While there might still be a place for kites, if the levs world developed into WW1, they are cheap and can scout, but few planes in WW1 had much bomb capacity and fewer had the ability to climb rapidly at high altitudes. I am still waiting to see what top operational ceiling is on these things, I thought that the documentation stated that it was limited by the voltage generated, but I believe that it took fighters hours to get up to the levels of the better zeppelins, if they could make it at all. Forced induction for piston engines wasn't common until WWII and that is really what gave them the ability to perform at altitude. As far as AA guns, some research into the heavy AA guns of WW1 might be necessary, I don't think they got much beyond the 6". The issue with more common existing ground based 16" guns is that they would be naval rifles and used like they were at sea, you really wouldn't want to shoot one straight up. If mounted on a railway carriage, you'd never get a sufficient recoil pit underneath it. A battery of permanent ones would be expensive, require a huge crew and support installation, and be a really easy target. Their rate of fire and ability to engage multiple targets would be sort of limited and, well, they wouldn't be able to move, making them a tempting target once you achieve high enough flight, or you just go around them, like Maginot. I still think that the best lev defense is another lev. On the troop transport front, I have been envisioning, assuming the electric lev material doesn't need to be recycled, something along the lines of the WW2 APD conversions of destroyers, some armament and or some boiler room space was removed to provide space to rapidly insert ground troops to a situation. I also think that it is a bit naive to think that a lev would be armored like a ship because it looks like one, I can't imagine that they would not have armor on their undersides.
