Equestrian airships 01Baron-Engel on DeviantArthttps://www.deviantart.com/baron-engel/art/Equestrian-airships-01-367577869Baron-Engel

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Equestrian airships 01

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More images from my Equestria dreamscape. Along with pegasus, griffins, and dragons there is a relatively newcomer to the skies of Equestria. Airships. While hot air balloons have been known for more than century it has only been within the last couple decades that certain breakthroughs and discoveries have been made that have true airships possible.

First, was the discovery of what are called lifting gases. The type most often used in party balloons, some large balloons and airships appear to be a nonflammable helium-like substance that the ponies can acquire without too much trouble. Hydrogen is known is considered too dangerous for applications like this. There are apparently a couple of magical lifting gases known but they are rarely used do to their scarcity and their odd side effects to ponies.

Second, was power plants that are small and light enough to be used in an airship, but are powerful enough and fuel efficient enough to make the effort worthwhile. Also safety is a great concern to. Yes there have been throughout the years numerous attempts at magically powered airships but they have never panned out in the long term. Within the last decade however the first generation of lightweight, fuel efficient steam engines have started taking to skies of Equestria. Along with the development of lightweight steam collectors they have made airships a viable concept. Some ponies are experimenting with the idea of steam turbines but they are in their infancy. Even more rudimentary is the concept of the internal combustion engine which at the moment apparently just exists on paper.

Third was creation of lighter weight materials to construct airships from. At this time there are no true rigid airships in Equestria but semi-rigid designs have started to make their presence known, and reading the some of the magazines with articles on the topic some ponies believe that a true Zeppelin-like rigid craft is just over the horizon.

At the moment airships and balloons remain primarily toys of the Canterlot and Manehattan elite, but some ponies are starting to consider the airships potential as commercial craft or as scientific vessels . Even more radical a few wild mavericks ponies have even proposed military applications for these behemoths of sky. However at the moment they remain a very tiny minority.
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cowboyjt's avatar
I was really hoping we would see a real zeppelin in 'Once Upon a Zeppelin' and not a miss-named Dirigible Balloon.