Air and Space Photos from Alternate Worlds.

Nimrod fleet - Nimrod rigid airship.png


This is the Nimrod, the inanimate star and main location of my steampunk/dieselpunk story series, set in the Aeroverse.

1.) Technology

For those who don't want to bother reading all of the notes on this setting (see link in previous sentence) in order, some quick links, to give you an idea about the technology of the setting and the technology behind this particular rigid airship type:

- Aviation technology in the Aeroverse setting
- Electric propulsion tech revolution in the Aeroverse setting
- Buoyancy compensation technology in rigid airships in general
- Plane launching, retrieval and storage on zeppelins in the Aeroverse

2.) The ship: Nimrod

Quick rundown
Rigid airship. Electric propulsion. Tramp aerofreighter. Chartered cargo transport focus, limited passenger transport capability. Limited mercenary actions on offer, on the side. Includes defensive measures throughout its exterior.

Airship type: Heavy long-distance (transcontinental/transoceanic) aerofreighter
Airship class: Samson class (7 ships built in total, also including the Samson, Delilah, Nebuchadnezzar, Judith, Gideon and Joshua)
Country of origin: Victinya (manufacturer of the class, originally owned by Victinian aerofreight companies only)

Dimensions and specifications
Length: 224 m (734 ft 10.89 in)
Diameter: 34.5 m (113 ft 2.26 in)
Volume: 135,000 m3 (4767.480 ft³ / cu ft)
Lift gas cells: 348 gas cells (smaller gas tank-style cells) designed for long-life aetherium lift gas
Buoyancy compensation: combination of thermal control and ballast control buoyancy compensation
Maximum speed: 127 km/h (78.91 mph, 68.57 kn)
Range: ca 9,000 km (5592.34 mi)
Propellers: 12 two-bladed pusher propellers
Crew: Minimum of 9-10 aeronauts, maximum capacity 25 aeronauts, optimally between 10-18 crew members.

Propulsion
Stored charge in large electric batteries containing aviation-grade aetherium solution.
12 outrigger nacelles, each nacelle with a duo of electric engines powering a single pusher propeller.
Recharging of ship batteries is possible through setting idle propellers and engines to "windmill mode".

Ownership
Owned and operated by Falconer Cloudways, a licensed aerofreight guild in full ownership of the Nimrod's crew.
The motto of the Nimrod is Ex Caelo, Fortuna. Latin for "From the Sky, Fortune".

Crew
Commanding officer: Captain ("real name" Hardskull) ♂
Steersmen/-women: Argent ♂, Spark ♀
Navigator and meteorologist: Costello ♂
Doctor and accountant: Doc ♂
Nurse and naturalist: Noggin ♀
Mechanics: Scrumpy ♂, Geark ♂, Rench ♀
Deckhands: Booty ♂, Serviss ♂, Crater ♂
Scouts: Goggles ♂, Alto ♂, Smiley ♀
Photographer/Newbie: Curly ♀

Auxilliary vehicles
Aerial (powered): Kestrel (scouting monoplane, Pégase type, Avion), Peregrine (scouting monoplane, Colomen type, Kymria)
Aerial (tethered): manlifter kite (observation craft), recon gondola (observation craft)
Watercraft: two inflatable lifeboats, the Haddock (dinghie/launch)
Ground: three folding bikes, three delivery trikes
Internal: cargo bay freight trolleys and pallet jacks

Defensive measures
Defensive weaponry emplacements (tail, dorsal, rear gondola, crows nest, hangar bay doors, forehead, front gondola) for Salamander type and Spike-spitter type light machine guns, and for "Arbapult" mechanical catapults (used for hurling special projectiles and explosives).

3.) Aeroplanes

The four smaller aeroplanes and tiny human figure seen below the airship are to scale, and are for comparison. All of the planes are fictional, with their own setting-specific names, but based on the Blériot XI ("Pégase"), Etrich/Rumpler Taube ("Colomen"), Caudron G.3 ("Char du ciel"), and an Aviatik C.III ("Spatz"). The first three models appear in my story series as the auxilliary planes of this airship.

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A size comparison chart, comparing nine airships, namely the Nimrod with 7 real historical and 1 unbuilt historical airship.

My fictional Nimrod is the blue-ish, third airship from the bottom. The bottom airship is the unbuilt Vickers Transoceanic Airship, a concept airliner proposed in 1919, as part of the then British Empire Airship Scheme (that gradually folded after the early 1920s). All the other airships are historical specimens that really existed and were really used, some with great dictinction and even for many years. The top three historical types are non-rigids (blimps) or semi-rigids (with an added keel), while the other six are rigid airships (zeppelins).

The full list, in table form:
NameCountry of originYearLengthClassEngineLift gas
SSP class patrol blimpUnited Kingdom191743.7 m
(143 ft 5 in)
SSP Class AirshipPetrolHydrogen
La FranceFrance188452 m
(170 ft)
N/AElectricHydrogen
La RépubliqueFrance190861 m
(200 ft 2 in)
Lebaudy Frères
semi-rigid series
PetrolHydrogen
Zeppelin LZ 1German Empire
(private project)
1900128.02 m
(420 ft)
A ClassPetrolHydrogen
R.23 class rigid airshipUnited Kingdom1917163 m
(535 ft)
23 Class (R.23)PetrolHydrogen
L 59 (LZ 104)
"Das Afrika Schiff"
German Empire1917226.5 m
(743 ft 0 in)
L-57 ClassPetrolHydrogen
NimrodVictinya???224 m
(734 ft 10.89 in)
Samson classElectricAetherium
LZ 107 Graf ZeppelinGermany
(Weimar republic)
1928236.6 m
(776 ft 3 in)
N/APetrolHydrogen
& Blau gas
Vickers Transoceanic AirshipUnited Kingdom
(proposed but not built)
1919244 m
(800 ft)
?PetrolHydrogen

Image credits:
Shipbucket.com - SSP class (author Darth Panda), La République (author C. Hoefer), LZ 1 (author C. Hoefer), R.23 class (author Bombhead), L 59 (author Midnightnova)
unknown author - La France
Petike, AlternateHistory.com - Nimrod
unknown author - LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin
AirshipOnline.com - Vickers Transoceanic Airship
samson-class-airships-png.654864

Additional infobox on the Samson class rigid airships

One of the real world inspirations for the Nimrod's elongated shape was the S-L 20 batch ("type F") of the Schütte-Lanz company's rigid airships. The shape closely follows the type F's elongated silhouette, while a lot of the other features are based on other pre-Hindenburg zeppelins of the 1910s and 1920s, mostly the Zeppelin Luftschiffbau airships, or some of the British and US models of the same era.

The onboard hangar feature is explicitly inspired by the US rigid airships, since they were the only real world examples to contain, successfully test and use such a feature. If you look at the outside view of the promenade of the famous LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin from the 1920s (by Zeppelin Luftschiffbau), then you'll no doubt notice the Nimrod has a nearly identical row of observation windows at the front end. Two storeys, in fact. Some rooms on the bottom floor are at the same level as the front gondola, and the rest of the crew quarters, including the mess hall and corridor leading to it, are a bit further upstairs. A planned but unrealised design from the real world that provided some further inspiration was the Vickers Transoceanic Airship concept from 1919, proposed by said British aircraft company. Aside from the civilian focus and the elongated shape, this airship also has an observation deck at its top, with an enclosed saloon section, not unlike a panoramatic double-decker train car. The only part of the upper observation deck similar to the Nimrod's crows nest is the hind section, open to the outside elements. However, on the Nimrod, this section has a movable cover that is moved into place when the crows nest is not being used by the crew, in order to increase the aerodynamics of the airship. A real world equivalent to these fictional observation areas at the top of the hull were the larger observation and defensive posts at the top of some WWI era and later rigid airships. Some other fictional classes of airships from the Aeroverse, one's serving as passenger airliners (a niche aeroplanes have not yet colonized), could be more similar to both the Graf Zeppelin or the Vickers Transoceanic in terms of layout and appearance. Maybe the crew will occassionally stumble upon one such ship during their flights around the world.

As for the size of the Nimrod, it's somewhat bigger than the late WWI era S-L 20 of the real world (198,3 m, nothing to sneeze at !), around the same size as the Graf Zeppelin of the 1920s (236.6 m) and slightly longer than the British R100 and R101 of the same era (219 m and 236 m, respectively). A big ol' airship, but still not the biggest type in the Aeroverse. :) There aren't that many larger classes, though, so it's an impressive flying giant nonetheless.

In the case of rigid airships like the Nimrod, the symbols or letters they bear on their surface are simply painted on (based on a custom template), in more lasting colours, rather than printed on as part of the external fabric itself. Given the construction of rigid airships, there are several, sandwich-style layers to the external cover fabric, and on the outside, it's rather hardy. Not exactly Kevlar (they obviously have no such modern materials yet), but thick and hard enough that it's as tough as the fabric on a thickly woven, non-grainy sack. The outer surface of the Nimrod is fairly smooth to the touch, though the fabric can have a slightly creased, "skin-like" look to it. Given the greyish-blue outer colours of the Nimrod, and the qualities of the outer cover, it does really look like a huge flying whale. :) Hey, some real world photos of the very earliest zeppelins give visual precedent to that anyway. :D (Notice the "flippers" of the Viktoria Luise.)

In short, though the Nimrod's definitely a fictional design, there's plenty of real world historical inspiration behind it. A bit of a reference here, a hint there, a creatively but not wildly reinterpreted feature over here... There's plenty of little nods to rigids that were either in operation in the real world, or at least a twinkle in the corner of the eye of a hopeful designer. I've always felt the universe of this story series needs to remain grounded (no pun intended) in terms of the technology, culture, and so on, along with a focus on the humanity of the characters. There are some flourishes, obviously, in the name of fun, creativity, and... the coolness factor, I suppose ?... but I've always wanted it to feel like a real vehicle, inhabited by real, everyday people. Given the "source material" of my autumn dream last year, where much of the airship already looked pretty close to what you see on that external view above, I'd say I didn't really have to force myself into any notion of realism. It was built into the story's setting since its earliest spark. I wasn't going to end up with an "anything goes" bizarre fantasy world, but something a little more subtle.

I definitely wanted it to look like a fairly classic airship of its type. Sure, it's fictional, fairly big (around the size of the biggest real world specimens) and it has a few unique touches, but I wanted it to really scream "zeppelin !" already at first glance, to any reader who'd see the image. Most of the really useful places, for the crew, aircraft and cargo, are entirely at the bottom and the front of the ship. The row of windows at the front, behind the gondola area, is mainly around the mess hall and other public rooms, roughly similar to the passenger dining halls and salons of interwar passenger airships. The Nimrod being a freighter, though, it's a lot less luxurious and more spartan in every single room, even the nicest ones. Not much decoration, aside from a few things the crew put up to make things look more cheerful. There's not much else to the rest of the ship, other than the gas bag rooms and machine rooms that take up most of the interior. And all the staircases and walkways you need to inspect those areas. There's not a single elevator on the whole ship, beyond the loading elevator thing in the hangar at the bottom, so everyone has to be really good at climbing stairs and ladders. About the only non-propulsion room in the upper part of airship is the crow's nest. You can pull away part of the outer cover of the ship, enter, and use it as an open-air observation area at the very top. They do have some extra stuff up there, it's not just for show and pleasure, but I won't get ahead of myself... You'll still see what other purposes it can serve...

I consider this airship an inanimate character in its own right. Sure, it's not glamorous at all, it's a flying truck of a seasoned, hard-working crew, but I'd say that humble and ordinary nature gives it plenty of personality in and of itself. I've joked to some people that you can think of this story series as a sort of "steampunk/dieselpunk Star Trek, the way our great-grandfathers imagined the future, back when early airships and aeroplanes were all the rage, not yet spaceships". In that sense, you can think of the Nimrod as a non-glamorous, non-hi-tech version of the Enterprise. The ship is as much a heroine of the story as the crew that calls it its home. :)
 
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I started making spaceships on Paint. That's just the beginning of the beginning for now. I'll show you my upcoming progress on this thread.

Huh. I just finished Cities in Flight a month ago and that does look like something out of that book.

That is seriously cool. Love the national emblem too.

Now I'm wondering what movement would use a three-pointed version of the Balkankreuz as an emblem. The Forked Cross was apparently popular in the Rhineland, but the Balkenkreuz is of course derived from the Teutonic Order and Prussia. So we want a German unification movement that starts around Cologne (some kind of Carolingian revival?) that for some reason takes on Prussian colors.

A Carolingian revival...hmmm. Could there be a German Napoleon, who proclaims himself the true successor of Charlemagne and introduces that symbol for spurious historical reasons?
 
Huh. I just finished Cities in Flight a month ago and that does look like something out of that book.



Now I'm wondering what movement would use a three-pointed version of the Balkankreuz as an emblem. The Forked Cross was apparently popular in the Rhineland, but the Balkenkreuz is of course derived from the Teutonic Order and Prussia. So we want a German unification movement that starts around Cologne (some kind of Carolingian revival?) that for some reason takes on Prussian colors.

A Carolingian revival...hmmm. Could there be a German Napoleon, who proclaims himself the true successor of Charlemagne and introduces that symbol for spurious historical reasons?
That all sounds like the makings for a cool TL. :cool:
 
Huh. I just finished Cities in Flight a month ago and that does look like something out of that book.



Now I'm wondering what movement would use a three-pointed version of the Balkankreuz as an emblem. The Forked Cross was apparently popular in the Rhineland, but the Balkenkreuz is of course derived from the Teutonic Order and Prussia. So we want a German unification movement that starts around Cologne (some kind of Carolingian revival?) that for some reason takes on Prussian colors.

A Carolingian revival...hmmm. Could there be a German Napoleon, who proclaims himself the true successor of Charlemagne and introduces that symbol for spurious historical reasons?
Which one of the three ships are you talking about? I didn't think that making them would make them look like a work of fiction already in existence. What's your book about?
 
Now I'm wondering what movement would use a three-pointed version of the Balkankreuz as an emblem. The Forked Cross was apparently popular in the Rhineland, but the Balkenkreuz is of course derived from the Teutonic Order and Prussia. So we want a German unification movement that starts around Cologne (some kind of Carolingian revival?) that for some reason takes on Prussian colors.
there have been timelines that had a dreikaiserbund (union of 3 kaisers), where Germany, Austria-Hungaria and the UP/Netherlands voluntary merged and each region supplied a kaiser, in such a scenario i could imagine such 3 pointed balken kreuz, as a symbol of the 3 kaisers
What's your book about?

 
Guys and gals, at this rate, I'll just swap out the finished image of that airship with the completed one. No use gathering the same likes twice. :D

Anyway, the completed image is going to have more visual bells and whistles, in addition to the basic airship sideviews. I plan to add a cutaway sideview, to show where the various living quarters, cargo sections and operational sections are, and how far they go. Trust me, only a relatively small fraction of the ship is used for the crew and cargo, but the space that is used for that is used reasonably and to its fullest. Most of the stuff is in the lower parts of the ship, the top parts only include the crow's nest and some defensive gunnery positions (the latter also available elsewhere). Most of the central parts of the ship, lengthwise, are only gas bag compartments, various machinery, the docking mast anchor retracted into the nosecone, and a few walkways and crawlspaces for maintenance. It might be a fairly cool zeppelin, but there's little about it that's fanciful. It's very practicality-focused. Basically, a huge, steampunk flying truck, with the crew members part truckers, part hired guns.
 
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A CG shot of a American carrier from the show Salvation, the US Navy is apparently very different in this reality.
 
So... Typhoons, A-10, F-22, F-18, Mig-29... I'm guessing the designer just went with "plop whatever plane first shows on google image search"?!

And what's with the design scale? The planes on the catapults look like they have half the size of the other, the Super Puma behind the F-22 is barelly big enough to carry pets...
 
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