What if Storm King's airships were designed like this rather than what we saw in the movie?

[Jerry246 32]

As in resembling IRL Rigid Airships and Blimps instead of the "boat under a balloon" design commonly used by other airships seen in the series. You know, to make him stand out a bit more.

Yes, those are cannon batteries inside the envelope...

should have themed the Storm King around Dieselpunk as his aesthetic, like it's not just storm magic that he uses to conquer other kingdoms but also technological and industrial superiority over all. Like his empire is notorious for being so technologically advanced. This change in airship design as well as the use of a mode of propulsion resembling jet or rocket engines to move these being one of the hallmarks of the mechanization of his forces.

Like the peoples he enslaves from whatever land he's conquered would be forced to work in the factories mass producing weapons and vehicles for his armies and his airship armada.

Edited December 31, 2022 by Jerry246

[Props Valroa 26,038]

That would have made a lot more sense and I quite like these designs. The movie really needed to have more development in my opinion.

[Splashee 28,537]

Wasn’t there a flying airship in one of the FiM episodes?

I think all of the flying ships are supposed to resemble pirate ships or Super Mario Bros 3 flying battle ships. You know, less reality and more story book?

[SharpWit 2,472]

In defense of the boat under the balloon design, it fits for both the setting, and practicality.

The envelope serves as layer to protect and contain the balloon like structures that keep the vessel afloat. This can be as simple as a net, but the less surface area you have, the less protection it offers. The balance between offensive and defensive features of an airship are quite skewed by their natural fragility, but placing several gun ports around the structure will lower the latter as there'll be more exposure.

The high number of batteries and their placement throughout the airship complicates things further, as a lot of weight has been distributed to areas that would otherwise be taken up by the balloon like structures, and will throw off the balance of the vessel. Our lifting capacity has been diminished unless we upscale the craft's size considerably, and the recoil of the batteries firing have a higher potential to steer it off course or even set it into a spiral.

Upscaling will partially resolve this issue, but may not be technologically feasible or economically viable. Hard to say.

Reducing the size and number of Artillery pieces overall so they can be mounted externally or to light industrial cat walks would help considerably, as would the specific use of Recoiless Rifles or Rockets as the largest form of Port and Starboard projectile weapons systems. Forward and stern mounts have more wiggle room, but will be difficult to utilize as the airship would have to be maneuvered into position rather than the weapon aimed via every axis.

To prevent the the airship from veering off course and whatnot, a ballast must be maintained, so it has a position to come to rest at. This is pretty much required regardless of external or internal placement of structures, as the heaviest part of a lighter than air vehicle will always want to sit low. If everything were perfectly balanced, then then the firing of a projectile would propel it with equal and opposite force, sendng it spinning.

Moving up from the primitive hanging basket gives us a platform with greater dimensions that will need to be be aerodynamically shaped, eventually leading us towards something that is generally boat shaped anyways. The advances of engineering and luxury lead the airship industry in our world to adopt cruise ship style practices within the confines of a train car.

For a good fictional depiction of airships in a lesser developed setting, I suggest taking a look at those created by the Fire Nation in Avatar: The Last Airbender.

[Jerry246 32]

3 hours ago, Splashee said:

Wasn’t there a flying airship in one of the FiM episodes?

I think all of the flying ships are supposed to resemble pirate ships or Super Mario Bros 3 flying battle ships. You know, less reality and more story book?

what im tryign to say here is making the storm king stick out by depicting his fo0rces as being more technologically advanced than the other medieval/steampunk kingdoms such as equestria herself.

Honestly, io feel dieselpunk would fit his style,