Airships, Docking, and The Haenlein

Fits like a glove!

This thing is SOOOO gorgeous. This is something that should be framed and put on a wall. The diagram was part of the basis for the dirigible docking that takes place in the first chapter of THE CLOCKWORK DETECTIVE:

The Haenlein’s twin Jupiter engines screamed into a higher pitch that shook the entire airship. The rattle ran across the open deck of the command gondola, over the sparse crew and up through Constable Aubrey Hartmann’s teeth. The vibrations in the floor made her left knee throb. She didn’t need another reminder that the Imperial field hospital had cut her leg off below the knee to save her life. Nor that she stood on a clockwork replacement of iron, steel and bronze that had to be wound twice a day.  But the cannonball sent courtesy of the Glorious Republic of Hamill had insisted. When it rained, or when it got too cold, or when it got too hot, or when an airship powered up its engines for docking, she could feel it grind up through her hip.

The crew of The Haenlein, with goggles in place over their eyes, rode the vibrations of the powerful engines without notice. The voyage, to that point, had been as smooth as a dream. At the captain’s invitation, Aubrey has chosen to stand on the command deck, above the cargo and passenger decks. She was at the side of the open gondola to watch The Haenlein maneuver the last thousand yards into the Aqualinne docks.  The air whipped around her from all sides. Tears formed at the corners of her eyes. She hadn’t thought to ask the crew for a pair of their cumbersome goggles but refused to look away.

Contrary to popular opinion, The Haenlein is NOT named after scifi author Robert Heinlein, but rather for German engineer Paul Haenlein, the first to create a dirigible airship that was powered by an internal combustion engine.

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