Early Aviation:

Invented by John Dane of the Edoran Kingdom in the early 900s, the hot-air balloon was the first aircraft to dominate the skies. The layout of a hot-air balloon was simple: a basket held by a lift chamber made of cloth, which relied on a heat source for the production of hot air. There was no method of steerage or propulsion, so hot air balloons depended on the wind for both. With these vessels used primarily on the battlefield, the crew for a hot-air balloon typically consisted of a Captain, Navigator, and a Gunman or Bombdropper.

Issues with hot air balloons included the lack of steerage or propulsion and dependence on berseed oil or other types of fuel for heat sources. These drawbacks were resolved by the invention of the "compound aerovehicle," first used in the wars in Furthing and Tandeiyah during the 970s. The structure of the compound aerovehicle consisted of two or more balloons combined in a canvas container lifted by hot air. Later on, as technology progressed, hot air was replaced by hydrogen and helium. Below the lift chamber hung a wooden deck, where a navigation crew operated rope-pulled rudders for steerage and wind-dependent sails for thrust. Wooden mooring posts, manned by mooring crews, helped anchor these vessels with ropes at forts and bases. Enhancements made to compound aerovehicles in the years that followed included steerage wheels to control the rudders and twine-powered propellors to replace the sails. Compound aerovehicles were, at first, used solely on the battlefield, but would later be used for trade across Remikra.

Classical Airships:

Throughout the 1000s, progressive changes made to compound aerovehicles continued in the Great North, where they would be developed into "classical airships." These airships were the first to employ a modern crew consisting of the following: a Captain, a First Officer, a Navigation Officer, a Communications Officer, a Flight Engineer, and an Aircraft Maintenance Technician. Classical airships were also the first vessels to have closed decks, made possible by the invention of clear glass during the Early Industrial Revolution. And it was during this era that the use of hot air for lift became obsolete, yielding to either hydrogen or helium.

Twine-powered propellors were replaced by steam-engine-driven propellors, with such steam engines relying on blue diamond coal sands. In the 1070s, when the Great North lost the war in Hobland and, consequently, access to the coal sands, airship proprietors were forced to accept that berseed oil, having previously been used for hot-air balloons, would work as a close replacement. However, this was also in short supply. The Great Northern Crown was finally convinced to reserve the oil for airship engines but the staple was prohibitively expensive.

Hubstone Technology:

A breakthrough came for airships with the foundation of the new nation of the Chartered State of Combria in 1086. As a new and modern society, Combria championed the extraction of hubstone energy, which led to its establishment as the first society to use electricity. Lights, transportation, and communication networks became modernized as the Second Industrial Revolution came into being. In 1101, the first fixed-wing airplane took flight, powered by propellors running on lightweight hubstone-energy-powered batteries. Two years previously, such a system of thrust was installed on the first fleet of Combrian airships, which were lifted by "void," a hubstone byproduct bearing unusual properties. Void produced incredible lift far exceeding that of hydrogen and helium. With the one requirement being that "void" was to always be encased in some sort of a sealed chamber, these airships proved highly successful, flying up to altitudes of 1000 feet and distances of up to 250 miles. These airships became popular throughout Remikra, as societies throughout the Circlarian Realm followed suit in modernization.

Traditional Airships:

The first hubstone-powered airships proved reliable throughout the years of development and political change as Combria evolved into a global power. However, there were issues. With Combrian territory expanding Westward, especially after the fall of Wannonia, and roads across the continent being deemed unsafe, demand for cross-country airship travel increased. The issue was that no airship was able to fly high enough to pass over the towering peaks of the Magnumarian Shield. This was resolved, however, by the introduction of airships with pressurized cabins. The first of these airships, the Perennial, was bigger in size and capable of flying at altitudes of over 10'000 feet. The Perennial boasted larger and more durable propellors, which could move the airship at faster speeds than previous models, while its entire body, overall, was better capable of handling turbulence. Passenger and crew cabin space was improved from previous generations. And the most important feature of the Perennial was its Automatic Mooring System, a system in which controlled hook-wheels on geared mooring cables would latch onto metal rail moors on the ground, eliminating the need for mooring crews. In 1192, the Perennial made its first crossing of the continent of Remikra, from Hasphitat to present-day Savel, proving a monumental success and setting the stage for the expansion of Combria to the West Coast. In May 1195, the Chandler, an airship of the same make as the Perennial, became the first airship to cross the Circlarian Ocean from Hasphitat to the Canticulan nation of Nasem, setting the precedent for trans-oceanic air travel.

In the year 1200, Combrian airship proprietors convened and produced a fleet of airships superior to others produced thus far. This fleet became known as the historic Gilded Fleet, giving birth to the First Generation of Traditional Airships. Two of the most notable vessels, the Marran and the Pirafone, were produced in the same shipyard, and bore the same characteristics with enhancements. Most importantly, these vessels were each the first to feature the Integrated Lift Chamber System. This System involved having separate lift chambers physically attached to the dirigible encasement and for the Captain on the Flight Deck to perform lift balance exchange commands automatically. Previously, such a task during flight had to be performed by maintenance crews operating manual valves on catwalks between the lift chambers. The Gilded Fleet served an important role in the Galapolgis Trade Forum of 1206, and demand for these airships spiked, even despite the economic sag of the 1210s. And by the 1230s, there was a constant and reliable airship flight network throughout Remikra and one developing in Canticula.

However, First Generation vessels did not come without their flaws. In 1245, the Marran disappeared off the Coast of Remikra, and its wreckage was not discovered until the 1350s. In 1251, the Pirafone encountered a burst water pipe during flight, which compromised its structure and forced Captain William Solomon to make an emergency landing in a crop field, which would later be developed and established as the North Kempton William Solomon Airfield. These two incidents sparked a motion in the federal government of the newly-formed Federal Estates of Retun to carry out an investigation, which revealed that airship companies were making dangerous shortcuts in maintenance costs. As a result, new legislation signed by Prime Minister James Black required the Department of Mass Transit to conduct regular inspections and maintenance on all aircraft in service. Economic reform occurred in the 1260s with the signing of legislation by the next Prime Minister, Edward Jackson. Such legislation lifted regulations on banks, especially rules concerning loans. Numerous entrepreneurs took advantage of this and formed new competitive airship firms, giving birth to the Second Generation of Traditional Airships. Eventually, owing to economic demand, Second-Generation airships outnumbered First-Generation airships.

Second-Generation airships existed in two classes: one class consisted of vessels twice as wide and twice as long as First-Generation airships, giving way to four times the cabin space. These were called Double-Cylinder-Second-Generation Airships. The other class consisted of airships three times in length and width, named Triple-Cylinder-Second-Generation Airships. Triple-Cylinder-Second-Generation airships consisted of two of the cylinders being adjacent to each other with the third being below the other two, so that the vessel was shaped roughly like an inverted triangular prism. Meanwhile, the airship industry was experiencing a shift abroad. Airships had previously been the main mode of trans-continental transport across Remikra. Starting in the 1260s, however, Prime Minister Jackson's economic reforms led cable trains to take the stage and link Remikran cities. There was, however, a medium that cable trains could not overcome: the ocean. Airship proprietors wasted no time expanding airship routes over the Circlarian Ocean and connecting with Tandeiyah, the Galapolgis Islands, and Canticula. Canticula, at this time, lacked a cable train network, creating a lucrative opportunity for airships. Meanwhile, in 1268, surveyors discovered the vast landmass of Ancondria on the other side of the globe. Before long, settlements were established, creating even more demand for airships.

By the end of the 1260s, many Middle Remikrans were traveling between counties within each province by air. While many travelled via commuter planes, others travelled by small commuter airships, with each of the latter shaped like a blimp with a hang-down cabin while the gondola was still a dirigible structure. The interior consisted of either a small passenger cabin behind a separate flight deck or a cabin space consisting of both the passenger and flight deck sections. These airships each had a capacity of about 50 people, an inconvenience outweighed by the short duration of an average commute. These vessels landed at "fly-up moors," which were automatic like their trans-oceanic counterparts but were each anchored at one end. These moors facilitated the movement of a horizontal landings followed by vertical takeoffs, making them convenient for county airports.

The peak of the airship industry arrived with Third-Generation Traditional Airships, each of which consisted of a four-cylinder design (or sixteen-fold expansion of the cabin space of the Pirafone), a superior standard of luxury, and a center corridor between the four cylinders through which a tram transported passengers. Termed "cities in the sky," these vessels boasted the most cabin space, but were extremely expensive to ride. It was usually high-profile people like celebrities and politicians who boarded them. Being prohibitively expensive to build and maintain, Third-Generation ships were actually very rare. Only three were built by Middle Remikran proprietors while a fourth hailed from the Great North.

The first of these was the Esterzy, a Middle Remikran vessel completed in 1272 and slated to scale the entire Circlarian Realm in the years to come. The second one was the Modest, completed by the Great North in 1274. In 1276, a Middle Remikran proprietor launched the Blackbird, the first of the Third Generation to fly to Ancondria. Three years after this historic flight, an Indigenous Remikran Community sued the Blackbird for its allegedly racist title, winning a 10-million-qor (Middle Remikran currency) settlement from the airship company and having the airship change its name to the Nightwing. The fourth and final vessel was the Renegade, another product of Middle Remikran enterprise completed in 1281. The Renegade became the second airship to fly to Ancondria and the first to complete a route from Ancondria to Canticula. In 1301, the Renegade changed ownership and was renamed the Sinfonia.

There were drawbacks to Third-Generation airships. With the expenses required to build and maintain them, these vessels were rare, with tickets being expensive. Their immense sizes meant that only a few airports around the world were able to build hangars and moors large enough to handle them. They were also the center of political controversy. In 1290, the Esterzy was shot down by the Lotemnian government over Canticula in response to a mixed message alerting the nation to an invasion of the territory. The owner of this vessel filed for bankruptcy as faith in the airship industry was undermined. Within a year, trauma over the incident eroded investor confidence for Third-Generation airships, leading the Great North to retire the Modest. A collapse of the Middle Remikran economy in 1301 led to the retirement of the Nightwing; and in October 1321, as a result of the emergence of the gyroplane industry, the Sinfonia was retired.

The Gyroplane Industry, Decline of Airships:

Emerging as part of an ongoing scientific experiment in the 1260s, the first design of the gyroplane incorporated a combined system of lift that used "void," glide with a wing-shaped void container, and a spellcrafting force known as geomagnetic repulsion. Propulsion for the aircraft came from hydrogen rocket-powered jets, and its dimensions were rather large and bulky. The selling point, however, was that these planes were very fast, required no moors, and used small landing pads.

It seemed that the gyroplane industry would meet a premature end with a tragic incident off the East Coast of Canticula in 1267, during which one of the hydrogen propulsion tanks exploded and all aboard perished. However, throughout the 1270s and 1280s, President Unjoy of the Lykian Republic directed funds toward the program to improve on its technology. Dimensions of subsequent gyroplane prototypes were improved and made more efficient, while Solon, a non-flammable and hubstone-based fuel noted for its amazing efficiency in consumption, replaced hydrogen for propulsion. By the mid-1280s, gyroplanes were safe enough to transport high-end business officials between Prove and the island nation of Rakara.

War raged in Canticula during the 1290s, as nations regained autonomy from the Lykian Republic. During the ensuing conflict, airship moors were destroyed, and, with airship docking ports overwhelmingly expensive to restore, many communities throughout Canticula, having previously become heavily dependent on airships for trade and transport, were left lacking in essential infrastructure. The gyroplane industry prevailed as the fastest and most economic solution, as they constructed landing pads and began transporting essential goods. This played a critical factor in the rebuilding of the Canticulan economy in the decade to follow. Gyroplane cargohold interiors were eventually converted into luxurious passenger cabins, as a well-established gyroplane flight network emerged from Southeastern Canticula and expanded across the rest of the landmass.

In 1311, the Canticulan Union passed a provision in a sweeping measure of transit restoration calling for the deconstruction of all traditional airship moors and replacing them with gyroplane landing pads at every airport. Tandeiyah enacted a similar measure in 1314, followed by the Great North in 1317.

The traditional airship industry attempted to resist this trend with advocates who travelled abroad, only to be ignored and labeled as "old-school Classicists." In Middle Remikra, shortly after the 1309 Revolution and the establishment of the Independent Commonwealth State of Retun, the Finzi Administration funded a program to build "carrier planes," which used geomagnetic repulsion on its wings for lift and thrust. Such a force was fed through a network of special geomagnetic towers powered by darkfire energy sources, and these planes went faster with regard to county-to-county travel. They were, consequently, quick to replace the old-style commuter planes and airships. With losses to this form of competition, the airship industry attempted one last measure of resistance fighting legislation funding the establishment of the gyroplane industry in the Commonwealth in 1321. The pro-gyroplane measure passed anyway, but the Council did add a compromise to preserve airship docks.

By this time, First-Generation Gyroplanes had become a fashion and consisted of two classes: Long-Distance and Commuter Gyroplanes. Long-Distance Gyroplanes consisted of cabins equal in luxury to First-Generation airships. Their wings, consisting of higher-efficiency lift chambers and Solon-powered engines, allowed First-Generation gyroplanes to travel faster. Before long, these fleets took the place of traditional airships travelling abroad. Meanwhile, Commuter Gyroplanes were similar to the older propellor-driven commuter planes of the past. However, they travelled faster and did not require geomagnetic towers like the carrier planes of the early Finzi era.

For the traditional airship industry, commercial travel was essentially lost as a business, but they pursued another source of revenue: government science experiments, primarily in meteorology and land surveillance. The industry also continued to survive on marginal revenue from hobby-pilots and "airship tourists." Prime Minister Alexander Schraber provided much-needed funding for the emerging Commonwealth Aerospace Program, which demanded experiments involving high-altitude balloons. The airship industry served the Aerospace Program until the 1350s, when the Program shifted to "space pods," which used gyroplane technology to launch manned and unmanned missions to outer space. However, airships caught a break, once again, when another newly-established program, the Library of Circlaria, restored appreciation among large numbers of the Commonwealth population for history and heritage, giving birth to the "airship tourism" fashion. The industry constructed traditional airships, both First and Second-Generation on a mass scale for the first time in decades, as they opened up flying routes between Ancondria and Canticula.

There was a major drawback, however, in that most trade and traffic abroad occurred between Middle Remikra and Ancondria through what became known as the Magnumarian Passage. The airship tourism industry used profits from the Magnumarian Passage to balance the financial losses from the Canticulan and Circlarian routes. This model, however, proved a major weak point between 1362 and 1367, when the Esurchian War made travel through the Magnumarian Passage dangerous for tourists. In light of the ensuing economic hardship that followed, people were also less willing to travel over the Circlarian Ocean, constituting a major loss for the airship tourism industry. In the wake of the "collapse of the Magnumarian Passage" in 1369, the airship tourism industry folded, leaving one remaining source of revenue: "hobbyist flying."

In the 1370s, Prime Minister Meghan Wen gave funding to the airship industry to keep it afloat, but also passed legislation to fund a new generation of gyroplanes: Personal/Occupational Destination Vehicles, or POD Vehicles. The Commonwealth government gave each household a taxpayer-funded POD, while governments around the world did the same. Along with POD vehicles came personal rooftop landing pads, making airports obsolete. In 1380, a minor economic shakeup in the Commonwealth led the last of the airship hobbyists to withdraw from the airship industry. And on 1 October 1381, the Horizon Discovery, the last remaining traditional airship, made its final commercial flight before landing at William Solomon Airfield. The airship would be retired, as the airport closed, officially marking the end of the traditional airship industry.

Presently, gyroplanes rule the skies, with POD vehicles in every country forming a global network. This network is, on the most part, publicly funded; although there is debate in the Circlarian Union Council over allowing for varying degrees of privatization. Nonetheless, anyone is able to travel anywhere in the world within hours at the most, while advanced gyroplane technology is used in the Circlarian Aerospace Program, primarily in travel to and from the neighboring Planet Nephina. Traditional airship models occasionally emerge and retire as part of temporary projects such as film shoots; but they are rare and expensive due to resource allocation and availability issues. There are no consistently-flying commercial or non-commercial airships today. However, airships have a more lucrative standing in the numerous dymesional planes of the Library of Circlaria.