Questions tagged [vehicles]
For questions about implemented technology that can be used for transportation. For questions about the act of transportation, consider using [transportation] instead.
156
questions
10
votes
5
answers
2k
views
What would a vehicle with these properties look like? A nomad's caravan
On Terra, many many people used to be nomadic. Now very few are. An exception is Mongolia, where now in 2023, about 30% of the population remain nomadic. The world I am building is a sort of global-...
- 4,657
1
vote
2
answers
165
views
Horses or ATVS? [closed]
Writing a setting where people have access to modern technology from the greater world, but the people of this land haven't really developed yet; there isn't a rail or road network connecting the ...
- 97
3
votes
2
answers
77
views
Believably Enhancing Actuator Machinery Performance through Ground Detection Techniques in Articulated Mechanical Racehorse Hooves
My hero is an ingenious technician held captive in a pirate enclave and serving them in the mechanical maintenance of their steampunk race horses. Similar to pod racing in Star Wars I: The Phantom ...
- 8,169
2
votes
3
answers
214
views
What industrial exoplanet machine would serve as the best escape vehicle from a remote secure stronghold?
My world has 18th century society norms with steampunk tech. I have added a scene from the story to the end of this question, just fill in the blank. Some characters become impressed into service with ...
- 8,169
9
votes
8
answers
2k
views
What is the easiest fuel a blockaded, sanctioned nation can procure/synthesize during a war?
In my world, which is partially based on a WW2-style environment, there are two large countries, namely A and B, that are fighting each other.
A is a Nazi Germany-type country with fine revised ...
- 3,304
13
votes
13
answers
5k
views
What sort of nuclear-based transportation would be best suited to cheaply transporting large amount of cargo if radiation weren't a concern?
In this scenario people are in a constant war on an infinite flat world with the geography of Antarctica's interior (but with no liquid water or hydrocarbons). Notably this world has an abundance of ...
- 2,398
7
votes
7
answers
2k
views
How to design a vehicle’s locomotion for regular roads, cross-country and driving across the bottom of a river
I’m designing a world where fully enclosed vehicles that can handle complete submersion into water are commonplace. While amphibious vehicles exist, a different class of vehicles has been introduced: ...
- 44.6k
3
votes
3
answers
759
views
What would tires look like on a super-Earth with 2.5 G surface gravity?
A super-Earth has 2.5 G of surface gravity, as opposed to the Earth's 1 G of surface gravity. Some folks on it drive wheeled vehicles, and the wheels on said vehicles have tires on them. These tires ...
- 11.7k
10
votes
12
answers
2k
views
Would improvised motor vehicles be feasible a century after the fall of industrial civilization?
I'm working on a TTRPG system that takes place about a century after an apocalypse event. I've hit a point where a bit of world building is required, and so I'm going down the list of technologies (...
- 101
13
votes
9
answers
3k
views
Would a freeze ray be effective against modern military vehicles?
Similar to my previous thread. In my setting, wizards from a pre-industrial fantasy world come to real life. One of these wizards is a cryomancer recruited by the US military and tries out his talents ...
- 3,326
11
votes
8
answers
4k
views
Would lightning bolts be effective against modern military vehicles?
In my setting, wizards from a pre-industrial fantasy world come to real life. One of these wizards is a destruction mage recruited by the US military and tries out her talents against modern forces. ...
- 3,326
5
votes
3
answers
281
views
Could the 'underwater glider' concept be applied to a 4000-tonne, 80m submarine?
Underwater gliders propel themselves through the water in an interesting way. They empty their tanks to float up, fill them to sink, repeat, going up and down rhythmically. But instead of just going ...
- 4,657
20
votes
11
answers
6k
views
Could a submarine 'sail' the ocean currents?
A sail generates propulsive force by the difference in pressure on the concave and convex sides. This principle of fluid dynamics should be true of seawater as it is of wind. And the seas do have ...
- 4,657
19
votes
8
answers
4k
views
Would ATV Cavalry be as effective as horse cavalry?
During the early 1800s, various countries are gifted tall and modern ATVs (All-Terrain Vehicles). These ATVs require no fuel and come with manuals. After a few months of trials, many Europeans master ...
- 3,326
0
votes
2
answers
180
views
If in the future there are flying vehicles with the same aesthetics and function of car, would it be still called a car / flying car or somthing new?
In a future where technology has evolved and cars don't need wheels and can hover and fly, but retain the same: aesthetics, functions, affordability, and cost as the cars we have today just without ...
- 19
7
votes
3
answers
2k
views
An RV that can survive a Nuclear Bomb. Basically a mobile fallout shelter
I have this idea for a post-apocalyptic setting where my characters live in these RVs made during the pre-war era. That are basically mobile fallout shelters. Also, the setting takes place in my world'...
- 579
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 ...
- 209
-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 ...
- 1,259
10
votes
11
answers
2k
views
A reason for racing haulers across tundra / Arctic?
It was difficult to sum the entire question into the title, but here's more context:
I'm working on a proof of concept for a game where you are racing vehicles rally raid style across Antarctica and / ...
- 183
3
votes
9
answers
2k
views
Harvesting wind energy for vehicles
Theoretically, what would the possibilities/drawbacks be of harvesting wind energy created by the momentum of the vehicle to charge that vehicle's batteries?
Imagine that the vehicle had a dual power ...
- 150
26
votes
16
answers
6k
views
What single change in history would make rear steering cars a standard?
In my alternate Earth, which follows our timeline almost consistently, I want one of the differences being that the de facto standard for cars is that they have rear steering wheels instead of the ...
- 277k
34
votes
28
answers
8k
views
Why would space traders pick up and offload their goods from an orbiting platform rather than direct to the planet?
I'm outlining some ideas for a game I'd like to write, that at its core is about interplanetary space-trading (amongst other things, but that's not relevant to the question).
For project-scope reasons ...
- 443
7
votes
7
answers
620
views
Why would airplanes become common when there is dragon-riding?
In my world, during their equivalent to the age of absolutism, dragon riding becomes very common. They can be too expensive to personally own, so they are mostly used in general warfare and ...
- 2,585
4
votes
6
answers
2k
views
Design considerations for living inside of a tank/apc in extended combat and travel operations
In my setting armies are extremely mobile for a multitude of reasons. Pure static defensive lines are just asking to be completely destroyed by smart and devastating weapons, the light particle ...
- 2,963
6
votes
4
answers
168
views
Eject the horses, animal safety first! How would a coachman arrange for a quick release mechanism to free the beasts?
An 18th century coachman, who really loves their horses and won't allow any harm to come to them, needs a mechanism to instantly disengage their four-wheeled carriage from the horses midride, setting ...
-2
votes
4
answers
162
views
Nuclear Propulsion System [closed]
Is it plausible to:
Have a huge nuclear powered aircraft carrier to be propelled by H2-O2 rocket engine (size adjust) where you generate both reactants from sea water through Electrolysis.
What would ...
- 698
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 ...
- 14.3k
4
votes
3
answers
209
views
Tips on how to make and design fighter jets on your story?
Since I have no money to borrow the names of certain aircrafts, I decided it's better to think of my own. But because I have no experience with drawing or designing complicated machinery, I wanna ask ...
11
votes
9
answers
4k
views
Plausibility of a car running on noble gasses
Is there any science-based way that one could explain cars running not on natural gas (autogas) but rather on noble gasses like Neon, Argon and/or Xenon?
- 1,741
3
votes
1
answer
181
views
What would realistic racing hovercraft look like in terms of aerodynamics?
This is a follow up to a previous question of mine: How do I keep my futuristic racing hovercraft from becoming airplanes?
I'm in planning stages for a futuristic racing game and I'm trying to figure ...
- 3,034
1
vote
2
answers
141
views
What is the earliest that a time-traveling electric vehicle of current era could be recharged?
Taking modern gas engines into the past is hard because the fuel isn’t refined enough and damages the engines. But electricity has been the same since time began, limited by human capacity to produce ...
- 25.4k
3
votes
2
answers
158
views
A car propelled by a turbine air jet has acceptable efficiency?
So, I know that there are vehicles that use gas turbines as their engines, but they are connected to the wheels.
What I'm asking is that if a turbine with reasonable size (small enough to fit in a car ...
- 209
4
votes
5
answers
263
views
With modern-day/near-future (i.e. potentially realizable within 20 years) technology, can a nuclear reactor with these characteristics be built?
I'm writing about a nuclear-powered tank. Yes, I know about what the problems associated with it are. No, the people in the setting don't care about radioactive contamination of their environment, or ...
- 11.7k
2
votes
2
answers
124
views
Why would a military use hybrid jet-propeller planes?
Hybrid jet-propeller planes in real lift where a weird thing that existed in the 40s & 50s, no type of them ever saw combat use or even limited production. In modern day not even much research is ...
- 3,863
29
votes
10
answers
5k
views
How would one sabotage a horse-drawn carriage to break down a distance later
Is it possible to sabotage a horse-drawn vehicle in such a way that it fails a bit after leaving town? If so, how precise can this delay be and how would it be done?
- 860
-2
votes
1
answer
138
views
space combat for a BTE 4x game game [closed]
l am currently writing a game - I'm making a racing table top game with high tech weapons. What's a weapon that would shoot through people that isn't just a high powered cannon? It doesn't have to be ...
- 15
6
votes
9
answers
806
views
Why would very large trucks regularly be used for logistics?
The very large trucks are mining truck size. They can haul 300 to 100 tonnes of Thing™. They can be outfitted to carry containers.
They have a roughly equivalent curb weight to their payload. They can ...
- 3,863
7
votes
2
answers
432
views
How big would my airship have to be to fit a modern VLS system
For my factions anti-occult paramilitary force, I decided to give them large, armoured airships for their main form of transport and attack, which do not use gas bags for lift, but rather a magical ...
- 591
5
votes
4
answers
486
views
Vehicles vs work animals in a desert planet
Would animals like camels and horses be more useful/practical in the deep desert than vehicles like dune buggies and sandrails?
Basically, I have a planet that's mostly desert surrounded with rock ...
5
votes
4
answers
316
views
Are low-energy submarines possible?
I'm envisioning submarines just cruising around doing normal things, taking the role of cars, trucks, RVs. I'm trying to estimate how much energy they would need.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
- 1,611
1
vote
1
answer
270
views
Viability of a jet modelled after a dragonfly?
Insects in the order Odonata have tow pairs of wings that can be moved independently, their compound eyes grand them full 360° vision and their bodies are elongated. They can flap their wings out of ...
- 10.5k
1
vote
1
answer
134
views
How does one fight in a perpetual hurricane?
Never mind why there's a perpetual hurricane. This is about fighting in it.
I'm not sure what the terrain of the Sahara is after getting blasted with hurricane-force winds for 2 million years, but ...
- 11.7k
12
votes
6
answers
2k
views
What would land vehicles designed to operate in a perpetual hurricane look like?
Never mind why there's a perpetual hurricane. This is about the vehicles going into and out of it.
Let's say that there's a perpetual hurricane that constantly "hovers" in one location - say,...
- 11.7k
-2
votes
1
answer
186
views
What would be the best battery someone could make in the late 1400's?
In my champaign a character has the ability to gain knowledge from the far future and has used that knowledge to expand technology and bring on an early industrial revolution. They have built up to a ...
18
votes
15
answers
6k
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 ...
- 3,034
0
votes
3
answers
159
views
Could two-wheel tractors be used in place of automobiles?
Two wheel tractors are a smaller type of tractor, which, as the name implies, only have a single axle with two wheels. Is it plausible that these machines could draw passenger cars and be used as the ...
- 15.6k
30
votes
12
answers
6k
views
How would a kangaroo-drawn chariot work?
I'm building basically Australian Wakanda, if you'll forgive the pop culture reference.
Australian aboriginal culture never made their own wheeled vehicles, but what if they had?
The closest thing to ...
- 301
2
votes
1
answer
406
views
Optimal tracks/treads for Desert based tank
This questions sounds fairly simple but i just want to be sure.
Imagine if you have an army who's main force comprises Tanks and who have to operate mainly in a desert (think the Great Sand Sea area ...
- 1,741
12
votes
12
answers
3k
views
How should we compensate for lack of traction for vehicles on the moon?
We are building a 3D game world that portrays an advanced lunar town that's as technically accurate as possible, for the purpose of people roleplaying living there and learning about space development....
- 429
4
votes
4
answers
1k
views
How plausible is this spacecraft design?
The idea is that the spacecraft would not have a propellant tank on board, but instead would have a huge, spherical propellant tender which the spacecraft could climb around in order to turn. This ...
- 15.6k