Airship Battle

[Mectojic]

I want to write about an airship battle in a steampunk-inspired book (more realistic than speculative).

I would love to receive any info or ideas people have on how this might work. This is in an era where access to incendiary weapons do not exist yet, so there should be no really simple tactic to set afire the enemy's hydrogen gas. I'm envisioning an era ~1880s, so I'd prefer no rapid fire guns or fancy torpedos. Just good old revolvers, rifles, cannons and (maybe) cutlasses when the enemy jumps onto their gondola for some close combat.

Also, are there any movies or books that exist that have such a scene? Please tell me their names.

Thanks!
PS - I love airships.

 

[DragonOfTheAerie]

There are lots of airship battles in the Leviathan series by Scott Westerfeld.

 

[TheKillerBs]

Considering how flammable hydrogen is, even black powder bullets might get hot enough to blow up an airship.

 

[Vaporo]

A flaming arrow would probably be a pretty powerful weapon against what amount to giant floating bombs. You may consider filling any airships that are expected to come under fire with helium instead of hydrogen.

If you're limiting your to nothing much more advanced than rifles, most of the tactics would probably be very similar to classic naval tactics. This is good news for you, because it means that a large part of the fight will revolve around trying to board the enemy ship and fight them in hand-to-hand combat. Regular bullets probably wouldn't do much against an airship. Carry a little bit of ballast and reserve gas and you could probably hold out against minor leaks for quite some time until you can get a crew out to the gas cells to patch them. Cannons could be more effective, if an airship were willing to carry around the extra weight. Ramming would probably be a risky tactic, as you will probably damage your own ship and risk getting attached to the damaged ship, which could drag you down with it. If you wanted to ram someone, you'd probably need a ship specifically designed for the task.

All of the ships would be very much at the mercy of the weather. Airships don't have much substance to them. Almost any kind of wind could easily knock them wildly off course.

What kind of engine do you plan on running these ships on? Steam engines are pretty heavy, but gasoline engines would in the 1880s.

 

[Mectojic]

Thanks all, that's very helpful.
I am still tossing up the idea of helium over hydrogen. In that sort of era, helium would be very difficult to attain in high quantities, but perhaps if the airship was specially designed for that air-to-air combat, the investment would be worthwhile.

As for the engine, gas might be the way to go. I always liked the concept of steam (as it's steampunk), but it looks like no steam-powered aircraft, lighter or heavier than air, has ever managed to do anything of this level of complexity.

I imagine that a cannon can do a lot of damage to an airship, so during the battle, you'd need active repairmen and people managing the ballast.

As far as a flaming arrow goes, I imagine you would only have one on board if you were planning for that kind of combat. I think this initial battle would be spontaneous. But if that were the case, why carry swords? Unless the soldiers on board were intended to be deployed behind enemy lines, and were thus already geared up for infantry purposes...
Just thinking aloud...

Re black powder: I understand black powder often carries little embers. Do you have a source for black powder bullets causing burning in regular conditions?

 

[Vaporo]

Well, it is fantasy. If airships are so prevalent in your world, I have no problem believing that enough extra money has gone into helium extraction to make it a viable alternative to hydrogen.

As for flaming arrows, a bow and arrow and a bucket of tar would be pretty cheap insurance, especially on a military airship. If I were an airship captain, I'd try to keep something of that nature on board at all times.

 

[Dutch]

How about the Ketty Jay series by Chris Wooding? Great fun and some good descriptions of airships, battles and dogfights.

 

[Garren Jacobsen]

Canons utilizing a round that purists after a time would be useful. As well as using grapeshot to clear the decks.

 

[CupofJoe]

I always wondered why in WW1 the British [and I presumed other nations] spent such a long time finding the right combination of different bullet types to bring down a Zeppelin by bursting and setting fire to it's balloon. As a child it seemed obvious to me that you didn't attack the body of the Airship but went for the gondola and engines. Mount a couple of Maxim\Lewis machine guns upwards and fly underneath it and shoot...
Okay I was about 9 at the time but it seemed a lot easier. The weak point wasn't the balloon, it was the crew and machinery.