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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What would humans wings need to be like to fly? [duplicate]
How would it work for a human to have wings and how would they be able to fly?
What wings would make the most sense, feathered, webbed etc.? How would it make sense for it to connect to their own ...
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Humans can now fly. What happens to the transportation industry?
Let's pretend for a moment that right now, everybody on earth was given the ability of flight. What impact would this have on the modern-day transportation industry?
Physical restrictions on the ...
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Humans can now fly. What new laws are created?
Let's pretend for a moment that, right now, everybody on Earth was given the ability of flight. What new legislation would have to be passed to regulate this ability?
Physical restrictions on the ...
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Inflation-powered flying creature [closed]
Note primarily that this is not a duplicate of Jet Powered Animals.
Note also that this is a suspend-disbelief question. I am not asking why you think this can't happen.
I am building a world of ...
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Wing-design for a Bird that Needs No Lift
Due to a reason that we don't need to get into (or explain), some large birds have developed the ability to float. There is no scientific explanation to how they can float, it's just happened and we ...
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Evolution of giant floating mammals
Whales are majestic creatures of the sea, as they glide more gracefully through the water than their size should seemingly allow.
What kind of evolutionary path would it take for whales to glide ...
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What could be the physics behind witches flying on broomsticks?
Using our world's physics, how could one explain the mechanics behind a witch on a broomstick? Not just the propelling part, but even the most basic fact - sitting on a broomstick - seems problematic: ...
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How would Angelic and Demonic Flight work? [duplicate]
The common conception of angels and demons is of humanoids with wings on their back. But in my story, angels and demons operate in 'nonmagical' ways; there are no 'spells' or any 'charms' in this ...
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Spitfires in Space! or Aircraft inside a Rotating Habitat
Lets say we have a huge cigar shaped habitat, filled with a breathable atmosphere, and rotating on one axis at the right speed to have about 1 'g' of acceleration on the inside surface.
To give the ...
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What would sports look like if human beings could fly?
In a world where every human can fly, what would a popular sport look like? What would be the goals, the main rules and the necessary equipment?
To be precise about human capabilities:
Flying is a ...
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Flying Bike: Pilot Masks
In the same vein as my other question about flying bikes, I want the bike pilots to wear high-tech customized masks which give them important details about their situation as a HUD type thing. What ...
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Flying Bike: Steering
Ok, so I'm making a setting where people have colonized various objects in the solar system and out of it. One thing I know I want to include to flesh it out a bit* is a sport for low-gravity ...
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Great Flying Cthulhu
I know, it sounds like a geek swearing at Windows 8 on his work-owned computer. But actually I was just reading Peter Clines (Fold and then had to order 14 for instant delivery), and when I got to ...
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High-Altitude Life?
So here’s the rough idea. I’m trying to figure out what kind of life could exist that spends basically its entire life in the air, for an alien world I’m working on. No sentient life, just wilderness. ...
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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-...
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Designing a traffic system for flying cars
Well folks, 2015 has come and gone, and we still don't have widely-available flying cars. While there is some promising work being done on "flying cars", which are more like road-capable airplanes, it ...
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What if Santa does not want Norad to track him?
The North American Aerospace Defense Command track Santa Claus' position each year as he delivers presents. Santa has mostly been cool with this (it's made him a little nervous in the past), but he's ...
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Accidental invention of gliding
So I'm writing a thing about the adventures of a guy living in an alternate history version of Earth in the 15th century, where a genius invents hot air balloons in the 14th century, along with ...
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Under what parameters can my 'rocketeer' survive?
Assumptions for the story:
The rocket pack is not unlike the scenario of the movie when I was little, "Rocketeer," in terms of viability. I have hand-waved it in my story.
The rocket pack should be ...
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Could you fly airplanes on Jupiter?
Perhaps you've flown in a plane on an especially cloudy day when all you can see are clouds beneath and above you. It's a beautiful sight, strata'd white all around. So what if the plane were flying ...
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Forming partnership with Santa Claus [closed]
This coming 25th of December Santa Claus and I are going to distribute presents to all the good children from all over the world, unfortunately he do not have extra magical sleigh to spare nor willing ...
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How to make a flying human
We are in a future where genetics has advanced to a point where arbitrary modifications can be done to living beings. Now a geneticist wants to make a flying human. That is, he wants to modify a human ...
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Antigravity Rocks and Ships
Warning: TV Tropes links detected.
In a World In The Sky, floating islands are held up by deposits of a mineral that defies the pull of gravity. Things attached to it are held in a sort of neutral ...
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Would wing suits be an effective mode of transportation for halflings?
Let's assume that a halfling is of similar build, but half the height of an adult human. If I strap a wing suit onto one, I should have a quarter the surface area, but one eight the weight of an adult ...
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Could there be an atmosphere in which I could both be alive and float?
There an atmospheres in which I can live, like Earth's. There are atmospheres in which I can float, like if it were a really heavy gas. Is there some atmospheric composition where I could both be ...
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What reason would keep an aircraft from flying higher than 250 feet? [closed]
What would cause the atmosphere to be so cruel that a plane would fall when it attempts to fly higher than 250 feet? Please hypothesize and give extensive reasoning.
The phenomenon should not ...
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Dragon breaking sound barriers unaided
Taking several notable real life inspirations from the animal kingdom I like to design a realistic Dragon towering any creature ever lived but has a nasty habit of generating sonic boom every where in ...
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A world with 1/3rd gravity but 1/2 atmospheric pressure. Would it be easier to fly?
Let's say on an alien planet called Thindor, the surface gravity is 3.27 m/s2 (which is 1/3rd of Earth's). But the atmospheric pressure is only 50 kPa (which is 1/2 of Earth's). Assume the same 20/80 ...
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Could a bird be a match for a small airship?
Could a large, aggressive bird of prey take an aircraft the size and weight of two motorcycles out of the sky?
The bird is about the size of a child, but has sentient intellect. If it got through the ...
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Shinespark-like effect with a jet engine
I am working on a 2D platformer game, and I'm trying to introduce a jetpack which would give a shinespark-like ability from Metroid series, i.e. it needs a run-up to a certain speed, at which the ...
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Walking on clouds
Is there any combination of factors that would allow the average human to walk on a cloud without the aid of magic or technology? If so, could buildings and cities be constructed on clouds in those ...
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Would it be possible to fly through a rain of missiles?
I'm trying to setup a non-real scenario that doesn't break suspension of disbelief too much past the original idea. But so long as things keep consistency it should be fine.
So you are flying a ...
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Moving a Blue Whale [closed]
I need to move a blue whale.
Goal: Move a blue whale out of the water, somehow, and return them to the water safely, as the area they live in is no longer capable of sustaining them in my world.
...
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How could flying soldiers influence medieval battle tactics?
Two medieval armies are fighting one another. Their infantries are approximately equal, and their artillery pieces are well matched. During one battle, they enter what appears to be a stalemate.
Then ...
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Uses for Limited Human Flight in Medieval Setting
Probably because of the way airplanes work, it's often the case that magical flight in medieval times was faster than traveling by horse, making it incredibly useful as a form of transportation. Also, ...
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Using birds to lift a cabin to the air
I wonder how realistic is the means of transportation that uses geared birds as a propulsion to lift and pull a cabin of an aircraft?
Is this type of aviation possible? How one would control the ...
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A Bird that Never Touches Ground
Birds, as we currently know them, build nests and lay eggs on the ground. People and things with sharp teeth live on the ground. There are also things with claws and beaks up in the air, but fewer.
I ...
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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 ...
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How to make a superhero with electrical powers fly?
I'm writing a novel in which one of the characters has the ability to control, manipulate, and produce electricity. I'm having issues working about scenes which require him to fly around without ...
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Why would people use flapping-wing instead of fixed-wing aircraft?
Ornithopters are vehicles that fly by flapping their wings, rather than trough use of a propeller or jet engine. They've been proposed and built many times throughout history, and are a common element ...
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How could a sail powered airship work?
I've been wondering if it's possible for an airship to fly by passive means - specifically, no engines (steam or otherwise).
I'm thinking in terms of a world where lighter-than-air gas (and it's ...
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What would be the cultural implications of landmasses floating in the air? [closed]
Here's the question:
What do you believe would be the social and cultural implications in a world that has floating landmasses (floating as in "floating in the air")? These "islands" float much like ...
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Using physics - How can a character fly
I am writing a story in which the characters have some power over the physical world - literally able to transform their knowledge of physics into powers. I am trying to determine a good way for them ...
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Reincarnated into a war-torn world [closed]
My name is Kyoko Nakashima. I was a high school student in Osaka, Japan. I was involved in an accident which reincarnated me to this world. When I regained consciousness, I was told that I was in a ...
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What is the earliest that a civilization could develop airships?
Assuming a technological progression roughly similar to that of Europe in our world, what is the earliest that a civilization could have developed rigid-frame airships?
For example, one could imagine ...
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How big would a pair of wings need to be to allow an adult human to fly in a given environment?
Lets indulge in a bit of Mad Science, here.
Assuming the world described here: Making the Enterprise Fly
(60% of earth's gravity, 50% denser atmosphere) what is the wingspan needed to allow an ...
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Making the Enterprise Fly
No, not that one. This one.
I want to see the USS Enterprise fly, but I'm curious how it would be accomplished in any realistic fashion.
Now, the world I'm building that needs a flying Enterprise ...
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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. ...
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How can I make steampunk airships less flimsy?
I've been thinking about a steampunk style world where a lot of the transport is done with balloon powered airships. Obviously there are conflicts and I'm trying to think of ways these craft could be ...
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How would the existence of large rideable flying creatures have changed the design of castles?
I'm thinking not only of the impact they would have had on how you would defend from an aerial attack, but also that they could be used for much more specific bombardment by dropping large rocks and ...
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