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Writing epic fantasy, there is no modern technology and no magic that could propel my airship. It is supposed to hold a large pub/brothel in it, with a few rooms.

  • How large would you say this airship has to be?
  • What would the logistics of flying it be?
  • Can it be flown by gas? If not, then what?

Behold the Kay Z's flying club for gentlemen

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    Airships.net, notably the Hindenburg. Also, Hindenburg class airship on Wikipedia. Please note that airships without early 20th century technology are quite problematic. – AlexP Nov 29 '18 at 01:01
  • @AlexP problematic how? is there anyway I could make this work within an apic fantasy environment set around 1500's in my own world? – Beginner Nov 29 '18 at 01:05
  • The underlined text fragments are clickable links. Follow them. Problematic because without aluminium and Diesel engines I don't see how one could build an airship. (OK, wood may work instead of aluminium for a particularly small airship, but you want a big one. And Diesels are non-negotiable.) – AlexP Nov 29 '18 at 01:08
  • It depends entirely on what fantastical elements you want to include. Think of it as a shopping list: your airship has some requirements (summarized in the links above) that normal 16th-century technology cannot meet, so you'll have to make up the difference with something - magic or super-materials or what have you. – Cadence Nov 29 '18 at 01:10
  • @KJO sorry, im thinking my airship can be 15m x 60m. I think balsa wood could work. – Beginner Nov 29 '18 at 01:14
  • @Cadence in my world, the country/race that uses these airships are master inventors, so im trying to come up with something a little more technical that sounds good on paper haha, I could say that they have created their own kind of substance which is a liquid that works similar to how Diesel works in our world? – Beginner Nov 29 '18 at 01:16
  • An airship 60 meters long and 15 meters wide is very small (smaller than the very first Zeppelin, LZ1). LZ1 was 128 meters long and 12 meters wide, and could carry a total of 5 people. – AlexP Nov 29 '18 at 01:36
  • Question is far far far to vague for anything other than personal opinion.

    So vague that it even requires personal opinion as to what the question might be (in any one of it's elements) & what the hell do you mean by "Can it be flown by gas?" you can't fly anything with gas.

    You need to edit this & prune it to a single question that can be answered or it needs to be deleted as opinion based.

     – Pelinore Nov 29 '18 at 01:46
  • @KJO correct, only the gondola. – Beginner Nov 29 '18 at 01:47
  • @Pelinore I meant to say can it be flown by something other than gas, as my story is in the same time period as the 1500's. – Beginner Nov 29 '18 at 01:48
  • @kaiZ unless you intend to puncture the balloon & use the escaping air as thrust you can't "fly" anything with gas, the statement & question are essentially nonsensical, it provides lift not flight in & off itself, what do you mean by "flight". – Pelinore Nov 29 '18 at 01:51
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    It's your airship, you do it as big as you need. If you don't give us any concrete information it's hard to answer other than that. – L.Dutch Nov 29 '18 at 02:04
  • Way too broad to re-open. Tell us more about the airship in the first place, then ask a specific and narrow question. See all our great [tag:airship] content for more details. – kingledion Nov 29 '18 at 03:15
  • @kaiZ -- I think your question is still too broad to be reopened. The basic premise is good. Airships! But basically, you're asking us to build that part of your world for you and you haven't provided any input to guide us. I'm all for "opinion based" queries, but if I can give you any size for the ship and any means of propulsion, then your question was poorly written. VtLC. – elemtilas Nov 29 '18 at 04:10

1 Answers1

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How large would you say this airship has to be?

It depends on how many patrons you wish to serve. The smallest dirigible ever could only hold one person in a cage below it, whereas the largest was designed to carry up to 90 people including passengers and crew. The funny thing is that the same wiki also mentions it carried 2,798 people in ten round trips, which would average almost 140 people per trip - must have been really tight.

What would the logistics of flying it be?

The same as for any dirigible trip, plus the logistics of a pub, plus the logistics of a brothel.

I imagine you will be picking up the patrons at an airport, and then taking them either back to the same airport or another one. Should be troublesome to exit a brothel via a one-mile drop otherwise.

Can it be flown by gas? If not, then what?

Historically these things have been flown by being filled with gases that are lighter than air. If you meant gas as in gasoline, I believe diesel is more efficient for the engines required to move dirigibles around. In any case diesel was the fuel for the Hindenburg.

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    The Zeppelins used Diesel engines because of the perceived incompatibility of spark plugs (and their Delcos) and hydrogen. Otherwise, Otto engines have much better power/weight than Diesels. – AlexP Nov 29 '18 at 01:41
  • @renan thank you! very informative! I think the Hindenburg is a good size to go off of as I want to carry around 90 people anyway. – Beginner Nov 29 '18 at 01:42