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So, I've been working a custom vehicles ruleset for a while, kind of an update to the one in some such old IA volume.While going through it, I think I've found a vehicle classification that needs to be made: Airships. Here's what I've got so far.

There are three classes of airships:
-Stationary: This is things such as tethered balloons. They are immobile. Stationary airships may have 1-4 hull points, any weaponry, and any armor values. Stationary airships are subject to the "Tethered" rule. Stationary airships may not purchase transport capacity.
-Ponderous: This is for larger airships with more mass. They are easier to control, and pack more weaponry. They have 3-4 hull points, armor total minimum of 34, may purchase any transport capacity, and have unrestricted weaponry selections. Ponderous Airships may move 6" a turn.
-Swift: Swift airships are lighter and more agile, but less controllable, and cannot carry heavy fire power. Swift airships may move up to 12", but are subject to the "Drift" rule. They have 1-2 hull points, armor total max of 34, may purchase transport capacity up to 12, and may only carry light weapons mounts. (light weapon mounts are a limitation being built into my vehicle design rules, they will exclude certain weapons, such as battle cannons in order to attempt to balance the building rules)

Airships and movement: In the movement phase, an Airship may move up to it's maximum movement distance straight forward, after which they may pivot to any facing. This represent the slowed response of airships and the effects of inertia. If an Airship is subject to Drift, then Drift occurs after pivoting.

Airships as transports:
-Models follow all standard rules for vehicle disembarkation.
-Any models may begin the game in an Airship, but only Jump Pack and Jet Pack infantry may embark upon an Airship after the game has started.
-The entry point for an Airship is anywhere in contact with its base.
-If fire points are purchased, models may fire from an airship, however will always count as stationary.
-Models firing from an airship may choose to use the "skyfire" USR.

Airships and assaulting:
-Airships may only be assaulted by Jump Pack and Jet Pack infantry.
-Airships are assault vehicles.
-Jump Pack and Jet Pack infantry may assault from one Airship into another. Use the rules for assaulting room to room.

Airships and shooting:
Airships have two types of weapon mounts: Air to air (ATA), and air to ground (ATG).
-ATA mounts may only fire at airborne objects such as airships, Fliers, Flying monstrous creatures and fliers in hover mode. They do at full BS (as having skyfire).
-ATA mounts may never use blast, large blast, or template weapons, and must purchase firing arcs as per vehicle design rules. My design rules make you purchase the mounts on weapons, hopefully adding balance)
-ATG mounts may only fire at ground targets. This includes skimmers, but not fliers in hover mode.
-ATG mounts always have a 360* arc of fire. ATG treat all blast and large blast as Barrage weapons.
-Flame templates emanate from the airships base, with the exception of templates with a range (like the hellhound).

Special rules:
-Tethered: a stationary airship is considered to be tethered in place, be it by cables, gravity tethers, or a chain of Grots holding on for dear life. The airships tether may be assaulted/rammed. It is counted as being a 9/9/9 immobile vehicle with 1 hull point. It is immune to all shooting attacks. If the tether is severed the airship may no longer contest objectives, and is subject to "Drift" and "Uncontrolled".
-Drift: Airships are slow to react, and subject to the forces of inertia. In the movement phase, after the airship has moved and pivoted, roll a scatter die and 1D6. Move the airship the distance and direction indicated on the dice. Drift movement does not count as the airships movement.
-Uncontrolled: The airships engines are out, but it stays aloft. An airship is uncontrolled if it has broken from it Tether (if stationary) or if it suffers an immobilized result (Ponderous and Swift). The airship is subject to "Drift", and now determines its facing by rolling a second scatter die: roll the second die, and pivot the airships front facing in the direction indicated on the die.


That's what I have so far. Any feedback?

So... you are basically making not fliers, using the not the rules for fliers? It seems like you are just adding excessive complexity when working more closely with the existing rules for fliers could provide better results. For example, some of the changes I would make are as follows:

Uncontrolled: This is removed in favor of a changed drift.
Drift: At the start of your movement phase, for each vehicle with drift, roll a D6 and a scatter die. Move the vehicle that many inches in the direction of the scatter die. If the vehicle is also immobile, it rotates so that its front facing is facing in the direction rolled on the scatter die.

Stationary Airships: They count as fliers, however, they are hit on a result of a 5+ instead of a 6+ (unless you would normally require a worse result to hit, such as if you were snap firing) and can't jink. They are Immobile and subject to the Tethered special rule.
Ponderous: Ponderous Airships count as fliers. However, they have a maximum move of 6", no minimum move, they are hit on a 5+ instead of a 6+, and can't jink.
Swift: Swift Airships are fliers that may only move up to 12", have no minimum movement, and can't jink.

Airship Movement: Unchanged, except that Drift applies before movement. (Drifting won't make you go where you don't want to, even primitive cultures figured out how to counteract it. It does, however, make it harder to get to where you want).

Airships as Transports: Models disembarking from Airships count as doing so if they were fliers in hover mode.
In order for a model to embark on an airship, that Airship may have moved no more than 6" during its turn. However, if a model does, the Airship is hit with regular ballistic skill during your opponents next turn. This represents the airship slowing down for a landing to pick up troops.

Airships and Assault: Airships can not be assaulted as per the rules for fliers.
Jump Infantry and Jetpack infantry may assault out of an airship as if it had the assault vehicle rule.
Jump and Jetback Infantry may attempt to damage an enemy airship as they disembark from their vehicle. To do so, first declare an enemy airship within 12" of your airship. Then roll for assault from the airship as if you were assaulting with jump infantry using their jump packs (3D6, drop the lowest). If the charge is unsuccessful, immediately disembark the squad in base contact with the airship, they didn't have the distance to make it to the vehicle. If the charge is successful, each mode in the unit gets to make 1 close combat attack with any of their weapons, hitting on a 4+. Then place them in base contact with the enemy airship.

So my big changes are:
Jump and Jet Infantry can no longer assault Airships. Typically jump and jet packs are for short bursts and controlled descents rather than outright flight. While they have the power to guide a marine or Crisis suit down from orbit, they don't have the power to propel them up high enough to hit a blimp. A few other changes are also based around this, since you seem to be severely over-estimating the power provided by jump/jet packs.
Airships are now only assault vehicles for jump and jet infantry. Regular Infantry would be fairly disoriented after dropping from an airship, whereas Jump and Jet Infantry would be able to make a more 'dynamic' entry, due to their controlled descent.
Airships are now somewhat hard to hit. This represents the distance the ships are above the battlefield, making it difficult to accurately fire on a slow moving target. However, it is easier to hit a non-fast airship than a flying, so this is represented by a 5+ to hit instead of a 6+.
Uncontrolled: This rule was just unwieldy and made little sense when combined with drift. I just cut it and changed drift so that it accounted for both controlled and uncontrolled drifting.

Other than that, it looks fine. While I at first found it odd that an advance race would use the equivalent of a blimp when they have access to fighter jets and space craft, I then remembered that it is 40k, a universe where the most advanced warriors of humanity have extremely impractical shoulder armor and the most populous race in the galaxy are essentially a hybrid of gorillas and Manchester United fans during a riot painted green who regularly give physics and logic the middle finger while racing around in a turbocharged shopping card painted red. So in short, take my suggestions into consideration, and carry on.

The presence of airships on the battle field is not entirely unusual, currently the US military uses blimps for observation, and I was also intending to cover airborne support platforms, hoping to work in literally flying battleships, though those would be some kind of flying superheavy.

I'm an old Battletech and Shadowrun player, so I have a tendency to move more toward the complicated side of things. As such, I really appreciate the input.

I do like your suggestions to airship movement, and assaulting to/from airships. You input here will heavily influence my next draft. Especially the scrapping "Uncontrolled".

I dunno, given that the standard Anti-aircraft weapon of the Imperium is an automatic tank cannon I'm not sure that a slow moving and ginormous blimp would last very long. A zeppelin would make more sense given that they're vastly more durable and can survive most anything short of being blasted apart as long as they loaded with flammable substances.

But it'd be quite interesting, even if I am left going "how did that thing get to the battlefield without a Harpy flying in and cutting it open?" Whenever one faces my Tyranid army.