Airship

Okay, so most of you probably know of the addition of Elytra in 1.9. That's all fine and dandy, but it only offers downward capability of flight (or more accurately, gliding). Have you ever wanted to soar in an actual vehicle? Wanted to have a more resource intensive way of flight? Just wanted to have air battles with your friends? Then this suggestion is for you!

QUICK DISCLAIMER:I understand a lot of people don't enjoy items that are only useful for crafting one thing (honestly, it's more building than crafting, but you get my point). Just humor the idea of it til the end, and comment any concerns about it.

Okay, so Airships would be huge customizable versions of zeppelins that take tons of iron, coal, wool, and sometimes wood to work. It has a few main components-The decks, the shipman's helm, the airship walls, the windows, the engine, and the propellers.

## Parts of an Airship

The decks are arguably the most important part, as they are needed and can merely be attached by fenced, whereas walls are more for defense from the outside and such. When you put 3 iron blocks in slab formation in a crafting table, you get 6 Iron Decks. To use these, just place them down. I was thinking that each one could be 3x3 blocks large, meaning you'll need space to build your airship. When in the air, the decks are what you'll walk on. They *must be attached* to the main ship to fly with the ship. It is possible to have multiple floors on the ship.

The walls are crafted as if they were 'vertical slabs' (three across the vertical dimension of the crafting table produces 6 yet again). They could also be 3x3, but I was thinking along the lines of a normal block, except not wide enough to to be a normal block and really only useful for separating airship rooms or the ship from the normal sky.

The Shipman's Helm should be the last thing placed on the ship, as when placed, it tests for a deck connected to the ship, a small enough infrastructure (there should be a limit on how big the ship can be, as not to cause lag), and enough balloons to lift the ship. Although there isn't really a 'weight' system, it would be more of a ratio between amount of ship to amount of balloons (balloons are being explained next), and the minimum amount of balloons would lift the ship very slowly, whereas larger amounts of balloons lift it faster. The Helm is crafted with 8 wooden planks surrounding a stick. It must be placed where you want to 'drive' the ship from, as the area the Helm is facing away from is the area you will see while using the ship. It is 1.5 blocks tall, and when right clicked and the ship is worthy of flight, you can fly the ship as you please (as long as you have enough fuel).

Balloons are another very important thing, as they allow the ship to actually be lifted into the sky. They are crafted in 4s by having 8 wool around the perimeter of a crafting tables. As explained above, they lift the ship by a ship:balloons ratio.

Engine. Another part that is arguably the most important, the Engine is placed somewhere in the ship. It consumes fuel to allow the systems and propellers in the ship to work. However, you can't always be attending the engine while flying to add fuel. This is fixed by placing down a chest and having a line of hoppers leading to the engine, and you can exit the helm and add fuel into the chest, which, via the hoppers, will transport the fuel to the Engine. While balloons may let you come down rather slowly, if the engine runs out of fuel nothing will work, and you will most definitely crash, which is catastrophic to a ship. The Engine consumes coal and charcoal, each one taking as long as they do in the furnace to be consumed. The Engine is crafted with a furnace in the bottom-center of a crafting table, with a redstone block in the actual center, surrounded by a leggings-formation of iron blocks. A ship only needs one Engine, although two or more can produce extra 'energy' in case one runs out of fuel.

Propellers. Propellers are what allows the ship to move around. They are crafted by putting an X of iron ingots in a crafting table. Depending on if/how many propellers are on one side of the ship, the ship can move the opposite of that direction (propellers on the back let the ship move forward)/the ship can move faster the opposite of that direction.

Windows. Now we venture into the lands of decoration. Windows can, of course, just be holes in the walls, but this suggestion adds in actual Windows for airships. Crafted with 8 iron surrounding a glass pane in a crafting table, Windows can be placed in walls or used as windshields. When placed next to eachother, their textures connect, allowing for a clearer view of the outside.

TNT Cannons. Here it is-actual abilities for air attacks! They can, of course, be activated by a button connected to redstone or just manually via friends on the ship or getting off of the helm and manually firing them yourself, but they need TNT fed into them to work and a redstone pulse to fire (Chest with hoppers for TNT again, anybody?). Unlike normal player-built TNT cannons, these have a very straight arc with TNT and the TNT only explodes when it hits an object (in some cases, enemy ships). These are crafted with a water bucket in the center, and iron all around that except for in the center right, where there is a TNT block.

Finally, normal blocks. Normal blocks (utility blocks, leaves, logs, etc.) can be placed on the ship for decoration.

## Dismounting the Helm

You may remember me referencing getting out of the Helm and doing things around the ship. When you press shift, instead of falling off the side of the ship, you get off of the Helm and can walk around on the ship, to different rooms, floors, etc. Although the engine still needs power, it consumes coal at a much slower rate than normal. The ship also stops moving.

## Docking In and For the Airship

Okay, so docking for the airship is simple enough. You just exit the Helm, go to the edge of the ship, and tie the ship to an iron bar. If you're docking in mid air (ship still floating over the edge of a huge drop, the Engine still slowly consumes fuel. However, if you dock the ship over solid ground, the ship will float down and not consume any fuel, as if the balloons were just lifting the ship very slightly.

Now, you may remember the title saying docking *in* the ship. Basically, if you craft a boat with a propeller (and optionally a TNT Cannon as well as a button), you can get a Small Airship. These are charged by the engine, and if they run out of power while mid-flight, they simply crash and burn. However, they have a while to fly and display their energy on the screen, and can be docked on the ground. If you have a TNT cannon, you just right click it to fire, although you must have TNT in your inventory. As long as there isn't a wall blocking the Small Airship, it can dock and fly to and from the main airship. It must be docked inside of the airship to be powered.

## Ship Health

More accurately, ship durability. There are two durability bars, each displayed on the screen. Balloon Durability (yellow) and Hull Durability (green). Of course, the Balloons have less durability, but if they run out of durability, the ship can no longer be lifted and will crash. The amount of durability each item has depends on the ratio of balloons to ship. (More balloons, less ship, more durability. More ship, less balloons, less durability) the Hull can break in different sections if it's durability gets too low, mainly in the walls, the decks, the propellers, and the engines. Durability is lost due to explosions, running into blocks, etc. One exclusive way of losing durability is to shoot arrows at the balloons, which lessen balloon durability.

## Crashing

Crashing is only a problem if a) balloons run out of durability, or b) the ship is going full speed into something it could not possible pass through. If situation A is the problem, the balloons will be useless, and when you hit the ground, the ship explodes. Situation B makes it so you explode almost instantly. When a ship explodes, it damages any entities inside, usually fatally, and the ship only drops certain components of the ship (I.e. a few walls, decks, maybe the engine, propellers, etc.).

## Beginning to Fly

Strange how I end with the beginning in a way, isn't it? Anyways, a good tip to know is:have a very clear launch area. When you enter the Helm and the ship becomes an entity, it will be floating a bit. To start flying, you need to gain some forward momentum via propellers before the balloons start to lift you up. The more balloons you have, the faster the lift off. Once you have reached suitable altitudes, you can level the ship out and fly at that level, usually much faster than a player, horse, minecart, boat, or even boat on ice. If you wanted to, you could, of course, go upwards again.