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.
356
questions
-2
votes
1
answer
111
views
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 ...
- 5,194
4
votes
3
answers
418
views
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 ...
- 51
18
votes
15
answers
5k
views
How do I keep my futuristic racing hovercraft from becoming airplanes?
I'm working on a science fiction racing game that is centered around hovercraft that will race through various environments, both natural and man-made. I'm trying to establish a design language for ...
- 3,362
1
vote
1
answer
187
views
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 ...
- 154
7
votes
2
answers
682
views
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. ...
- 129
2
votes
10
answers
2k
views
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 ...
- 23.4k
4
votes
2
answers
161
views
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 ...
- 416
3
votes
3
answers
417
views
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, ...
- 426
3
votes
1
answer
88
views
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-...
- 2,575
4
votes
2
answers
218
views
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 ...
- 14.1k
4
votes
3
answers
220
views
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 ...
- 18.2k
79
votes
13
answers
16k
views
Are flying plants possible?
Is it possible for a plant to have the ability to fly?
More exactly, the plant would either need to live without having any roots (and it would never need to touch the ground), or with the ability to ...
CommunityBot
- 1
3
votes
1
answer
428
views
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&...
- 87.8k
4
votes
2
answers
2k
views
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 ...
- 141
5
votes
5
answers
2k
views
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, ...
- 1,523
20
votes
15
answers
5k
views
Would an evolutionary predecessor for winged quadrupeds start with four legs and gain wings? Or start with two legs and wings and gain extra legs?
Background
For a pair of games I am working on, I'm trying to work in a VERY basic evolutionary timeline for a lot of the more mythical creatures to set up design language of some of the creatures. ...
- 303
2
votes
5
answers
160
views
Wind Powered Air Sailing Vessel
Using just one fantastical element (a rock that under certain conditions produces a strong buoyant force) how would sail ships in the air be designed? It doesn't need to look like a traditional naval ...
- 197
55
votes
13
answers
8k
views
In a society of flying beings, would the wheel ever be invented?
The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss.
-- Douglas Adams.
Humans can't fly. Not themselves. Sure, we can climb aboard a plane, a hot air balloon, or a rocket ship. ...
- 1,087
1
vote
2
answers
286
views
Would self-flying cars fly?
OK, so an engineer solves the last technical problems of flying cars. Seeing that most of the non-technical objections against flying cars are about the ability to drive, and the fact that self-...
CommunityBot
- 1
5
votes
2
answers
130
views
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 ...
- 379
8
votes
8
answers
2k
views
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, ...
- 1,394
1
vote
6
answers
304
views
Could a helium balloon be large enough to hold up an island?
I'm wondering if it's possible to make a helium blimp large enough to hold up an island (big enough to lift the island of Nauru) at an altitude of about 4500 feet above sea level. How much helium ...
- 1,753
5
votes
1
answer
150
views
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 ...
- 1,753
5
votes
2
answers
123
views
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 ...
- 87.8k
4
votes
1
answer
142
views
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 ...
- 87.8k
-1
votes
5
answers
241
views
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 ...
- 304k
2
votes
7
answers
1k
views
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 ...
- 10.5k
9
votes
6
answers
2k
views
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 ...
- 87.8k
-4
votes
1
answer
90
views
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 ...
- 45.6k
0
votes
0
answers
31
views
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 ...
- 8,459
11
votes
3
answers
498
views
Logistics in a World of Floating Islands Sans Airships
The World
The setting is an endless sky of naught but pillowy white clouds and floating islands scattered across the skyscape. In such a world, how would the various nations, from small city-states to ...
15
votes
7
answers
3k
views
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 ...
- 3,888
11
votes
2
answers
1k
views
Can a horse-sized flying creature grab and carry a human's weight while flying?
As you know, mythical animals like the gryphon, dragon, wyvern, roc, etc can carry things as they fly.
For a big creature to fly, it either needs to massively increase the spread of their wings or ...
- 1
4
votes
4
answers
162
views
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 ...
- 112k
21
votes
18
answers
3k
views
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-...
- 179
4
votes
2
answers
142
views
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 ...
- 2,246
-1
votes
1
answer
188
views
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 ...
- 1,221
10
votes
9
answers
5k
views
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" ...
- 7,119
8
votes
3
answers
818
views
Foldable, multipart helicopter blades
What would it take to build helicopter blades that can fold in several parts?
This is the continuation of a question on Aviation. Unfortunately, there have been no use case for this for existing ...
- 31
4
votes
1
answer
149
views
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 ...
CommunityBot
- 1
1
vote
3
answers
245
views
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 ...
- 29.6k
2
votes
2
answers
135
views
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 ...
- 571
8
votes
5
answers
735
views
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 ...
- 306
6
votes
3
answers
517
views
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 ...
- 12k
8
votes
5
answers
3k
views
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 ...
- 65.6k
3
votes
2
answers
247
views
Could a creature use reptile scales to fly?
I know that feathers evolved from scales, but I was wondering if a bird could have feathers that kept the scales' "hardiness". For this scenario I want to go over a few things.
Evolution
...
14
votes
4
answers
3k
views
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 ...
- 3,034
3
votes
2
answers
274
views
Can a superhuman swim in air?
Assume the superhuman has no powers besides super strength, speed, durability and coordination.
What would be the optimal way for them to fly without any assistance?(no gadgets, suits and additional ...
- 37.4k
16
votes
8
answers
2k
views
Powering a fixed-wing aircraft in the upper Venusian atmosphere
I am writing a short story about a fighter pilot on Venus, I was advised on my other post to break up the post into multiple others.
What are viable methods to power a fixed-wing aircraft in the upper ...
- 1,017
5
votes
3
answers
2k
views
Is my character's wingspan designed well?
My question is simply whether my character as shown in the picture,
Would it be able to fly and
Would it look believable if it did fly?
I have seen similar posts but all refer to wing types more ...
- 15.9k