Design: Alsamma Safina [6-1, 3-2, 4]
After some quick math showed we'd need nearly 200 War Pegasi to get a single Sirocco off the ground water, we quickly set about stripping off unneeded parts of the ship. No need for sails, after all. And with no sails, we don't need any masts. Only the bottom of the ship needs to be armored, so we strip the Adamantium off the deck. Rudders don't really work in the air, so that goes too. And without a rudder, we really don't need a steering wheel, either.
The end result is a pretty bare hull, deck, ballista, and basic crew quarters, and we still need an obscene number of very-expensive War Pegasi to keep it up. The crew is entirely made up of mages; Apprentices work the ballista and Wizards constantly re-enchant the carpets. It's exhausting work, and being idle for more than a few minutes sees the air ship begin to lose altitude and (if even possible) speed. It's slow, difficult to turn (as all the carpets need to move in unison) and debilitatingly expensive. As a matter of fact, al-Mutriqa is the only one who can keep so many carpets working together in unison, let alone constantly re-enchanted.
Despite these draw-backs, the Alsamma Safina promises to be devastatingly effective. The deck-mounted ballista still can't shoot down, but it can shoot horizontally. The increased starting height gives the weapon range that would normally be considered Beyond Line-Of-Sight, were it on the ground. Being able to actually see where it hits despite the range gives it yet another advantage. At closer-range, the Alsamma Safina can drop its fire-storm ammunition overboard onto the enemy below, or the mages on board could instead use their Wands of Thunderbolts. The lack of spare lifting capacity means the mages are without guards to fight any intercepting falcons, but standing on a deck should make it slightly easier to fight them off.
The War Pegasi are all kept below-deck, away from the rain, sun, or attacking falcons. There is a lengthy debate about the ethics of keeping War Pegasi tied up in the dark, but ultimately it's decided that they're just carpets and not actual, living things. National Effort.