How to attach and distribute suspended weight to multiple envelopes?

In my conworld I've got heavily armoured airships majestically floating through the skies with help of a science-defying lighter-than-anything material.

While I don't mind introducing a pinch of phantastium to my world, I prefer having things structurally sound and rooted in reality wherever I can. To that extent I'm doing plenty of thinking, reading up, and asking questions - such as this one on controlling altitude using my lta-material or that one on aiming flying artillery guns.

In order to promote stability-in-air, as well as for aesthetic reasons, almost all of these airships consist of two or more parallelly arranged envelopes, underslung with a substructure¹ (usually holding any facilities that rely on a good view, closeness to the ground, distance from the envelopes) - keeping the center of mass as low as possible.

As such, the weight of the central structure will have to be distributed onto the envelopes somehow. In my rather limited understanding of engineering I would imagine that a central load-bearing array of T- or Y-shaped girders should work.

Q: But is that right? Would V- or inverted-A-shapes for the girders, allowing to directly apply pull to the envelopes, be more or less efficient?

_{¹Similar to the superstructure of any seagoing vessel}

posted over 5 years ago

dot_Sp0T‭

26 reputation 46 2 3 0