Have considered a large axial cannon? It would make firing a big damn gun while chasing/running away a lot easier.
Fight smart, not fair.Indeed I have. The Shell Diameter is the big issue. I have also decided there will be a type of ship just for bombarding ground targets that will have two primary variants. One will be armored to the teeth and use things like siege guns, short barreled howitzers and various large bore weapons. They will also actually have a bomb bay. They will pretty much be used to slap around hardened ground targets after their air cover has been driven off and the more dangerous ground batteries neutralized.
The other variant will be one that snipes at targets from a distance with decent sized artillery but will lack the armor to make room for the various mechanisms used to make the ships main weapons more accurate. This idea of course needs more thought.
Who watches the watchmen?I would imagine that there'd be picket/interference airships that provide harassing fire (perhaps attempting to snipe the more powerful ships) with their weaponry until both air fleets close and the others start attacking.
Also, there would probably be anti-boarding weaponry such as heavy machine guns and special blades to disconnect any grappling hooks etc.
Locking you up on radar since '09I haven't decided on how to handle boarding. Grappling anything resembling a modern ship is asking to get shot. There will be the various machine gun posts and light auto cannons in the 20mm range for point defense and aa.
I am thinking something along the lines of small sized "assault Shuttles" will pull to area kick down a ramp with magnetic clamps or something and pour the troops on to the ships deck. They would then force their way into the ship from an exterior hatch or battle damage breach.
edited 16th Dec '14 8:34:51 PM by TuefelHundenIV
Who watches the watchmen?That's what I was thinking of, although my "boarding ships" were far cruder: basically very speedy ships with a large drill on the end (and various clamps). They use their speed and maneuverability to get close to the ship, hit the hull and then bore into it before opening the drill to allow the boarding party to come out.
As well, I imagine that the wire-guided weaponry would be used as early SAMs as well.
Locking you up on radar since '09The problem with an axial weapon (if I'm assuming you mean something akin to a spinal-mount) is that you have to aim the entire ship - but that depends on the turning rate of the ship, of course - I suspect that they could probably manage a 360-turn in a few minutes? Bigger would turn slower, and if you have turning rates too quick, you have to start to worry about centrifugal force acting on the ships innards, to include stuff not bolted down, like the crew.
Turret-mount weapons alleviate the need to do broadsides that was commonplace in the age of sail and revolutionized naval warfare, and much design work was done in the age of pre-dreadnoughts and dreadnoughts on optimal turret placement, so as to throw as much weight as possible for given firing arcs, but still, usually on the flanks. (and got rid of ramming as a tactic, too.)
With airships, the placement of turrets and firing arcs now got much more complex, as you have to think in three dimensions now, as opposed to just fore, aft, port and starboard. You have to worry about plunging fire from a threat above you and fire coming up from beneath. A well-armed ship would probably look like a procupine, sort of. This 3D maneuver aspect will also make armor schemes much more of an issue. Also, it will also represent a huge paradigm shift for the naval officers of the time, used to traditional naval combat on only two dimensions (with the exception of submarines, but they were rickety affairs until WWII anyway). Officers that are able to 'get it' more than their more traditional peers will excel im combat, but might face a lot of criticism from the Old Guard who are still stuck in the previous combat model. This happened when aircraft were first introduced in Real Life, as well; the battleship guys looked at aircraft carriers as a huge waste of resources. I would expect something similiar to happen here with airships - aviation officers will probably be more accepting of airship officers, as the two have more in common.
Agree that boarding parties shouldn't be an issue. Combat will happen at ranges at or beyond 10,000 yards, so only the most brave or foolish will attempt to board an enemy ship. However, nothing against doing some airborne parachute drops from way up and doing some sabotage on an unsuspecting enemy ship that might be lingering at low altitude... Aw, screw it, just drop some bombs on it.
Until RADAR is developed, combat at extreme range will be horribly inaccurate, and mostly done during the day, and combatants will use cloud cover as concealment, if they can get high enough to use it (or just use low-level clouds). If only one combatant has RADAR, expect a one-sided battle, as the more advanced force can more accurately determine range. And there will be no shell splashes that can be used to bracket the enemy, either. For that reason, gun range might very well be less than the water-borne naval equivalent. Technology to accurately determine range, like optical range-finders, is critical, then. Longer-width rangefinders are better at determining range. "Dazzle" cameoflage will be used, as that screws up optical rangefinders, as you're not sure if your image is lined up properly or not. As technology progresses along, range will increase, as will hit probability, so the trend might move away from huge numbers of guns to a handful of accurate ones as time goes on.
What sort of altitude limits are we considering here? How quickly can the ascend? How fast can a typical warship travel at? How fast can the do a 180-degree turn? Those things will all impact how a battle between airships plays out. Move slow, and larger weapons will be able to land more hits. Faster movement, and the shift will be towards faster firing rates, usually accomplished by lighter guns, although you could just pack more heavy guns and throw a wall of steel at them...
Still, airships are awesome. Fun topic.
EDIT: Various spelling errors. Also, rigging turrets on the bottom of something (big naval rifles, anyway) would be a novelty at first. I've heard of sunken battleships that lost their turrets as they sunk, as they rolled over and they just simply fell out. The mechanisms to retain the weight of the turret on the hull might prove to make the ventral turrets more complex and prone to breakdowns, something that the dorsal turrets wouldn't have to deal with. Maybe have the dorsal and ventral turret baskets linked by huge shsfts that allow independent traverse, but in essence, the ventral turret is kept stuck onto the ship by the dorsal one...? That might make turret replacement more difficult, perhaps...
edited 6th Aug '10 11:00:48 AM by pvtnum11
Happiness is zero-gee with a sinus cold.So Let Me Get This Straight... Tuefel. Your airships more or less act like the Iron Vulture from Tale Spin only no propellers or jet engines?
If so, that sounds cool.
edited 6th Aug '10 10:55:54 AM by MajorTom
The purpose of an axial weapon would be a combination of extremely long range weaponry for bombardment out of range, and a chasing/retreating gun that's big enough to compensate for taking most of the guns out of range due to being in a specific position that blocks a lot of the turrets.
Fight smart, not fair.I think that maneuver and speed will alleviate the need to have an aft-facing spinal mount cannon, as you are already presenting a small target profile and by erattically maneuvering (until you can seek shelter in a cloud or something) you reduce their hit rate - and your own ships maneuvering will toss off the accuracy of yoru own spina mount. From playing Klingon Academy, I loathed trying to use any sort of weapon that had a real narrow fore or aft firing arc, unless I was trying to destroy a slow target (or smash up a starbase, which took forEVER). Against a fast, small target, I didn't bother with using narrow-arc weapons, as they rarely ever hit anything.
However, you bring up a valid point for bombardment. A really huge stinking cannon that is mounted on the centerline, and is able to throw a really large amount of weight with a single shot. Maybe make it able to depress itself to a significant angle, like 60-80 degrees down, and you can sit way up and pound at a hardened structure like a command bunker for awhile until you see white flags.
Basically, make the airship version of a Costal Monitor. Big floating gun platform, not very fast. Bring it in to provide fire suuport for ground troops. They tend to fare rather poorly against a ship-of-the-line (or ship-of-the-wall) though.
Happiness is zero-gee with a sinus cold.Hmm those are good ideas and points on the Spinal mount or centerline mount.
For the Ventral turrets a ball design that uses a large round shaped object that is held in place by the turrets round shape with the actual opening being smaller. The weight of the turret and the gun would keep the turret in place. Along with some creative welding and mountings. Ventral turrets will be a more advanced design for the world war II portion of the story.
Thoughts on Spigot Mortars and semi guided stern and fore torpedo launchers? Ideas for a possible aerial mine?
edited 6th Aug '10 9:29:22 PM by TuefelHundenIV
Who watches the watchmen?Yes. Airships have been invented and successfully used for trade at the turn of the century but are not weaponized due to issues with technology they are only being weaponized just a year prior to World War I. earliest models may have a machine gun mount or a bunch of crew with various weapons. The later models will have auto cannons like the 37mm Pom Pom gun and then lighter artillery will be the first main guns fired from gun port type slits.
Who watches the watchmen?So, they started WW 1 looking like they did in 1917-ish, and continued to advance if their weaknesses had not stopped the Germans from continuing to upgrade them...
Ok! Has their vulnerability to fast aeroplanes and tendency to light up like a greased up pig been fixed? It was those two things that caused them to be largely discontinued by 1918 in the first place.
"Den Sozialismus in seinem Lauf hält weder Ochs noch Esel auf" - Erich HoneckerLol Wrong Airship. Think metal airships like this picture
They will be less vulnerable to aircraft as long as said aircraft are not loaded out to shoot them down.
bah Pic is broken Ill find a better link.
Better Link
◊ This art work is from the Iron Grip Universe.
edited 6th Aug '10 10:45:01 PM by TuefelHundenIV
Who watches the watchmen?Ok, so your airships are like the ones in the pic? If they can strategically bomb, and launch planes? Sounds golden. If they can do all that above the range of flak and most enemy fighters? A General's orgasm.
But if they can launch troops? Well, if that could happen, then you just heard the General's whole staff come.
edited 8th Aug '10 6:35:32 PM by SpaghettiCatIV
"Den Sozialismus in seinem Lauf hält weder Ochs noch Esel auf" - Erich HoneckerThat will happen but later.
If they enemy is in range so are you. On the earliest airships the largest guns will be Frem 75mm rapid firing artillery.
Airships with have three primary threats. Long range ground fire from High Velocity weapons. Other Airships and of course "Aero Planes"
edited 8th Aug '10 7:08:08 PM by TuefelHundenIV
Who watches the watchmen?In a similar fashion to a water navy battle but with a third access of movement available. Who ever spots the other guy first and gets in the most accurate hits. Basically I see you I fire at you and hope I hit. They will try to maintain distance for the most part and slug it out with their main guns some ships will have the 37mm pom pom guns at close ranges those would be devastating. Plus at close range your ship board weapons get more accurate. Not a good idea in some cases as some ships will have "Aerial Torpedoes/Rockets" And at close range they become accurate enough and fast enough to be a serious threat.
I am not mocking the spelling I actually prefer it. I just put it in quotation marks because they won't use a traditional prop engine to fly.
Who watches the watchmen?Clouds could be used as long as they obscure you from view of the enemy. It would depend on the storm. Anything less then nasty tornado or Hurricane wouldn't bother the ships much. they could always just change altitude and move out of the storm. Lightning might affect navigational equipment, radar, and communications.
Who watches the watchmen?

-Claps- Well Played sir.
Indeed spotting an airship unless it is at high altitude will be easy. Airships will have dorsal and a ventral observation station in later models as well s the aforementioned gear that a wet naval uses. Recoil is an issue with the larger guns. Which is why weapons like the French 75mm which revolutionized the modern artillery weapons.
Center line weapons or even a some engines that push when the guns are fired to negate the force of higher recoil munitions firing.
The Advantages of a ball turret give ships more flexibility but at the cost of more mass then say modified gun slits.
i could see a lay out using top and bottom turrets like on modern warships with smaller turrets, smaller guns, and fewer guns per turret and maybe some lighter turrets on the sides.
This will make maneuver warfare king of the air ship to air ship battle.
Not sure if I want to include air carriers though. Floating something the equivalent of a sky scraper and a run way humping each others faces would be a challenge in and of it self.
Who watches the watchmen?