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Originally Posted by Fusilier
How susceptible are these to adverse weather? The larger the more difficult to handle? I recall this was a difficulty in German aircraft when bombing London in WW1. With no weather reports coming in, you could have an aircraft in trouble very quickly before they realize.
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I agree. The airships talked about in Airlords of the Ozarks were all of the Lifting Body Airship design so they can handle adverse weather a little better than a standard blimp or zeppelin and are more fuel efficient but only in calm weather or a breeze would have have optimum performance. A tail wind they could handle okay but a cross wind or a head wind will degrade their performance. A gale would be very dangerous and could possibly only be negotiated if it was a tail wind. I predict that trying to fly any airhip in a storm would be suicidal.
To a certain extent an airship pilot could try to use changes in altitude to find more favourable wind conditions but in an unpressurised gondola and without oxygen there would be a similar upper limit to that experienced by pilots all the way back to World War One.