Questions tagged [flight]
For questions related to the act or process of flying through an atmosphere. Includes any means of propelling oneself through the atmosphere of a world, including biological or technological. Does not include flight outside an atmosphere (compare [space-travel]). Compare [aircraft] and [airships], which are about the machines themselves.
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Is it possible for a flying superhuman to avoid detection in todays society?
I have a supervillain in my story that can fly at speeds up to Mach 2. For obvious reasons, this character does not want to be detected while flying. However, I am facing writer's block and cannot ...
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Could a wingsuit using fans be made with our current technology?
Like the MCU's Vulture, could we create a wingsuit utilizing bladed fans for flight? Elsewhere I've looked says it's a problem with the power source, but if that were taken care of, could the rest of ...
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Leftover fallen world technologies [closed]
My fantasy novels are set in a world that reached WWI era technology in the distant past, but used magic in place of electricity and combustions. For complicated reasons, the magic stopped working, ...
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Requirements for a mile-high hot air balloon flight
I want my world to have balloons that can fly at least 6,000 feet high. However, I’m not sure that my world’s level of technology would be able to make such a thing feasible. So, what materials, ...
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Could an electrokinetic superhero use lightning to fly
I have a character in my story with the ability to control and generate electricity . I am trying to make this story somewhat realistic so their ability works by sending a high voltage high current ...
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Could an azhdarchid pterosaur take off and fly while being ridden by a human?
Could humans theoretically ride any of the largest azhdarchid pterosaurs, assuuming a wingspan of about 10.5m and weight of about 200-250kg for the largest azhdarchids such as Hatzegopteryz or ...
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Air drafts generated by dragonflight
So, I am working on a project of mine, and have been considering the effects that dragons have in flight upon the air around them. Right now, assume these dragons are perfectly capable of flight, with ...
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Under what circumstances could this dragon-like creature carry a human? [closed]
Can a draconic or pterosaur-like flying creature weighing about 1-1.5 times that of an average human carry a human through the air for a distance of about 10 miles? If not, what atmospheric and/or ...
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How would these floating plants not need to constantly adjust their gas bladder?
I am currently building a planet that weighs about 4 earth masses and it's radius is 2.3 times larger than that of earth's. It is an ammonia planet (as the title suggests), and has ammonia oceans with ...
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How would these floating plants concentrate neon?
I am currently building a planet that weighs about 4 earth masses and it's radius is 2.3 larger than that of earth's. It is an ammonia planet (as the title suggests), and has ammonia oceans with some ...
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Do humans have sufficient internal energy for the power of flight? [closed]
A meta-human, let's call him "Arnim", possesses the power of flight. In accordance with Einstein's law of conservation of energy, this superpower does not draw power from nothing or some ...
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Feasibility of organic winged flight on 4g planet
Premise
This is somewhat of a follow up to an earlier question of mine. Taking the premise of that very large, ~4g planet, and set the case that complex life does develop on it, there are some ...
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What are some logistic of mounts can also fly and swim?
So I have this dragon thingy named Kebera in my vampire-demon(?)-dragon world, that Zerk/'Gutsy' and Tincan 1000/TK-1000/TK, a human and small robot respectfully, ride upon.
Kebera can of coarse walk ...
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How could I redesign my dragons to have 6 limbs and still be able to fly?
In a previous post, I asked about dragons in my stories and how I could make it plausible for them to fly while also meeting the criteria of having 6 limbs and being 15 to 20 feet long when fully ...
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How do you make a metallic bonded compound stay liquid? Necessary for flying vehicles [closed]
I have a fuel that has a lot of metallic bonds but I need it as a liquid to be used in engines. Otherwise I have to figure out how to use a solid fuel in the air non-rocket style. It reacts with water ...
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The Evolution of Flight by Six-Limbed Vertebrates
Among Tetrapods, flight has mainly evolved three times. Firstly among the Pterosaurs - on the front limbs. Then among the Birds - on the front limbs. And finally by bats - mostly dealing with front ...
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What muscles would get sore if humans had wings and could fly?
I'm intrigued by the idea of humans with feathered wings as a 6th appendage, but with prolonged flight, if such a thing were actually possible for humans naturally as it is in my book, I'm not sure ...
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Is this Wingspan Enough/Necessary for My World's Parameters?
I have a species of sapient humanoids in my world capable of flight using 24 foot wide wings. The world's being used for a science-fantasy world, so I'd like some realism, but some can be handwaved. ...
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Can this animal glide?
I'm designing an animal that's kind of like a draco lizard that has evolved to be semi-bipedal like a theropod but is still maintaining its ability to glide. On the real draco, the wings are elongated ...
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Is it possible for rockets to exist in a world that is only in the early stages of developing jet aircraft?
More specifically, is it possible for rocket engines comparable to those of the mid 1960s to exist in a world where in atmosphere jet engines are only in their early stages of development?
This world ...
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How would having decent/good/great ability to fly naturally affect a species air, land, and water vehicle creation and usage?
I had posted a similar question about this not too long ago, only it was just asking about aircraft. It got closed for whatever reason. I am asking a similar question, because I realized that air-...
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Wing positioning for this hexapodal wyvern-like creature?
Which pair of limbs should the wings be attached to for this bio-engineered creature? (A or B) The creature itself does not have a set weight and is built to fight other similarly sized creatures. It ...
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How advanced and/or important would aircraft be for a species capable naturally of decent to good flight? [closed]
I am wondering how a species capable naturally/supernaturally(with limits) of decent to good flight, i.e capable of flying for hours and possibly can hover, would treat aircraft like passenger jets ...
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Could a 1-2 foot tall (30-60 cm tall) human fly with giant artificial insect wings attached to their back?
I'm creating a sub-race of extremely short and technologically advanced humans in my book. These humans, which are dubbed 'faeren' or 'faeries' have created backpacks that have insect wings attached ...
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How or would these mechanical wings work?
I have a character with 2 pairs of mechanical engined wings and I have been wondering if they’d even work or what would be the best type of wings for this character. They’re a military fighter, ...
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How much lift would this multi-winged flying ship generate at 100 kph?
I would ask on aviation, but since this is a hypothetical aircraft, it isn't allowed there.
Context:
In this alternate history dieselpunk world there are the military branch of the "aeronavy&...
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Two sets of fins, two different functions?
Let's say you had a fish analogy organism in the oceans of an alien world. Assuming it's ancestry allows for more the number of limbs, would it be possible for it to have one set of fins for swimming ...
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What is the best engine type for linear acceleration?
Linear Acceleration: A form of transit in space flight where a spacecraft points toward a destination and accelerates for half of the distance it needs to travel, then decelerates for the other half, ...
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What would the aerodynamics of ships sailing on clouds look like (and thus their design)?
I'm currently working on a TTRPG setting where there is an ocean of caustic clouds surrounding the continents instead of a regular ocean. Tech level is roughly Age of Sail with some deviations due to ...
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What should be the "golden ratio" for lifting on a land glider?
Following the comment suggestions, I changed the question from directly asking for real world examples to this.
Context:
In this setting, some decades after the 2020's, earth had some climatic ...
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With infinite propellant, would a solid offer more thrust than say a liquid or gas?
I've been refining the design and inner workings of my spaceships lately and one thing I've been asking myself was what propellant would work best. I needed my ships to travel astronomical distances ...
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How can we make dumbfire rockets more accurate?
I am using rockets as a main weapons platform for my vehicles. Currently they are fired from a railgun like apparatus. A rocket is at the center of three rails arranged in the fashion of a triangle. A ...
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What could a flying vehicle possess that enables it to move in all direction?
So I was wondering what a flying vehicle could possess that would enable it to move in all directions at almost any angle. For example it could move upward diagonally while upside down, crazy stuff ...
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Is lighter-than-air flight possible in animals? [duplicate]
Is it possible for a human to be genetically altered to be able to fly, but instead of wings, they use internal cavities filled with a lighter-than-air gas (possibly hydrogen) which, paired with ...
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Is it possible for a plane to be fast yet strong enough to be able to pierce a plane in the air?
Is it possible for a plane to be able to pierce a plane in the air?
These planes is ejected from another plane which acts as a fuel hub for the other planes. These little planes are small, yet has an ...
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What kind of tactical situation/s would be best approached with trained jetpack pilots?
I'm writing a story where there's a civil war fought by people with weapons and technology based on 50s experimentals, kind of like a subtle "What-if" aesthetic.
How can I manipulate what ...
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At what point do you release aircraft from an orbital lander
So I have a definitely-useful-definitely-not-way-too-big-mega-size-orbital-lander(tm) that is making planetfall. Some of the goods and passengers aren't that important and can be risked by unloading ...
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How would one go about designing a carrier sailing ship for flying mounts? [duplicate]
Specifically, I am looking for a good design for a sailing ship with circa 17th century Earth technology that can carry a large swath of flying animals ridden by very small humanoids. The animals ...
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What fighting style/martial arts, techniques etc. would work well for flying people? [closed]
Like in dragon ball, people can just levitate and defy gravity to move freely through the air. What techniques, methods, martial arts, and principles would be the most practical in a battleground ...
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Antiballast for flying ship
Your miners find some strange stones - they float to the ceiling of mines.
With those stones you can easily build an airship - just fill a sleek wooden hull with them and give the rowers some wing-...
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How much energy would it take to keep a floating city aloft?
My fantasy novel features a floating city. I wanted to know how much energy (joules/second) it would take to keep a floating city aloft, but the definition of joules has "distance displaced" ...
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Is there any plausible way for a creature to fly in the way characters like superman does? [duplicate]
I'm making a superhero comic a little more grounded in reality. One of the characters in it is a genetically modified soldier who has abilities very similar to superman. How would such a character fly ...
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Shape for injector spikes that provide the best seal
In the near-future story I'm working on the protagonist is prepared for a wide range of possibilities, including getting outnumbered and surrendered.
For that possibility i though about a Banshee Box ...
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Size cap of vertebrate fliers on "Flyers' World" (10atm, 0.5g)
On Earth, unlike what's often claimed, the largest current flying birds don't approach the size limit for flight with Earthly biology. Quetzalcoatlus might be getting close to the limit, though. A big ...
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Could human-powered aircraft be practical on a low gravity world?
On a world with a third of Earth’s surface gravity, with an atmosphere with the same pressure, makeup, and temperature as Earth’s, could pedal powered aircraft be a viable and easy method of ...
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How fast can this guy safely fly?
I have a character that has powerful psychic abilites, these enable him to, among otherthings fly at high speeds and create transparent forcefields. However since these force fields are transparent, ...
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Heated Hydrogen Zeppelin Cells
(Before I begin, I would like to assure everyone present that, yes, I'm fully aware of the lunacy of this idea.)
Let us assume this takes place on a parallel Earth sometime in the early 1900s, during ...
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Evolution of flying animals on a windy planet
I'm thinking about the evolution of flight on a tidally locked planet where winds normally are 70 km/h (45 km/h) and can easily reach 120 km/h (75 mph). I've recently asked about clothes humans wear ...
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What's a reasonable timeframe for civilian survivors to learn how to fly a helicopter on their own?
Post-Apocalyptic modern world, a group of civilian survivors about three dozen in number find themselves trapped in a military base. They have no way out except by air.
The military base has a dozen ...
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If a dragon could fly without magical assistance, how much force could a dragon exert in directed air attacks using the force of its wings?
I plan to have dragons in my fantasy setting and wanted to figure out just how much force their wings would need to generate in order for them to fly.
Rules for dragons in this setting:
Dragons, and ...
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