More New Aero-ship (Zephyr) Designs

Throughout the week, whenever I was waiting for a query to populate or during lunch, I drew some more zephyr-ship designs on scratch paper.

A small tranport, very fast with three propeller nacelles and four internal lift pods the bulges on the hull).

A slow transport with six lift pods but only two propeller nacelles, armed with three gun turrets.

A small transport, like a greyhound bus, with four lift pods and two propeller nacelles with humongous propellers.

 A big modern transport with a four propeller nacelles and an unknown number of lift pods concealed inside the long horizontal cylinders, perhaps a new kind of lift pod that circulates anemoi along the length of the ship. The cockpit is located high atop the bow.

 Another new design with eight lift pods and four nacelles with no propellers, perhaps a form of impeller? Jet engines would be terribly inefficient in Cydoria since the Oudh has increased the amount of energy needed to approach the sound barrier.

A wide-bodied transport with four lift units and four propeller nacelles.

New Aero-Ship (Zephyr) Designs

I was in a two-and-a-half-hour long meeting yesterday, roughly 25% of which required me to speak. The other 75% required me to listen quietly and respond if asked. Whenever I have to sit and listen quietly, I start doodling. Here is the end-result of my doodles.

What you're not about to see are the 20 pieces of scratch paper with unused design ideas, vague shapes, and design-dead-ends. What follows is what I finally came up with. New aero-ship designs. When I finish the new version of the game, they will be called Zephyr-ships, powered by anemoi (instead of zephyrium).

Visible on the outside of the hull are the lift-unit pods, strategically placed along the hull to provide lift while maintaining structural integrity. I tried to go for a 1920's era aircraft design, with a little bit of Chris Foss inspired hull shapes.

Up first, a light transport. Small, with six lift-units. 

Second, a medium transport, roughly the same size and shape as the Serenity. It's got eight lift-units and a wider hull. Visible in the second view are some improvements, a little flat ledge that runs around the hull. You can also probably tell that the first design was originally much more rounded and curved on the bottom, which I didn't like, so I tried to straighten it out and flatten it more.

Finally, the heavy transport, the air-liner/heavy lift cargo plane of the Cydorian era. It's got ten lift-units and ten in-line propellers on two nacelles. It is the most intentionally Chris Foss-ian. 

If I ever get time, I'll model these in DOGA.