Airships are a type of aircraft which are lighter-than-air. They are held afloat by gasbags
Sketch by Philip Reeve
containing hydrogen and helium gases and are usually powered by piston engines.
For much of the Traction Era, airships were the main forms of long-distance transport on Earth with heavier-than-air-flight only being developed by Traction Cities during the Green Storm's war.
Most of the airships are similar to zeppelins and blimps. Airships ranged from tiny hot-air ballons and fighter airships to freighters, gunships, and the massive Air Destroyers.
Many airships have unusual names, like the Sword Flourished In Understandable Pique or the Wrestling Cheese.
List of Airships
1. Green Storm Air Destroyer 2. Twin-envelope 'sky cat' 3. The 13th Floor Elevator 4. Spice Freighter from the Thousand Islands 5. Murasaki Fox Spirit 6. Cruiser of the Anti-Traction League 7. The Jenny Haniver 8. 'Goddess' class passenger liner 9. Serapis Moonshadow 10. Spudbury Sunbeam 11. Experimental rocket-assisted Zhang Chen Hawkmoth Mk VI, firing its boosters on an attack run. 12. Heavier-than-air fighter, as used by the freelance air-forces of the Traction War. 13. Zhang-Chen Hawkmoth.
See: List of ships
Appearences
- Fever Crumb (Hot air balloon)
- A Web of Air
- Mortal Engines (First appearance)
- Predator's Gold
- Infernal Devices
- A Darkling Plain