Hi all,
I'm working on a novel where for a few years airships came into fashion after the successful escape of Gambetta during the siege of Paris. I know it's a bit cliché but it's a tiny genre marker in there.
After a couple victories from the French air navy, European caught up and saw it as it was, massive, slow moving targets prone to exploding. After that, they were mostly relegated to colonial campaign were they were most useful to control large swaths of land against undergunned adversaries (Indochine for example).
Also used in smuggling as treaties to define the "height" of a frontier took a few years to catch up with reality. As flying over the territory wasn't technically illegal or didn't actually need registration until you touched the ground, there was fertile ground for trafficking.
Ideas, objections... are welcome
I'm working on a novel where for a few years airships came into fashion after the successful escape of Gambetta during the siege of Paris. I know it's a bit cliché but it's a tiny genre marker in there.
After a couple victories from the French air navy, European caught up and saw it as it was, massive, slow moving targets prone to exploding. After that, they were mostly relegated to colonial campaign were they were most useful to control large swaths of land against undergunned adversaries (Indochine for example).
Also used in smuggling as treaties to define the "height" of a frontier took a few years to catch up with reality. As flying over the territory wasn't technically illegal or didn't actually need registration until you touched the ground, there was fertile ground for trafficking.
Ideas, objections... are welcome