Airships

Only when kept afloat by organic flying stones.

...

I'm actually planning a novel based on the airships that could've been in the mid-thirties, so I've been doing some research. Apparently these were a thing: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metal-clad_airship

Like, a real thing they actually did.

And this: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZMC-2

>As a sub-scale test vehicle, it was considered to be very successful, but the company that built it did not weather the Great Depression well, and by the time a successor might have been built, there was little interest in pursuing it. In the year before the Depression, the U.S. Army was seeking funding for an airship based on the ZMC-2, that would have been larger than the German Graf Zeppelin, and powered by eight engines of 600–800 hp (450–600 kW; 610–810 PS)}. The U.S. Army planned to use it as a tender for air-launched aircraft, similar to plans the U.S. Navy had for future dirigibles. The $4.5 million need for construction was never approved by Congress.

So the military was seeking to expand on the Makron/Akron concept with a larger aircraft-carrying airship that could sling more aircraft and would have far superior/more durable construction. Pretty fuckin neat, eh? I've been trying to figure out how these craft would be made more durable so they could survive attack - sub-dividing the gas-bag to compartmentalize against leaks is a no-brainer. A way to use hydrogen gas without the boom boom shake da room problem would be nice too.

>are entirely at the mercy of the weather
Not particularly. When the U.S. Navy purchased a few zeppelins and put them through sea trials, they found they could weather much worse conditions than other aircraft of the period, simply by virtue of their greater mass. They lost a couple of them to weather, yes, but that's because their pilots put them through much more dangerous maneuvers than were sane--again, owing to the fact that they thought their vessels could handle them.

>Stupendously vulnerable to attack
Only if your foe is using incendiary ammunition and your lift gas in flammable. Prior to the Brits developing incendiary bullets, the zeppelins were pretty much unstoppable in their raids. This is, again, owing to the sheer amount of mass a zeppelin has, plus all of its redundant systems. You can pump bullets into the gas bladder all day, but the gas which escapes from those holes is minuscule compared to the rest the ship is carrying; it'll stay aloft long after.

>have a much harder time hauling cargo
Also incorrect. Rigid airships are capable of carrying immense loads. Taking the Graf Zeppelin as an example, it had a maximum effective lift of 132,000 lbs. To put that in perspective, a B-17 had a max load of roughly 8000 lbs, and that's only if they're flying less than 400 miles. The Graf was frequently traveling twice that on its voyages.

>Also incorrect. Rigid airships are capable of carrying immense loads. Taking the Graf Zeppelin as an example, it had a maximum effective lift of 132,000 lbs. To put that in perspective, a B-17 had a max load of roughly 8000 lbs, and that's only if they're flying less than 400 miles. The Graf was frequently traveling twice that on its voyages.

They're actually using airships to move cargo (logs, usually) in Sibera right now.

...

Economically airships would drive prices down as it isn't as expensive to procure materials. Production will move to cheaper locations, like how companies outsource to SE Asia, and there will be a more diverse variety of goods.

Aye aye captain no fun.

>no fun
Flying ruins more things than it helps.

Not if you're a capable DM and balance your setting for them beforehand