Airships
From Brass Goggles
Flight has been a feature of speculative fiction from the legends of Icarus to star ships of the future. Steampunk tends to focus on the Zeppelin style of airships but there are several other equally steamy varieties.
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Lighter Than Air Vessels
Balloons and dirigibles are cut from the same cloth as it were. They tend to be one or more large bags full of some sort of lighter than air substance.
Balloons
Balloons and blimps are large fabric or other envelopes filled with a lifting gas of some sort. While blimps are often tethered to the ground or a naval vessel, balloons drift free on the air currents though an experienced pilot can exert a considerable degree of control through the use of those air currents.
Dirigibles
A dirigible is a balloon or blimp with active direction control and enough propulsive power to fly against the wind (in most conditions).
Examples
The airships in Laputa: Castle in the Sky[1]
Propeller-Lift Craft
While helicopters are a common sight in today's skies they were once the dream of (mad) inventors.
Examples
Robur's Albatross in Verne's Robur the Conquerer[2]
The ARIEL from George Griffith's The Angel of the Revolution[3]
Conventional
Flight with wings, bird-like or fixed, has been a dream of human-kind from the dawn of time. While there were many successful gliders and man carrying kites had been in use for centuries in the far east, heavier than air flight was not achieved until a sufficiently light and powerful power plant.
Examples
Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines features a wide array of early conventional aircraft
Other
Other means of lfight have been proposed both in fiction and in reality.
Examples
Space 1889 liftwood based craft
Cavorite like substances from HG Wells The First Men in the Moon[4]
