Inventors and scientists were especially inventive during the steam age and The Defiance, a steam powered airship, is a great example of that. This model is an authentic copy of an innovative prototype built from gigantic gourds which were discovered in the late 1800s deep in the Amazon Jungle. These amazing seed pods grew from vines hanging from the top of some of the tallest trees in the jungle and reached almost to the ground. As they dried out they became extremely light but maintained their strength and when filled with a blend of lighter than air gases made an ideal envelope for medium sized airships.
This prototype was originally built to tow the blank gourds from the jungle to an airship factory in Brazil and the gondola was based on a small sailing ship so that it could land on the Amazon River while the newly harvested gourd was collected, filled with gas and hitched to the waiting airship. Two steam engines drove the airship with one supplying power to the rear paddle unit and the other supplying steam to a turbine which drove the envelope’s propeller and steering mechanism via piping hidden in the supporting cables.
Collecting and delivering these giant gourds was not without its hazards and the envelope on this ship has patches covering bullet holes after an attack from a rival airship company.
The airship on which this model is based was the last one left flying after an American fast food company destroyed the gourd vines and their host trees in the early part of the 20th Century.
(Rumours of its destruction after colliding with a flock of flying pigs were never confirmed.)
