Interesting fact... apparently the dirigibles from this universe have been given armor cladding to make them resistant to attack. Additionally, some of them have also been turned into flying gun batteries with multiple cannons. I have to wonder though, is any of that actually physically possible? I don't think helium or hydrogen has enough lifting power to support the amount of weight all of those extra addons would require. Additionally, the amount of recoil a cannon generates would keep them from being able to maintain their positions, since I imagine that they fire from the broadsides just like battleships, though their propulsion is directed rearward so there would be no way to compensate for the side drift from the recoil.
@BrokenEagle98 The lift produced by a balloon is related to the density of the atmosphere, so if the air was largely composed of a dense gas like SF₆ (never mind the other effects of such an atmosphere) you could conceivably triple or quadruple the lifting capacity of an airship. It still wouldn't support the kind of heavy plating you see on tanks and ships, but it might be proof against small arms fire.
I doubt that the shock of cannon fire would do much to move one of these things. They present an enormous amount of surface area on either side, so air resistance would quickly dampen any sideways motion in between salvos.
Interesting fact... apparently the dirigibles from this universe have been given armor cladding to make them resistant to attack. Additionally, some of them have also been turned into flying gun batteries with multiple cannons. I have to wonder though, is any of that actually physically possible? I don't think helium or hydrogen has enough lifting power to support the amount of weight all of those extra addons would require. Additionally, the amount of recoil a cannon generates would keep them from being able to maintain their positions, since I imagine that they fire from the broadsides just like battleships, though their propulsion is directed rearward so there would be no way to compensate for the side drift from the recoil.
In terms of lift capacity, modern airships seem to be working currently on cargo capacities of 20 short tons to 50 metric tonnes. At least the ones I am coming across for cargo transport. Though they are working on designs that can scale up, and one company claiming next will be 250 metric tonne model with a scale up potential of up to 3k metric tonne carrying capacity.
that may depend on the gas, does that world have helium equivalent or are they using volatile pure hydrogen? The idea of that going off won't save it from Hindenburg with those plantings ^^;