Airship

The technology that began the Age Of Flight

The only safe way to explore the Aethersea, airships take many forms. However, they all share three characteristics:

• They are made of Utherwold pinewood, which is supernaturally light.
• They are suspended by one or more hot air balloons, usually heated with dwarf-coal.
• They are steered by one or more propellers, powered by engines attached to a rudder.

Some are huge, zeppelin-like constructions with enough fuel on board to power the ship for days in favourable conditions, while others are smaller vehicles used for domestic trips between mountain communities, or defence craft.
During 90AOF, personal airships with single or double-seated cycle-like constructions became popular. Due to the limited time of the flight creating distance anxiety, these craft are most commonly used for defence purposes, kept on larger ships.

Utility

Large airships are popular because they enable long-haul (albeit usually one-way) flights to other continents. Smaller airships are used to trade with mountain communities, although these are sometimes captured by Marauder tribes and used as reaving craft.
Airship owners must have a ready supply of fuel to both fill the balloon and fuel the combustion engine, but not so much fuel as to weigh down the craft. The combustion engine can be aimed with the rudder and ignited in short bursts to readjust the ship's course.
The direction of the wind is important, and sails, fins or propellors are often included in many airship designs to save on the fuel needed. Small airships can only carry a limited amount of fuel, so are dependent on relatively quick journeys to reach their destination. They are sometimes towed by sled or wagon before filling the balloons to reach parts inaccessible.

Parent Technologies

• Firearms

Inventor(s)

Isaac Diddilus, a rock gnome aeronaut, got hold of one of the first dwarven firearms in 1942AOW and reverse-engineered the process of combustion, using blackpowder combustion to power a propeller strong enough to steer a ship. He developed his designs and published them in 1951AOW, and it was sold widely the following year.

Access & Availability

Airships are expensive to build and maintain. As such, only rich merchants in areas like Kopenburg can afford to finance airships for trading purposes, although dwarves keep a few on hand to make visits down to the city and surrounding farming villages.

Discovery

Humans were the first to fill balloons and dare to visit the peaks of Highpass' many mountains, but for a long time, they had no way to control their flight.
Likewise, dwarves had been burning minerals they dug from the earth for many years. It was through trade with the dwarves, probably for livestock and food grown above-ground, that Diddilus found combining those technologies was the secret to steerable flight.
The invention of the first airship is credited as the beginning of the Age Of Flight, and as such, 1952AOW was officially renamed 1AOF in the Kopenburgian calendar, the method of timekeeping most commonly used throughout Highpass.