How to Install Create Aeronautics on Your Minecraft Server (Airships Guide)

Your players have been building Create contraptions for months — conveyor belts, mechanical drills, entire automated factories. But every time someone asks "can we make this thing fly?", the answer has been a disappointing workaround involving minecart elevators or piston launchers that barely work.

That changed this week. Create Aeronautics hit Modrinth with a stable 1.0 release, adding proper airship mechanics to the Create ecosystem. Players can now build propeller-driven aircraft, hot air balloons, and wheeled vehicles that actually behave like vehicles — with physics, altitude control, and multi-passenger support.

If you run a Create server, your players are going to ask for this. Here's how to install it, configure it for multiplayer, and keep your TPS from tanking when someone builds a 500-block flying fortress.

What Create Aeronautics Actually Adds

Create Aeronautics extends the contraption system from Create to support flying and driving machines. The core additions:

Propellers and Rotors — Attach these to a Create rotation source (windmill, water wheel, mechanical bearing) and they generate lift or thrust depending on orientation. Larger propellers mean more force, but also more stress on your rotational network.

Altitude Controllers — Blocks that let players set a target altitude. The airship rises or descends automatically to reach it. Without one, your airship just drifts.

Gondola Blocks — Passenger seating and helm controls. The player at the helm steers; passengers come along for the ride.

Wheels and Axles — For ground vehicles. Same physics system, different application. Your players can build trucks, tanks, or anything with wheels that actually rolls.

Balloons and Lifting Gas — Hot air balloons and helium cells provide passive lift. Combine with propellers for hybrid airships, or go full Hindenburg aesthetic (minus the fire, hopefully).

The physics simulation runs server-side, which is why server configuration matters. A single airship with 50 blocks is fine. Ten players each flying 200-block battleships at the same time? That's where things get interesting.

Requirements Before You Start

Create Aeronautics is an addon, not a standalone mod. Your server needs the base Create mod installed and working before you add Aeronautics.

If you're not sure which mod loader to pick, see our comparison of Paper, Purpur, Fabric, and Forge. For Create mods specifically, you'll need Forge or NeoForge — Create's Fabric port exists but has different addon compatibility.

RAM Recommendations

Create contraptions already consume more memory than vanilla Minecraft. Aeronautics adds physics calculations on top of that. Here's what to expect:

These numbers assume you're already running Create with typical factory builds. If your server is RAM-constrained, you'll want to limit airship complexity in the config (covered below).

For a deeper breakdown of memory allocation, check the Minecraft server RAM guide.

Installing Create Aeronautics on Your Server

This walkthrough assumes you already have a Forge or NeoForge server running with the base Create mod. If you're starting from scratch, set up Create first — the process is the same, just add Create Aeronautics as an additional mod.

Step 1: Download the Mod Files

Go to the Create Aeronautics page on Modrinth. Download the version that matches your Minecraft version and mod loader. As of this writing, that's version 1.0.3 for Minecraft 1.21.1 on NeoForge.

You'll get a single .jar file.

Step 2: Upload to Your Server

If you're on Swelis: Open your server's control panel at hosting.swelis.com, go to the File Manager, navigate to the mods folder, and upload the .jar file. Done.

If you're using FTP: Connect to your server with your FTP client, navigate to the mods directory, and upload the file there.

If you're on a VPS or dedicated box: Use scp, rsync, or your preferred file transfer method to copy the jar into your server's mods folder.

Step 3: Check Dependency Order

Create Aeronautics depends on Create, which depends on Flywheel (bundled), which depends on your mod loader's core libraries. The mod loader handles dependency resolution automatically — you don't need to worry about load order.

But version mismatches will crash your server on startup. Double-check:

• Your Create version supports your Minecraft version
• Your Create Aeronautics version supports your Create version
• Your mod loader version is compatible with all of the above

The Modrinth page for Create Aeronautics lists compatible Create versions. If you're getting startup crashes with "missing dependency" or "version mismatch" errors, this is almost always the cause.

Step 4: Restart and Verify

Restart your server. Watch the console during startup for any errors. A successful load looks like:

[Server thread/INFO]: Create Aeronautics v1.0.3 loaded

Connect to your server and run /mods or open the mod list (depending on your setup) to confirm Aeronautics is active.

Step 5: Tell Your Players

Your players need to install the same mod on their clients. This is true for all Forge/NeoForge mods — the client and server must have matching mod versions.

If you want to simplify this, consider packaging your server's mod list as a modpack. See our modpack manager guide for how to distribute a CurseForge or Modrinth pack that players can install with one click.

Server Config Tweaks for Airships

Out of the box, Create Aeronautics uses sensible defaults. But "sensible" assumes a small server where players aren't pushing the physics engine to its limits. Here are the configs that actually matter.

Create Contraption Settings

Create itself has contraption limits that affect airships. Find these in config/create-common.toml (or the equivalent for your Create version):

# Maximum blocks in a single contraption
maxBlocksInContraption = 256

# Maximum distance a contraption can move before being forced to stop
maxContraptionMovement = 64

For airship-heavy servers, consider lowering maxBlocksInContraption to something like 128 or 64. This prevents players from building flying cities that bog down the physics engine.

The maxContraptionMovement setting affects how far a contraption can travel in one movement cycle. For airships that cross the map, you may want to raise this — but higher values mean more chunk loading and more physics calculations.

Aeronautics-Specific Settings

Create Aeronautics adds its own config file, typically at config/create-aeronautics-common.toml. Key settings:

# Physics tick rate (lower = less CPU, choppier movement)
physicsTickRate = 20

# Maximum airships active per player
maxAirshipsPerPlayer = 3

# Maximum total airships server-wide
maxAirshipsTotal = 20

If your server has TPS issues when multiple airships are flying, reduce physicsTickRate to 10 or even 5. The movement will be less smooth, but CPU usage drops significantly.

The per-player and total airship limits are your main protection against someone spawning a fleet of airships and killing server performance. Tune these based on your player count and hardware.

Chunk Loading Behavior

Moving contraptions in Create cause chunk loading as they travel. An airship flying across the map loads chunks along its path. This is intentional — otherwise the airship would freeze when it enters unloaded chunks.

But aggressive chunk loading hurts performance. If airships are causing chunk-related lag, check:

1. View distance in server.properties — lower values mean fewer chunks loaded
2. Simulation distance — affects how far entities (including contraption passengers) are simulated
3. Force-loaded chunk limits — some Create configs limit how many chunks a contraption can force-load

For detailed lag diagnosis, see how to fix Minecraft server lag.

Troubleshooting Common Issues

Server Crashes on Startup

"Missing dependency: create" — You don't have Create installed, or the version doesn't match. Download Create from Modrinth or CurseForge and make sure the version is compatible with Create Aeronautics.

"Unsupported mod loader version" — Your Forge or NeoForge version is too old (or occasionally too new). Check the Aeronautics mod page for the supported loader versions.

"java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: flywheel/..." — You have an old version of Create that requires a separate Flywheel download, or a mod version mismatch. Update Create to 0.5.1+ where Flywheel is bundled.

Airships Don't Render for Players

Players see the blocks but not the assembled contraption? This is usually a client-side issue:

• Player needs to install Create Aeronautics on their client
• Version mismatch between client and server mods
• Outdated graphics drivers causing Flywheel rendering to fail

Have the player check their Minecraft log for Flywheel errors. Updating GPU drivers often fixes rendering issues.

Physics Desync (Airship Position Different for Different Players)

Physics desync happens when the server and clients disagree about where a contraption is. Causes:

• High latency — Players with 200ms+ ping will see desync during rapid maneuvers
• Server TPS drops — If the server can't keep up, physics calculations lag behind
• Too many airships — Reduce the airship limits in config

There's no complete fix for physics desync in a multiplayer physics simulation. Lowering the physics tick rate actually helps with consistency (at the cost of smoothness) because there are fewer opportunities for client-server state to diverge.

TPS Tanks When Airships Fly

Check what's actually causing the lag:

1. Run /tps or /spark profiler to get a performance breakdown
2. Look for entries related to Create, contraptions, or physics
3. If contraption ticking is the culprit, lower physics tick rate and block limits

Also consider whether the lag correlates with chunk loading. An airship crossing into new territory loads chunks; if your storage is slow, this causes lag spikes.

Airships Fall Through the Ground

This happens when the physics engine can't calculate collisions fast enough — usually during TPS drops or with extremely complex contraptions. Solutions:

• Reduce contraption size limits
• Ensure adequate server RAM
• Avoid building airships with thin, complex collision shapes

Backup Before Experimenting

Physics mods can cause world corruption if something goes wrong during a crash. Before your players start building airships, make sure you have working backups.

On Swelis, automatic backups run on a schedule — but take a manual backup before enabling a new mod like this. Go to your control panel, hit the Backup tab, and create a snapshot. If something breaks, you can restore in a few clicks.

For backup strategy details, see backup strategies for game servers.

Quick Reference

Related Guides

• Paper, Purpur, Fabric, or Forge? How to Pick Server Software — Understand the mod loader landscape before installing Create
• One-Click Modpack Install: Search, Click, Play — Distribute your Create + Aeronautics setup to players
• Minecraft Server RAM Guide — Size your server correctly for physics-heavy mods
• How to Fix Minecraft Server Lag — Diagnose and fix TPS issues from contraptions
• Backup Strategies for Game Servers — Protect your world before adding experimental mods