted via WWI-style artillery. Airships are employed extensively in ship-to-ship and ship-to-ground warfare, and ...
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Cargo Capacity of an Interwar Period Military Airship
In my AH there are large airships which are more advanced than those in our time line, i.e. real history (hereafter known as "OTL"). Country A has invaded country B and B needs to get some '...
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Air(warships) and the 'wet navy'
My early 20th Century (ww1/interwar/early ww2) alternate world has armoured airships (I haven't fully worked out the physics but I assume some sort of handwavium to allow armoured ships not just ...
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How would you construct an aerial trolley transport system? [closed]
I am researching alternative transport systems in a solarpunk setting. I am especially interested in systems where airships are pulled by the kinds of cables currently used in ski lifts and aerial ...
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How would anti-gravity airships change 1950s warfare?
The antigrav is a bedroom-sized cube of smooth sheet metal walls encasing complicated metallic machinery inside. When switched on, it generates an anti-gravitational field enough to lift a stone ...
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How to maintain large ships in hostile atmosphere?
The simplest effective method for maintaining large flying vessels is needed
My society is a pirate haven which has low technology and resources. They have jury-rigged some system to keep the fleet ...
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Replacing heavy cranes with airships for alien city building? Pros/cons?
We are doing construction on an alien world with unbreathable air
This creates a very big problem for a growing city which needs to expand. Workers cannot go outside safely for long periods.
Goal: ...
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How to shield lighter-than-air towers from wind?
I’m building a colossal tower. This tower forgoes the use of steel and concrete completely in favor of cheap lighter-than-air modules. These modules have cube-shaped frames made of carbon fiber and ...
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Maximum Possible Size for a Tethered Balloon?
I know that for airships, the maximum practical size could be limited by factors like air resistance, the danger of a collision with the earth when landing, the need to build huge hangars, etc. But ...
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Where (altitude, cloud type, etc.?) is it most safe vs. least safe for an airship to collect rainwater?
Context / technology level:
I have a more-or-less Age of Sail airship. It is not intended to be entirely self-sufficient, but it should be able to make long trips with small stops to restock/repair; ...
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How large could a passenger airship be built with 1920s era technology?
I am writing a steampunk novel set in a human world without computer chips, heavier than air aircraft, or recyclable plastic.
How large could a passenger airship be built using 1920s era technology? ...
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Medieval airship nomads
In a medieval society, an ethnic group lives most of their lives aboard airships. These airships are rudimentary, perhaps holding only enough room for a single family. They consist of slender wooden ...
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What are the buoyancy capabilities of super-heated Helium?
In some questions here (and in other sites), when the subject of a floating spaceship is addressed, I always see someone suggesting super-heated Helium of Hydrogen.
However, I can't find anywhere ...
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What are some of the structural problems inherent to a kilometer-scale hydrogen airship?
Airships are interesting vehicles, in that they are, as far as I know, the only ones to turn the square-cube law to their advantage. For a proportional increase X in length, width, or height of the ...
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Sail Plan For A Flying Vessel
What precisely is the ideal sail placement for a ship that flies?
Anti-Ballast which is basically a rock that pulls up is the key technology here, allowing the construction of a framework (essentially ...
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How fast could airships feasibly go? Modern or near-modern technology, but designed for speed
Most of the airships in my world are not speedsters. But just for niche applications,
http://aeroscraft.com/fleet-copy/4580475518 claims top speeds of 120 knots (222 km/h). Is that marketing bullshit ...
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Dragon sailing Airship Part II: Room Temp Superconductor Anti-Ballast
This is the second part of a two-part question. This part uses third-party worlds to illustrate a couple of points, but it is not in any way about them, therefore this question is not off-topic.
So ...
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Dragon Sailing Airship Part I: Fire Air Balloon
This is the first part of a two-part question.
This question is actually related to a question I asked earlier about Ancient Temple Booby Traps Designed for Dragons (link here Ancient temple booby ...
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How big would my airship have to be to fit a modern VLS system
For my factions anti-occult paramilitary force, I decided to give them large, armoured airships for their main form of transport and attack, which do not use gas bags for lift, but rather a magical ...
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Additional applications for advanced airships in my earth-like world
Recently I have asked a question about assessing the viability of airships in the scenario of my world, concentrating mainly on their usage as cargo haulers. The answers have been pretty positive and ...
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Could an Earth-like world use airships as heavy cargo haulers?
I'd like to have freights transported across my world by airship heavy cargo haulers with some passenger variants as well.
Imagine the scene with such airships soaring above the land, floating ...
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How would air-nomads catch food in the sky?
The world: sky nomads in solar-powered airships, roaming planet earth
The technology level: 2030s or 2040s. The airships are similar to the IRL designs LCAT60T airship by Flying Whales, Airlander 10, ...
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Could sky-nomads construct static depots?
The world: sky-nomads cruising the skies in solar-powered airships
The question: could they make some sort of static depot in the sky to stockpile food etc.? how would it work?
They live in the clouds,...
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All the crew of an airship drop dead, how long does it remain airborne?
I’m currently working on a scene for a book where the heroes stumble across a seemingly abandoned Age of sail airship. After a brief investigation they find that the entire crew seems to have ...
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How advanced could air power get without engines?
In my world, humanity was put on a Earth-like (but not Earth) planet thousands of years ago by an alien species for reasons. Before these aliens left, they created a field around this planet that ...
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How do I get Ironclads/Submarines lifted into an in-atmosphere wormhole that leads into another identical one?
I am working on some lore for an overhaul mod, but I want to try to stay away from handwavium as much as I can, at first.
There's two terran planets connected by many stable wormholes, the most ruckus ...
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How to Explain the Use of Sails in an Airship Powered By Crystals
I recently got back into the Shannara series by Terry Brooks and it has me wanting to take a shot at adapting the material into a TTRGP setting. One of the things that I'm hung up on is how to explain ...
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How to limit the usefulness of an anti-gravity mineral to airship construction in steampunk?
Airships are awesome, but making them realistic while retaining the awesome factor is hard due to how relatively little weight they can realistically carry.
I was thinking about ways to mitigate that ...
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Would oceans filled with long-lived, omnivore, intelligent Krakens make sea travel impossible?
Let's say the oceans' apex predator on a planet similar to Earth is a species of Kraken (octopus, just big huge ones) that live 200 years in average (so they have plenty of time to develop their ...
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Can we build a safe hydrogen airship?
Airships went out of fashion for a variety of reasons including:
Materials science level made constructing gas bags difficult. Cow-intestine were used to make the bags
Filling the airships with gas ...
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What would be the effects of changing the composition of air in order to increase its density?
In another question, I asked how airships could be made more viable. The first (and so far only) promising solution I came up with is to increase the density of air.
In the real world, air (on Earth) ...
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Which physical laws or attributes would have to be changed to increase the buoyancy of an airship?
As I came to realize from a previous question of mine, my vacuum airships are apparently not as good as I hoped they would.
I still do want to use them more or less how I envisioned them, and I'm ...
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