The World Dragon's Heir

Chapter 459: Design Issues

As Dominic looked at the design, he realized that the extremely wide oval design would actually be terrible for flight. Making it longer and narrower would be so much better, but as he read the math on the sheet, it became clear that the total volume relied much more on the width than the length.

Narrowing the design even a little would cost them a huge amount of volume, compared to the extra speed they might get from the improved shape.

But cargo ships were also usually fat and ponderous, designed to hold as much as possible, not to move as efficiently as possible through the water.

"Unless we do something about the shape, this thing is going to fly like a Davian Cargo Caravel." Dominic joked, referring to the infamously wide and flat-bottomed cargo ships that travelled the southeastern seas.

"Not much way around that if we’re not going to load them up with magic." Gully noted.

"Still, it’s a shame. Perhaps we should introduce this one first as the epitome of cargo capacity, then work on a faster one with more magic involved for the army?" One of the other Dwarves suggested.

"That’s a wonderful plan. Nobody moves much in the rain, so we’ve got some time to get an airship up. If this one does what we want it to, even just holds the weight at a lower speed, it will provide the funding for everything else." Dominic suggested.

He could fund this on his own, and claim the products for the Duchy if he wanted. But Dominic was a big fan of productive businesses, and having everything pay for itself made the Duchy run so much more smoothly.

It would also help with relations if he didn’t try to cut the Guilds out of the process.

They might not have a monopoly on shipping, but they would not be happy about hiring airships instead of owning them, even if they struggled to get the crews to run them.

"We could do more than just cannon ships for the army. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. Let’s get the cargo airships in the sky first, then we can work on the escorts and fleet ships to protect them.

It might sound cruel, but if we send them out a couple of times and see who bites at the bait and how, we will know more about what we need to protect them." The elder Techno Wizard insisted.

"Excellent point. The market for commercial airships can’t be so big that we will need to make more than one at a time, right? So we will have time for side projects." One of the others suggested, which made Dominic and the older men laugh.

"You misunderstand the nature of the market. Once we get something that will remove bad roads and monster attacks from the equation, many won’t care how much it costs to buy one, they will want an airship." Dominic explained.

The younger dwarf looked skeptical, but the confidence of the others convinced him that there really was a chance that just making one type of new airship would be enough to keep them busy for years.

They had been primarily researchers at home, though they weren’t working on any major projects of this scale.

But the questions didn’t stop them from working, and over the course of the next few hours, they not only had a batch of magitech orbs created, they also had a basic and functional airship model built.

"Gods, that thing is ugly. I mean, it’s the right size for what we want, but..." Dominic sighed.

"What if we drop it on the floor? Give it a bit of an egg shape like a glider wing so it provides its own lift as it moves?" One of the men suggested.

"First, get it on the scale, What does it weigh? If we’re close to the desired weight, we can start working on design refinements." Gully insisted.

Calculating the structural strength of the larger scale materials, and the associated weight, was still not simple math, but in under an hour after the model was on the scale, there was a consensus that the new airship design would be within the range of acceptable weights for their project.

With the inner balance bladders partially inflated, the airship should still be able to lift thirty tonnes off the ground, and with them completely deflated, it should be able to fly at a thousand metres with the same amount of weight.

It wouldn’t make it over a mountain range like that, but there were no real mountains in the region, other than in western Axbridge.

"Well, we will need to cut the cargo capacity by a third to go over the mountains, but we should have reasonable climb rates with thirty tonnes of cargo and no magical assistance, or thrust assisted liftoff with fifty tonnes and some forward momentum.

If we do redesign the envelope to have a flatter bottom and a wider profile, it will be much easier to get the excess weight aloft even from a higher altitude.

The compressed air bladders should be sufficient without adjusting ballast, but a larger water tank for the boilers will give us some leeway if we rate it for thirty tonnes unpowered.

Now, we need to work on the magical assistance. It’s easy enough to put a large rock on the scale and measure the input needed to reduce the weight to the degree we want.

In fact, we’ve already got charts for that, since the cargo orb isn’t a new product, just an obscure one." Gully announced.

Dominic shook his head in dismay. "How much magitech is out there, hidden in nations that don’t appreciate it, and forgotten? That sort of orb should be everywhere in Cygnia, but I’ve never seen one in use, even when we’re routinely overloading cargo tractors and trailers running over muddy terrain."

The dwarves stared at him for a moment before Gully spoke.

"You want to use orbs on merchant caravans to get them unstuck from the mud?"

"I really don’t see why not. Do you know how much of a pain it is to get them out of the mud? Hooking up tow-ropes and such? Just lighten the cargo until the traction is more than the resistance."