Half a century ago zeppelins reached their maximum cruising speed of about 90mph. The problem is that helium gas is too volatile and hydrogen doesn’t have enough lift. Adding engines for speed requires more hydrogen, which requires a bigger frame, which require more engines and fuel to use. The last great addition was lighter firemoss fuel which squeezed out an additional 2mph, but we’ve been unable to improve since.

Until Queen Olympia’s formula for vaalige gas dirigibles was publicly released following her death.

Vaalige gas trapped in special metal containers provides lift similar to cosmic updrafts, which allowed for the Queen’s famed super yachts to float around the sky. If their vast amenities and décor were removed, engines would allow faster airborne travel.

Which is exactly what the companies: Derifax Manufacturing, Kobos Heavy Industries, Zero Sum Motor, Luftwagon, and J-D Engineering have set out to accomplish. Each of these became major military production companies during the war, so they’re flush with enough cash to pursue this sort of adventurism.

Their goal is to strip away all but the essentials and strap so many engines to the hull that they develop the fastest crafts available. Once that’s done, they’ll start adding features back in so the crafts become usable for sale. The end results will be the optimal synergy of speed, carrying capacity, and comfort.

The president of Olympus Air released a statement: “Pursuing this is a fool’s errand. The people don’t want to reach their destination faster, they want to have an enjoyable, affordable journey. It’s not about profit – we could easily cram ten times the amount of passengers in our cloud cruisers – and we could take away systems to boost speeds, but Olympus Air is a luxury brand. Slower speeds mean longer travel times, which means prolonged relaxation.”