Pirate Airships in Canada's West

Pirate Airships in Canada's West?

  • It's ASB! Go back to /ASB/!

    Votes: 19 38.0%
  • It's alright here if done properly

    Votes: 23 46.0%
  • Thandeship

    Votes: 8 16.0%

  • Total voters
    50
Excerpt from the Times Colonist, July 4th 1912:

"The Royal Canadian Navy, has officially confirmed that they have fired upon, and destroyed an airship, engaged in piracy along the coast of British Columbia. Commander Walter Hose of HMCS Rainbow reported that..."
 
Well, I don't know about "pirates", but airship outlaws are a definite possibility. Think about it-they cruise in over a town at the middle of the night, running dark, rapel down to the local bank, loot it, and take off, while the local authorities vainly try to chase them. I'm sure it wouldn't last long, and eventually Royal airships would move in, but it would make for an interesting chapter in the history of aviation.
 
Well, I don't know about "pirates", but airship outlaws are a definite possibility. Think about it-they cruise in over a town at the middle of the night, running dark, rapel down to the local bank, loot it, and take off, while the local authorities vainly try to chase them. I'm sure it wouldn't last long, and eventually Royal airships would move in, but it would make for an interesting chapter in the history of aviation.

I agree with that one. I hope you can make it work.:D

These could be hot-air balloons, with scary designs on them. Gang insignia, horrible slogans, dirty pictures, etc. :D:eek:
 
Yeah, but the place to hide isn't a few hundred feet above the ground where everyone for miles around can see you! Surely even at night, the few lights needed for Nav will give away a pirate (air)ships position!?

:)
Lights only help people see you, so pirates would only turn the lights on when landing, so as to give the ground crew some help. Further, any pirate aspiring to longer life will agree with you about being visible, and fly only at night. Problem arising, how to hide during the day? A large cave, barn, or, if one has large supplies of lifting gas, deflating. Maybe just dropping down in a valley would be enough.

Well, I don't know about "pirates", but airship outlaws are a definite possibility. Think about it-they cruise in over a town at the middle of the night, running dark, rapel down to the local bank, loot it, and take off, while the local authorities vainly try to chase them. I'm sure it wouldn't last long, and eventually Royal airships would move in, but it would make for an interesting chapter in the history of aviation.
That's what i'm talking about! I think limited range would let the authorities figure out where they're based, unless they move occasionally.
 
A steam-punk TL where the James' gang uses airships? Post *Civil War the remaining Confederate Air Corps flee west, raiding banks and getting support from sympathetic townsfolk.

The Range Wars of this TL are going to be a LOT better than OTL westerns.
 
The closest I can see to something like this would be if their are commercialized cargo airships somehow, and they are raided by Pirate airplanes that launch from rural locations.
 
Can't, Pirate ships won't work in the prairies.
That depends on how you define "ship". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_sailing
Do i get banned if I tell you I don't get what's so great about airships?
No, you are just confined to the creepy threads in ASB until you repent and accept the love of airships into your heart.
Well, I don't know about "pirates", but airship outlaws are a definite possibility. Think about it-they cruise in over a town at the middle of the night, running dark, rapel down to the local bank, loot it, and take off, while the local authorities vainly try to chase them. I'm sure it wouldn't last long, and eventually Royal airships would move in, but it would make for an interesting chapter in the history of aviation.
I agree with this fellow and am of the opinion that for this not to be ASB the situation of your TL is very important. For one useful airship technology has to have been in use for some time before the period of piracy begins. Secondly there has to be enough wealth around to make the operation of a raiding airship economically viable. Thirdly the central authority has to be distracted (such as when fighting a major war) or disintegrated (such as after loosing a major war) or they will just send in the Marines and your pirating days are over. I think Crimson Skies is probably the model to follow here. Central authority gone, lots of upheaval, states that may or may not be legitimate offering Letters of Marque to everyone in sight. I also think it will end up as TTL's equivalent of the Wild West or the Gangster Era. A highly romanticized age that was actually very short and didn't have many "Vancouver-style Pirate Raids".
 
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