@F  
it looks to me like the real magic in making things fly is by coloring them purple

God help her if she gets tired.

Cherry Berry should have her own show! Or at least her own episode.
 
We’ll call it ‘The Pilot Episode’.
 
WIIIIIIIIIINK!

@Vocal  
I may be critical, but I do make it a point not to clutter up my comments with vulgar language.

@Background Pony #BA6B  
insert personal attack here with liberal use of curse words

@Nukechaser  
According to you.

@Background Pony #BA6B  
ahhh, but you pointing out that my comment was useless was an equally useless comment. It’s a vicious cycle. But useless is still slightly better that those other three things I mentioned.

@Nukechaser  
And totally useless comments, like yours.

Always figured we called them airships becuase we were camparing them to the actual boat like airships in RPGs like early Final Fantasy.

@Nukechaser  
 
So Much Blood!

In this thread: Pedantry, ad hominem attacks, and oh so much butthurt.

@FancyCat2008  
“Twilight took my balloon? Fine, I’ll steal Pinkie’s helicopter”

@Tk3997  
Your biggest problem is that you try to use real logic in a world filled with magic and different physics.  
Just look at the picture…  
 
We got a helicopter that flies by bicycle pedals.  
Now why did zeppelins have a bigass balloon?  
If they had access to to a gas with much much bigger lift force, wouldn’t they build the balloon part smaller?  
 
…something like that?
 
…what you say?  
The gondola is too tiny and too open?  
 
You mean like how they used to be?  
The “classic” zeppelin design was invented during WWI while earlier models had smaller and open gondolas.
 
Besides, every time we have seen the ponies use a hot air balloon as transportation, it has always moved them where they want to go. Unlike the real world, where we are forced to go wherever the wind blows.

@Tk3997  
You’re still doing it! Look bud, they are clearly concieved as being a legitimate mode of transport, and that makes them airships. They don’t just float around, whatever issues you may have with the feasibility of that. You may as well start complaining about how four stallions were pulling a train at full gallop while you’re at it.

@F  
Based on what? there’s a huge difference between a balloon and a Zeppelin, like literally almost a centuries worth of development.
 
@Background Pony #BA6B  
Cept they’re really not in my view, which is rather why I didn’t recall them.
 
They have none of the hallmarks of the class really and the ones we see are configured like balloons and would have serious issues going anywhere. As a thought experiment think about attaching a balloon to an RC car, now drive the car forward. Now replace the RC car with a Gondola with a motor on it hanging under a balloon… I think you can quickly see the problems this scheme would develop. Also there is the issue of steering since there isn’t really any control connection from the gondolas to the fins in evidence.
 
This is why a real airship needs it’s motors firmly attached to the balloon section itself in some manner, and either needs articulated control surfaces or steerable drive units (and often both). Given all that these examples are lacking calling them airships is misusing the word.
 
They’re just balloons for the moment, but they could admittedly represent early experiments toward the development of true airships.

And even if they are just balloons, they clearly got the technology to turn them into something close to zeppelins.

@Tk3997  
Dude, those are totally airships. Like, a ship, in the air. Balloons only drift, but ships can actually reach destinations. You don’t need to go on this long tirade to excuse your mistake just because someone used an insult while pointing out the error.

@Flak  
Gotta love tools that expect everyone to be able to recall every random tidbit from 85 or so episodes and counting. See I don’t, in fact, just watch each ep a dozen times looking for details that, while perhaps mildly interesting trivia, are insignificant to the main story of said episode. I normally watch the episodes once, on the actual TV, and occasionally I catch a rerun if I see it in the channel guide and nothing else catches my eye. So forgive me if I don’t recall the brief appearance of a random balloon in the middle of a song montage in and episode I probably watched once over two years ago. [insert eyeroll here]
 
I actually did vaguely recall the Apple family one, but I considered that just a balloon, not an airship. The definition is admittedly somewhat fluid, but ‘airship’ is most often taken to imply a zeppelin style craft which is a large, rigid hulled vessel with internal lift cells and cabins. The apple family one clearly isn’t that and the Canterlot one is quite debatable in my view. It frankly just looks like a really big balloon. Certainly having that giant gondola hanging off it would make it ponderously slow and intensely unsafe in any sort weather compared to a proper airship (bordering on outright death trap).
 
So yeah that’s the kind of airship I was discussing as “fanon”. I’ve seen TONS of fics where they basically have like WWI era Zeppelins and shit, or even more outlandish to where they mounted cannons and can carry armies and crap. Those I consider fanon, but yeah they clearly have balloons some of them fairly large, but clearly rather limited in application as you’d expect.

@AndersW  
Fluttershy isn’t really a bad flyer though. That’d be Bulk Biceps.

@Mobius 1  
prolly grown soft over the years, I doubt they’ve had to be warriors in a long long time

@Mobius 1  
-Their endurance is severely limited  
While I agree that Rainbow Dash is one of the best flyers out there, assuming that all other Pegasi are wimps is just as bad. I think that Dash and Fluttershy represent two extremes of flight skill.
 
-No radar or other avionics  
Like all air forces in World War 1. Don’t compare them to a modern air force, compare them to what they would have to fight.
 
-they rely solely on their eyes(no radar)  
Same as above.
 
-Have no self defense besides flying away  
How is this different from normal aircraft? As far as I am aware, an aircraft defends itself by maneuvering or flying away.
 
-Has no room for external and internal stores(No 20mm/27mm/30mm cannon, no missiles, no bombs, etc.  
Again, don’t compare them to a modern air force. Compare them to what they would have to face in Equestria.
 
-Multiple episodes have indicated how useless the Wonderbolts are(Secret of my Excess)  
There could be multiple reasons for this. I think the most likely explanation for this is that, the script said that they got swatted like flies to increase the tension for the main characters.
 
There are plenty of ways for Pegasi to be an effective air force, in the world of Equestria. And we haven’t seen it because this is a kids show. Even then, we have already seen things like Jousting.

@Mobius 1  
>Has no room for external and internal stores(No 20mm/27mm/30mm cannon, no missiles, no bombs, etc.
 
 
If somebody like Fluttershy can fly with a wagon, backpack (probably one on each side) and carry a basket, then a Wonderbolt should be able to fly with a wagon fitted with weapons.

@Vocal  
Probably no, but all sea animals are… well, aerodynamic

@Vocal  
I hope so. That’d be awesome.

@Flak  
Oh, hey, it’s got a whale design. Never noticed that before.
 
Think all airships have their balloons in the designs of sea animals?