An alternate history of British Airships and the British Empire

[zoomar]

The attached .pdf is a revision and addition to a post I placed on this site many years ago. It posits a very different trajectory for the development of lighter-than-air travel and World History after the end of the Great War.

 

[Some Bloke]

Does it include the Royal Navy using Zeppelin's for reconnaissance, anti submarine warfare, and early air warning during WWI?

 

[zoomar]

Can you see the .pdf? It should answer the question.

 

[Tanc49]

Pretty cool and well made. One thing though, airships always struck me as having potential massive impact on counter-insurgencies, particularly in the colonies, which I don't think you've mentionned.
Usefulness in warfare against an industrialised enemy would be limited (it's big, , relatively fragile and fairly slow) but anti-colonial movements generally don't have airplanes or artillery

 

[riggerrob]

Try reading "Peshwar Lancers" by S.M.Stirling. It is one of his better books.

 

[Dynasoar]

Has hydrogen been made non-flammable while my attention was diverted elsewhere?

Dynasoar EDIT: If the above is incorrect, please refer to Post #12 in the Thread "French Zeppelins and German Aeroplanes"

 

[zoomar]

Has hydrogen been made non-flammable while my attention was diverted elsewhere?

Dynasoar[/QUOTE
Nope. They use helium sold by the US.

 

[zoomar]

Pretty cool and well made. One thing though, airships always struck me as having potential massive impact on counter-insurgencies, particularly in the colonies, which I don't think you've mentionned.
Usefulness in warfare against an industrialised enemy would be limited (it's big, , relatively fragile and fairly slow) but anti-colonial movements generally don't have airplanes or artillery

Pretty cool and well made. One thing though, airships always struck me as having potential massive impact on counter-insurgencies, particularly in the colonies, which I don't think you've mentionned.
Usefulness in warfare against an industrialised enemy would be limited (it's big, , relatively fragile and fairly slow) but anti-colonial movements generally don't have airplanes or artillery

I suspect airships, at least zeppelin airships of the type in this AH would have limited military utility past about 1930-35 not to say that smaller airships might have been useful in counterinsurgencies, but that's not the focus of this paper.

 

[Tanc49]

I suspect airships, at least zeppelin airships of the type in this AH would have limited military utility past about 1930-35 not to say that smaller airships might have been useful in counterinsurgencies, but that's not the focus of this paper.

I figured if you were talking about the British Empire staying an Empire that'd be important. I imagine it would be a powerful symbol to have flying behemoth watching you from above

 

[zoomar]

I figured if you were talking about the British Empire staying an Empire that'd be important. I imagine it would be a powerful symbol to have flying behemoth watching you from above

These are interesting suggestions, and very much suited to a Stirling or Moorcock novel. However, in this timeline effective heavier than air flight coexists and eventually replaces a normal irship travel, leaving the only niche possible for large rigid airships after about 1940 being the "flying luxury hotel for the very rich" concept. Airplanes or rotocraft are cheap and could be easily procured by insurgents and local constabularies (in fact, a hijacked airplane is the tool used by anti-Russian Pushtun rebels to destroy HMA Elizabeth II in the epilogue). In this world, where conservative republics, Socialist regimes in name only, and aristocratic empires continue to dominate the world, I suspect colonial troubles would be handled in much the same they were in our world: soldiers, armored vehicles, airplanes, and helicopters.