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@rusted-knight

How does that affect an airship?

Depends – I suppose – on the genre and setting.

Fantasy – not the forum for it.

Sci-fi?  Well, most air-ships are go on the soft-side of sci-fi so you just need to be plausible and consistent enough that it doesn’t jerk the reader out of the story.

For example, if you say that ships can fly because the gravity on this planet is less, I’m gonna expect to see other effects of lesser gravity like very tall and very thin trees with a broad canopy and maybe bigger animals flying.  On some planets, the gravity is so low, we could strap huge wings on our arms and fly like Icarus.  However, if we were designed for a planet like that, wouldn’t we be heavier?  So, in a story like this, your premise would be “gravity is lighter, and this is how it affects the world.” Which is getting away from airships.

So you could go the helium route.  Is some kind of air-balloon in the center of the ship?  Is helium particularly flammable?  Do engineers have a continual helium voice?

Or – since we are creating elements now (like, for reals) – do we create a “floatium” that we pocket inside the ship?  (I’m assuming inside because it will be safe behind the armor plating and less likely to escape or explode.  I’m thinking whatever it is, it will be nasty if hit by the right thing.  Like all fuels.). If you go the “science made this” route, you can make up a lot of rules as plausible as you can get them.

Anyway, I’ve always considered this a hand-wavy, rule-of-cool thing.  And if someone picks up your book on airships, they’re probably interested in the adventure in a crazy new world and not so interested in detailed science behind it.  (But a “harder” science might pleasantly surprise them.  Who knows?)