Regarding the airship, I upgraded the forecastle. We should update the sails next, as the forecastle gave us a speed hit, which has made the voyages noticeably longer. However, the enterprise sails require level 54 leatherworking I believe, plus a couple of other classes over 50. Plus my wallet took a hit on the last two upgrades. Definitely on the to-do list, just not sure how quickly it will be done. I will check the requirements for the components one tier below enterprise, because it would be nice to at least get some upgrade to the last two components. That way, we could outfit a second airship with the 4 bronco parts we have (and call it Shera?).
At any rate, I am sending the ship out to the sectors we need to unlock more sectors, and eventually Diadem (Hard). No luck on a sector unlock yet though. The airship guide states that people have figured out the unlocks are around a 1 in 3 chance, so I guess I am just getting unlucky.