This image is a personal project created for the "Medieval Airport" competition over at Renderocity. The idea of the competition was what if flight had been invented during the Medieval era? What would the vehicles look like, how would they work, what would an airport look like, etc.

My concept centered around the idea of utilizing the natural forces available in the environment: the lift of hot air, the momentum of running water, the updraft of a canyon wall. The vehicles in this concept are a cross between a hot air balloon and an old sailing ship, and the idea is that hot air would provide lift and the propellers would provide thrust and maneuverability. The smaller vehicles would carry passengers and would be able to land at various towers around the complex, the heavier cargo vessels would land in the water and drift down to the load/unload dock. Once the cranes hand loaded the cargo ships, the would be let loose to run down stream gathering momentum, and as they ran off the edge of the waterfall and updraft would further assist in getting heavy load airborne. Similar to a modern-day aircraft carrier, two launching areas could accommodate a constant stream of traffic.

A quick animated version is available to view here: http://www.brinda.com/posts/MedievalAirport.mov