Timeline for answer to How can I make steampunk airships less flimsy? by Mark
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
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| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 15, 2021 at 13:05 | comment | added | Demigan | @Mark with proper materials the cannonball would create a smaller hole. It would stretch the fabric before breaking through, causing the remaining fabric to slap back into place. The actual hole created is smaller. | |
| Apr 16, 2015 at 19:28 | comment | added | Mark | @HadesHerald, you don't need any hand-waving. Any tear big enough to worry about is big enough to be blindingly obvious (think: several feet long), and is best sealed with adhesive-coated fabric patches, not some sort of liquid sealant. | |
| Apr 16, 2015 at 15:47 | comment | added | HadesHerald | But with a little alchemy/chemistry hand-wavium you could have people that move on the outside of the ship with sort sort of mechanical or biological hydrogen sniffer (Like from Leviathan) and a couple flasks of a sealant that naturally formed a cover over the tear. | |
| Jan 12, 2015 at 5:12 | comment | added | Mark | @Mark, there is: self-sealing membranes are heavy and are only good against small holes, not long tears. Since small holes aren't a threat, it's not worth the weight penalty. | |
| Jan 12, 2015 at 0:32 | comment | added | Mark | To add to this, WWII era aircraft had self-sealing fuel tanks. There is not reason why a set of gas bags inside a rigid hull couldn't be equipped with a similar setup. | |
| Jan 11, 2015 at 20:38 | comment | added | cartographer | Air bursts using timed fuses on artillery would probably come into play pretty quickly, which I think would be fairly effective. It's also good to keep in mind that the same way that airships would be specialized for defense, anti-airship weapons would end up being specialized to counter those defenses if possible. | |
| Jan 10, 2015 at 22:56 | comment | added | JDługosz | It would have as much range as anything, if it was a single aerodynamic shell that "hatched" only when it was close to the target, like fireworks. | |
| Jan 10, 2015 at 22:44 | comment | added | Mark | @jdlugosz, sounds like a variation on chain shot/bolo shot. That might be a threat, if it's got enough range to hit an airship in flight. | |
| Jan 10, 2015 at 22:40 | comment | added | JDługosz | Make a purpose-specific weapon based on the blunderbus filled with lengths of chain: two balls with a strong wire between them, or a 3-armed bolis if that's more stable. The idea is to make a long slash, not a neat hole. If a few of those intersect then the envelope will fall apart in tatters. Each slash will leak far more than a neat hole, on its own. | |
| Jan 10, 2015 at 9:22 | comment | added | Mark | @jdlugosz, a cannon ball would create a cannon-ball-sized hole, which, on the scale of an airship, is still tiny. | |
| Jan 10, 2015 at 8:20 | comment | added | JDługosz | Yes, I remember watching that. A bullet sized hole won't let much gas through, and compared to the total volume is not significant in a short time scale. However, planes were using machine guns firing bullets. Would cannon balls and blunderbus rounds create large gaping holes? | |
| Nov 7, 2014 at 22:54 | history | answered | Mark | CC BY-SA 3.0 |