Airship (Civ5)/Civilopedia

Until the discovery of aetherium, it was believed that only light and maneuverable craft - such as the Flyer - would ever travel the skies. The airship is a strange yet majestic contraption. With the new material, the original engineers and inventors of the airship were free to put nearly anything in the air, going against the constraints of science which had been the guiding laws of their professions heretofore. Necessarily, the product reflected something familiar from past history: a seafaring vessel. It had a deck, armaments on either side, and a balloon in place of a sail. Early airship crews adopted naval conventions of rank and hierarchy. Soon, though, the reality of sustained flight took on its own character. Ship designs became more and more experimental. Airship pilots and crew developed their own culture, at once genteel and whimsical.