History Main / ZeppelinsFromAnotherWorld

* ''Literature/NewAmsterdamBooks'': The opening story of ''New Amsterdam'' is a murder mystery set on a zeppelin... with vampires.

* ''Anime/KikisDeliveryService'' has a huge polar exploration zeppelin as befits its RetroUniverse setting. It also escapes its mooring and crashes spectacularly, proving that Kiki's world, while different, is not all ''that'' different from ours. Creator/HayaoMiyazaki adores blimps so much, he has been credited as the inspiration for the presence of airships in works like Pixar's ''Up'', ''Franchise/AvatarTheLastAirbender'', and ''Franchise/FinalFantasy''.

* In the ''Ack-Ack Macaque'' books by Gareth Powell. On an alternate world where the Europe had unified earlier in the 20th century - that version of the European Union created nuclear-powered zeppelins in the late '70s as the answer to the Middle East Oil Crisis. As a result, in the year 2056 people are content to take multi-day air trips to other countries and while jet aircraft is just as advanced as ours if not more so, very few jet fighters have been built when ZeppelinsFromAnotherWorld invade.

* In Creator/AlastairReynolds' ''Literature/TerminalWorld'', Swarm is a [[BaseOnWheels entire mobile city]] of zeppelins connected via rope bridges and small dirigible "taxis". Zeppelins have the advantage of being one the safest and fastest methods to travel on a planet where [[EnforcedTechnologyLevels the laws of physics can abruptly change and cause technological failures]]. Each zeppelin carries multiple redundant weapons, power sources and forms of propulsion, in case the Swarm travels into a Zone where combustion engines or autocannons begin to fail
* The Creator/RobertAHeinlein book ''Literature/JobAComedyOfJustice'' has the main character from a zeppelin-filled world, slipping into a world with no air traffic at all, and then into one with similar technology to our own. One especially well-done part is when he attempts to explain to the readers what an airplane looks like from the perspective of someone who's never seen one before. It's explained that in this alternate reality, heavier-than-air flight is proven to be mathematically impossible and that zeppelins travel at mach speeds.
* Jasper Fforde's Literature/ThursdayNext series features a world with zeppelins but no jet planes -- although small propeller aircraft do exist. Of course, there's little demand for high speed airliners with the gravtubes: London to Osaka in 42 minutes! At one point Thursday has the option of being hidden in a parallel Earth where there are jetliners -- presumably, from the sound of things, our world. She says such a thing as a jetliner is impossible.
* The opening story in Elizabeth Bear's ''Literature/NewAmsterdam'' is a murder mystery set on a zeppelin. With vampires.
* ''Literature/TheCrewOfTheCopperColoredCupids'': The parallel world seen in ''Genesis of the Cupids'' prominently includes airships. One particularly large one is stolen by the Imperial Imperator and crashed into the great Clock-Tower in the climax.
* Kenneth Oppel's ''Literature/{{Airborn}}'': The premise is an alternate world where, due to the existence of an ultra-light gas called hydrium, airships became the primary means of long-distance travel. Features lots of metaphors. There's still an Eiffel Tower, but it's used for mooring.
* Creator/AaronAllston's novel ''Literature/DocSidhe'' is set on an alternate world where zeppelins and autogyros are still cutting edge aviation technology, and the climactic showdown takes place on board the major villain's airship.
* Creator/FritzLeiber's short story "Catch That Zeppelin!" is about an alternate universe where things turned out (mostly) much better than our own. It too includes zeppelins docking at the Empire State building, where a RealLife mooring mast was considered. Needless to say, they didn't use hydrogen to lift them.
* Creator/HarryTurtledove's novel ''Literature/TheTwoGeorges'' is about an alternate world where the United States never left the British Empire. The first chapter is set on an airship, where the protagonist sees a Air Force biplane fly past and echoes the general view that while such speed is useful for the military, there's just no need for it in civilian life.
** This is in fact based on the Imperial Airship Scheme, also known as the Burney Scheme, which proposed that Britain's colonies would be serviced by a fleet of airships.
* Creator/SMStirling's books are ''lousy'' with zeppelins. One example is the universe of ''Literature/TheDraka'', where they are widely used by the titular faction.
* ''Literature/MortalEngines'' has a lot of Zeppelins, though it's a post-apocalyptic future version of this world rather than a parallel one. Heavier-than-air flight is reinvented over the course of the series.
* ''The War in the Air'' by Creator/HGWells is about the German Empire using giant zeppelins to attack the rest of the world, particularly the United States. While at the time it was written, it was a reasonable extrapolation of the current technology, it suffers from being set TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture and so might now be considered an honorary alternate reality.
** During World War I the Germans did bomb London several times with zeppelins. They did a better job of frightening the civilians than actually destroying strategic targets, but it worked out all the same until they started getting blown out of the sky.
* Dean Ing's ''The Big Lifters'' has a messianic protagonist pushing high-tech zeppelins called "delta-dirigibles" as a way to get big trucks (like the one that killed his grandmother) off of America's freeways.
* ''Literature/TheWarAgainstTheChtorr''. Blimps are used for military and rescue operations, but nothing beats the ''Hieronymus Bosch'', a giant luxury airship (30% longer than the ''[[UsefulNotes/TheHindenburg Hindenburg]]'') converted for the scientific expedition in "A Season for Slaughter".
* In Creator/CharlesStross's ''Literature/TheMerchantPrincesSeries'', one of the two alternate universes featured in detail uses zeppelins for air travel. (The other one has a roughly medieval level of technology, so it doesn't have air travel at all.)
* L. Neil Smith's alternate history novel ''The Probability Broach'' features large zeppelin passenger liners. Interestingly, Smith does not have them simply for style, rather their existence proceeds logically from the nature of his world. The character's claim that zeppelin travel is uncommon in our world because the military subsidizes airplanes so that it can requisition them in emergencies. It does not subsidize the less militarily useful zeppelins, which means the incentives are for companies to develop planes. In ''The Probability Broach'' the governments and militaries of the world are much weaker, so are unable to subsidize much of anything. In fact, in the back story a sort of airborne militia try to use zeppelins in combat and are pretty much all shot down, lampshading the uselessness of these aircraft as air superiority fighters.

* The Literature/RedMarsTrilogy has a fleet of automated "air"ships used both for exploration and as part of the early {{Terraform}}ing effort (ultimately a failure but it turns out somewhat useful anyway), so they're Zeppelins ''on'' another world as well. There's solid science backing this: Mars has a much thinner atmosphere than Earth, so fixed-wing aircraft have trouble generating lift there - a problem that lighter-than-air vehicles do not share. Due that much thinner atmosphere, however, the zeppelins need to be very large. Later (post-terraforming, with a much denser atmosphere) a transforming high-tech sailboat turns into a blimp to escape rough seas.
* Neil Stephenson's ''Literature/TheDiamondAge'' features a very well justified abundance of airships. With ubiquitous nano-tech it's so simple to create objects that are lighter than air but stronger than steel that it's the law you have to add weight to things to make sure the atmosphere isn't filled with lighter-than-air-stronger-than-steel grocery bags clogging engines. As to the airships, when you can create these materials you don't have to fill the envelope with anything at all. Vacuum is lighter than everything and thanks to nanopumps cheap to create. Airships are so economical they replace shipping as the bulk transit of choice.
* Creator/IainBanks' ''Literature/{{Transition}}'' invokes this -- a man who frequently travels between universes at one point looks up at the sky when arriving in a new one, searching for zeppelins. As he says, he 'likes it when there's zeppelins'.
* Creator/MichaelMoorcock's ''The Warlord of the Air'' series is set in a succession of overlapping alternate Earths, where in all of them the powered airship is the dominant method of flight and aerial warfare. An adventurer from our Earth, Oswald Bastable, comes from the late nineteenth century where the only method of flight remains the tethered balloon. Captain Bastable proves to be a natural airship pilot, and eventually becomes of interest to a shadowy group called ''The League of Trans-Temporal Adventurers'' who show him new worlds still.

* In the ''Literature/SixteenThirtyTwo'' series, Marlon Pridmore uses his experience as a balloonist to help the Danes build a dirigible to bring home nutmeg from their Indian colony of Tranquebar. Also, without any experience, but with a lot of brute force, Berni Zeppi helps the Russians build their own dirigible, which they use to beat a Polish-Lithuanian army.
* ''Literature/TheAffinityBridge'', as a function of its SteamPunk setting.
* Dexter Palmer's ''Literature/TheDreamOfPerpetualMotion'' opens with the protagonist imprisoned for life on board a high-altitude airship, and then shows HowWeGotHere.
* In ''Literature/TheYiddishPolicemensUnion'', an AlternateHistory by Creator/MichaelChabon, no actual Zeppelins appear, and the technology is for the most part pretty similar to our timeline's. But in a subtle joke on this trope the protagonist finds "a windup zeppelin" amongst other junk in a basement.
* ''Literature/TheWindupGirl'' by Paolo Bacigalupi is set in a PostPeakOil world, so dirigibles powered by kink-springs and other alternate energies have replaced the now obsolete airliners.
* Creator/RudyardKipling's short story "[[http://www.forgottenfutures.com/game/ff1/night.htm With the Night Mail]]" imagines a world where airships are the primary means of transatlantic flight - though when he wrote it, this looked like a probable future rather than an imaginary world.
* The "blimps" that ply the "skies" of the giant living space habitat Gaia in John Varley's ''[[Literature/GaeaTrilogy Titan]]'' trilogy are literally Zeppelins from another world. They aren't machines though: they are living, sentient creatures kept aloft by naturally produced hydrogen. Sometimes they allow people to hitch rides.
** They're terrified of fire, for good reason. At least partially because of this, they (and most of the main characters) hate "buzzbombs", heavier than air flying creatures that have what amounts to an organic ramjet embedded in their bodies and are described as being something like sharks mentally.
* The evil aristocracy in ''Literature/TheKingdomsOfEvil'' employs gas-filled flying squid as a means of transportation.
* In Creator/KimStanleyRobinson's ''Literature/TheYearsOfRiceAndSalt'', airplanes remain limited to military use, while civilian airflight is accomplished mostly by airship (and later, "space planes"!)
* The titular ''Leviathan'' in the ''Literature/{{Leviathan}}'' series is a living airship in an alternate history with organic technology.
* In Creator/TomKratman's ''Literature/{{Caliphate}}'', given the relative scarcity of oil but plentiful energy thanks to nuclear power, hybrid lifting body airships powered by pebble bed nuclear reactors are the most common mass transportation for both civilian and military purposes in many countries.
* A variation in Taylor Anderson's ''Literature/{{Destroyermen}}''. While the story mostly takes place on an alternate Earth, the airships in question were, in fact, invented by [[spoiler:the Japanese]] for the [[LizardFolk Grik]], most of whom are too dumb to operate a heavier-than-air craft. They are also shot down incredibly easy with by three P-[=40s=] with tracer rounds.
* Creator/StephenBaxter's ''Literature/{{Proxima}}'' [[spoiler:ends with a band of explorers emerging on a world to be confronted by an airship piloted by an angry Roman.]]
* Richard Ellis Preston Jr.'s ''Literature/ChroniclesOfThePneumaticZeppelin'' revolves about the adventures of the title Zeppelin. Despite the danger of hydrogen fires, they must be them because of alien obelisks that prevent their using electronics.
* The tree-walkers in ''The Memory of Sky'' (a ''Literature/GreatShip'' novel) use blimps and zeppelins for travel between the districts [[TreeTopTown inhabited trees]] - they are slow enough to be safe to maneuver in crowded areas, and agile enough to maneuver in the upper foliage of the wilderness. The zeppelins have combustion engines (whose iron is extracted from [[GiantFlyer corona]] blood) and fueled by alcohol. The [[HumanSubspecies papio]], on the other hand, use airplanes with VTOL capabilities, as they inhabit the coral growing from the [[HollowWorld rim of the world]] where large open expanses are more common.
* Anthony Huso's ''The Last Page'' and its follow-up ''Black Bottle'' are set in a steampunk world full of Zeppelins (and tanks, cars, etc., all of which run on "chemiostatic" engines). They're even referred to as "Zeppelins", despite the fact that this series is not set on an alternate Earth but a made-up fantasy world, making it highly unlikely that Lord Zeppelin would exist, much less have his name associated with airships.
* In Creator/TerryPratchett and Creator/StephenBaxter's ''Literature/TheLongEarth'' series, zeppelins are the preferred mode of travel between the millions of parallel Earths humanity has discovered. Potentially any vehicle can dimension hop, but zeppelins, or "twains", are justified on the grounds that: A) You retain your altitude, while the ground may not, so [[DangerousHeights flight is highly recommended]], B) Millions of uninhabited Earths means helium is plentiful, and C) Zeppelins don't require airstrips to land safely. Technically, the twains are from our world, since homo sapiens only evolved on one Earth, but it's still a story about alternate universes and zeppelins.
* In ''Literature/WorldWarZ'' blimps and zeppelins make a comeback due to their low cost, the scarcity of oil, their relatively low noise output compared to planes and helicopters and if they run out of fuel for propulsion, they remain airborne (both of which are vital in a world where zombies outnumber humans at least two to one). The head of the Government's resource management agency notes that he was somewhat less than enamoured with the idea of sending up Americans in hydrogen-filled airships, the only source of naturally-occurring helium in the United States being overrun with zombies, but eventually came around after it was pointed out that we've come on a long way in safe storage techniques for flammable gases since 1937.
* Creator/JulesVerne's ''Literature/RoburTheConqueror'': Majorly subverted by the heavier-than-air design of the ''Albatross'', and by the whole premise that lighter-than-air travel is hopelessly outmoded.
* Played with in ''Literature/TheGenesisOfJennyEverywhere''- the title character, existing in all possible universes at once and accessing the thoughts of other versions of herself in her thoughts, is first described as dreaming of "battling airship pirates over the Alps" amongst other exciting and otherworldly adventures. By contrast, this Jenny's world is implied to be mundane and boring- and yet a couple of scenes later, there's a zeppelin heard flying past in the background. In other words, not every AlternateUniverse is that exciting.
* In Creator/KurdLasswitz's ''Auf zwei Planeten'' (1897) the Martians use a fleet of airships to defeat the forces of the major powers of Earth. However, these airships, while looking a bit like Zeppelins and, at least in their earlier models, sharing their vulnerability to storms, are not gas-filled aircraft, but largely built of [[AppliedPhlebotinum the almost weightless material "Stellite"]] and they make use of the Martian ArtificialGravity technology. Encased in another miracle material, Nihilite, they are invulnerable to projectile weapons.
* In ''Literature/{{Somewhither}}'', the empire of Ur from an alternate Earth uses huge combat airships. The protagonist lampshades this trope when he sees one.
* A short story that helped set this trope in stone is Creator/HowardWaldrop's "Custer's Last Jump". Presented as a historical article from an alternate timeline, it deals with a Battle of the Little Big Horn fought between biplanes piloted by Sioux warriors and UsefulNotes/GeorgeArmstrongCuster's airship-borne paratroopers. The "Notes" mention a famous film made about the battle: ''[[Film/TheyDiedWithTheirBootsOn They Died With Their Chutes On]]''.
* In ''Literature/TheInvisibleLibrary'', Irene visits a parallel universe where vampires and other mythical creatures are considered normal members of society, and zeppelins are the normal way of air transport. However, no method of wireless communication has been invented; the airships communiate with the ground via devices powered by [[TheFairFolk elf magic]], which horrifies Irene, as elves are consistently evil (the stronger ones can travel between the worlds, so every parallel universe has the same elves.)
* Present in "The Effluent Engine" by Creator/NKJemisin: In its AlternateHistory's version of the UsefulNotes/{{Haiti}}an slave revolution, revolutionaries seized the rum distilleries and used their byproducts to inflate airships for the war effort. After winning independence, they became the world's foremost dirigible producers.
* ''Literature/BooksOfTheRaksura'': {{Downplayed|Trope}}. One remote cliffside city is extremely proud of its unique blimps, which it uses for trade and defense. The Raksura visitors are used to seeing magic-powered {{Cool Airship}}s, so they studiously avoid mentioning how ridiculous the blimps look in comparison.
* [[http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/liu_11_14/ "The Long Haul"]] by Ken Liu portrays a zeppelin journey in a world in which zeppelins never went out of fashion and exist alongside jet airliners in the present day.
* In Creator/EdgarRiceBurroughs' ''Literature/JohnCarterOfMars'' series, airships - ranging from small personal flyers to spectacular [[TheSkyIsAnOcean airborne battleships]] - are very common among the cities of the Red Martians. The Black Martians also have a formidable aerial navy, which features prominently in ''The Gods of Mars'.
* ''Literature/MindstarRising'': Airships are being used in a global-warming world, but it's mentioned that they are only a viable technology after the development of [[{{Unobtanium}} superstrength monolattice composites]] built in orbital microgravity factories.
* ''Washington's Dirigible'' in Jason Barnes' Timeline Wars trilogy features an alternate 1775 where George Washington, Duke of Kentucky, commands a dirigible for the British government. Many time travelers were involved.

* The National Geographic Channel's ''Aftermath: Life Without Oil'' special suggests that a civilization without access to abundant fossil fuel may use airships for air travel; most likely thanks to the fact that they need very little fuel compared to propeller or jet-powered planes.

** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E5RiseOfTheCybermen "Rise of the Cybermen"]]/[[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E6TheAgeOfSteel "The Age of Steel"]]: The Doctor immediately notices that they've slipped into a parallel world when he sees zeppelins in the sky above London.
** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E13TheWeddingOfRiverSong "The Wedding of River Song"]] opens with a montage of anachronisms ("Do Not Feed the Pterodactyls" sign, Holy Roman Emperor Winston Churchill, Charles Dickens interviewed on television, etc.) starting, of course, with a sky full of hot-air balloons. ''Carrying cars.''
* In ''Series/TheFlash2014'', what little we see of "Earth-3" includes, naturally, airships. Later on, Earth-X also has them, but with [[ThoseWackyNazis swastikas on the side]].
* Played dead straight to the point of an InvokedTrope on ''Series/{{Fringe}}''; the first image Walter shows his military bosses in 1985 to prove he's discovered an AlternateUniverse is a zeppelin docking at the Empire State Building. They're not seen all the time in other episodes set in the alternate universe, but then again you don't always see airplanes in the real world's sky. Sometimes, the transition from scenes in one universe to another is shown via a quick burst of light and a zeppelin in the sky appearing or disappearing in the sky.
** In a third-season episode, Fauxlivia meets her fiancé at the aforementioned Empire State Building upon his return from assisting in treating a North Texas cholera outbreak.

* While not entirely clear if ''Series/TheSecretAdventuresOfJulesVerne'' takes place in an alternate world, the heroes travel the world in an airship much more advanced than possible at the time. Then again, this isn't even the least likely invention in the show (hovering TimeMachine, anyone?). A later story arc features a group of baddies copying the design into an even larger, armored airship complete with cannons in order to help the South win UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar. The reasoning is that battlefield artillery is designed to shoot horizontally (which is wrong, especially if mortars are also used) and can't shoot an airship above.
* It's a relatively minor instance, but in the ''Series/StargateSG1'' episode "Past and Present", SG-1 finds itself on a post-industrial world remarkably similar to our own in the late 19th century. A zoomed-out shot of the city shows a zeppelin floating lazily in the sky.

[[folder:Podcast]]
* The ''Podcast/TwilightHistories'' episode "The Big Turk", set in a world where Mustafa Kemal Ataturk reformed the entire Ottoman Empire into a massive and prosperous Turkish Republic, begins and ends on an airship. Though high-speed rail is also mentioned as a popular mode of transportation. An airship also appears at the end of the miniepisode "Beyond the Indus."

* ''TabletopGame/HollowEarthExpedition'': While ''UsefulNotes/TheHindenburg'' catastrophe didn't happen in-universe (yet), the zeppelins are on the stage of their swan song anyway. Nothing however prevents players from procuring one and even the default, starting adventure is all about using and then maintaining one on the journey to the Hollow Earth via the North Pole shaft. Nazis are also still toying with their own designs, and few {{Flawed Prototype}}s show up in the scenarios provided in the expansions - including one fitted with an extra-flammable rocket engine, because all that hydrogen wasn't already dangerous enough.

* ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'' - The AnachronismStew comes with a [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0388.html side-order of airships.]] It was a ShoutOut to the ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' games. Specifically to ''Final Fantasy VI'', as all the people are its [[PlayerCharacter PCs]]. Elan and Thog are disguising as Locke and Mog. Interestingly enough, the airship does not in any way look like ''Final Fantasy VI'''s Blackjack.

* As per habit, {{Lampshaded}} in ''Webcomic/IrregularWebcomic''; [[http://irregularwebcomic.net/2787.html "Ah, you forget this is an alternate timeline. It therefore follows inevitably that airships are much more reliable and widespread."]] The commentary also links to this very article.

[[folder:Web Original]]
* ''Website/SCPFoundation'', [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-1835 SCP-1835 ("Rupertian Zeppelins").]] The Federated Empire of Rupertia is a nation in an AlternateUniverse that's in a war with the nation of Alaria. Its automated zeppelins sometimes accidentally cross into the Foundation's universe and drop propaganda leaflets.
** In the same alternate reality, there's the [[{{GhostShip}} Ghost Airship]] known as the ''Black Wyvern'' ([[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-6835 SCP-6835]]), which is contained by that universe's equivalent of the SCP Foundation.
* In ''Literature/DecadesOfDarkness'', they're used to great success in the North American War and the Brazilian Civil War.
* ''Literature/TheFlyingCloud'' is a serial web series about a British airship crew that gets stranded in the Pacific. It's set in an AlternateHistory where the UsefulNotes/WorldWarI ended two years early.

* In the online graphic adaptation of ''The Probability Broach'' by L. Neil Smith, the protagonist is hurled into an advanced libertarian North America [[http://www.bigheadpress.com/tpbtgn?page=27 with the skies full of airships and strange flying vessels,]] though what catches his eye is that everyone is armed to the teeth.

* ''Website/TheOnion'' featured this in the article [[https://www.theonion.com/smithsonian-museum-celebrates-black-alternate-history-m-1841885312 "Smithsonian Museum Celebrates Black Alternate History Month with Full-Scale Recreation of W.E.B. Du Bois' War Zeppelin."]]
* Even in the far future of ''Website/OrionsArm'', various kinds of airships are still used. The advanced technology allows for variants that don't (yet) exist in real life, like [[https://www.orionsarm.com/eg-article/48586cc9eb91a airships that get their lift from vacuum.]] Some are even [[https://www.orionsarm.com/eg-article/4f181b2caeccf used as places to live in.]]
* WebVideo/TheMonumentMythos has a variation with the Rockefeller "luftshiffes" made by the German Empire in secret collaboration with [[RichardNixonTheUsedCarSalesman US president John D. Rockefeller.]] While their presence in World War One doesn't make them that alternate, their construction and ability does: the gas has been replaced with [[spoiler:[[PoweredByAForsakenChild the severed, flying heads of convicts decapitated with]] [[MineralMacGuffin Giza Glass blades]].]] This change in design allows them to bomb targets with near impunity, seemingly because the "pilots" are near indistructible, with the only thing able to effectively take them out being an equally mystical DeathRay.
* Parodied in the ''WebAnimation/TerribleWritingAdvice'' episode on {{steampunk}}, which advocates completely ignoring a real steam-powered vehicle like the train in favor of [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial totally safe and not-at-all explosive dirigibles]], and such machines should be thrown into the story with no thought because they completely revolutionize travel and logistics.