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Oh, another thought regarding gases involved, I'm sure when I read up about the Graf and Hindenburg that the Germans wanted to put a hydrogen gas envelope INSIDE a helium gas envelope. That way you gain the improved lift of a greater volume of hydrogen but have it encased in a safety shield of helium.
But as fun as airships are in concept, (as mentioned before on this forum) for them to serve as more that carriers/observers you have to dip your toes in that fantasy pool.
Nice breakdown Art Fairy, thanks for the feedback on my post 
I see your point about vacuum zeps, although we're already making ether ships that are at least reasonably airtight in your setting. Without knowing just how lighter and stronger our 'unobtainium' substance Wasserstahl is I was just plucking at straws. Not possible to include pumps to cope with leakage?
My favorite fantasy airships are the ones from 'Howl's moving Castle', Hybrid Lift Airframe Bomber types. There's a cool moment when one of the airships has it's engines disabled, instead of plummeting to the ground like a stricken plane it just starts losing altitude is a leasurely manner.
Sorry to use the L word, wasn't suggesting a rip from 'that other game', just the principle of biomimicry. It would be an awesome moment to discover some otherworldly element/organism similarly shielding itself from the effects of gravity.
With Hydrosteel being as strong and light as it is, instead of being filled with light gases couldn't Dirigibles be filled with Vacuum...
erm... or not filled with vacuum, if that makes more sense. That would give a hell of a lot of lift!
Also, what about the hybrid lift envelope/lifting wing designs that keep almost being the next big thing in aviation. Or those cool magnus spheres or cyclo-cranes. Somewhere amid that lot you'd have to end up with flying fortresses.
Personally I LOVE the idea that Cavorite is too powerful and unstable to allow use in atmosphere (like trying to keep a bubble under a cup in the bath) - the whole idea completely reverses the issues real space agencies face today. Of course, once a scientific principle is discovered you'd be hard pressed not to find it being used somewhere in the natural order. Space 1889 'liftwood' out there somewhere?
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