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.

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56 votes
11 answers
25k views

For how long after an apocalypse would modern cars remain usable?

Imagine a "soft" kind of apocalypse - nothing like Earth being hit by an asteroid. In particular - 90% of human population have just disappeared (no matter why). So there are abandoned cities and ...
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15 votes
7 answers
3k views

How do Santa and the reindeer survive delivery night?

This related question asks about considerations for Santa's sleigh (particularly weight), but my question is more basic: how do you design a vehicle that satisfies Santa's design requirements, ...
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,...
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1 vote
2 answers
824 views

Could a photonic engine actually work?

I have a very specific aesthetic in mind for my science-fantasy setting, technology is largely pneumatipunk supplemented with weired phonotic devices;for "reason" there are few electrical devices in ...
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29 votes
9 answers
6k views

How much of a modern day tank can the 14th century replicate?

If a modern Day tank suddenly appears in 14th century Constantinople; in perfect condition, along with all the ammo, fuel, and components needed for it to run. How much of the technology in the tank ...
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18 votes
3 answers
3k views

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 ...
  • 3,755
5 votes
3 answers
533 views

Mechanically correct rotorcraft aerial ship

I am taking a page from the Anatomically Correct Series here. But instead of a living organism, I'd like to ask about a special kind of vessel. I like ships. They are big and confortable. They have ...
12 votes
2 answers
526 views

Are there *plausible* planetary conditions where jet aircraft just don't have much advantage over propeller-driven aircraft?

I've seen Which is easier to develop: a piston prop engine or a jet engine? and my own Effects of ~10atm pressure on engine design neither of which answers this. Would different atmospheric density, ...
3 votes
9 answers
345 views

Logical reason why motor vehicles wouldn't be allowed in post-war towns?

So, I am creating a post-apocalyptic world set 97 years after nuclear war, in the former state of California, AD 2059. The Californians, compared to the rests of the wastes, have done well for ...
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39 votes
4 answers
11k views

Would EMP From a Nuke Stall a car?

In my story a man who works in Military Intel gets early warning that a nuclear attack on his base is inbound. He abandons his post, grabs his wife and kid from on base housing, and books it out of ...
  • 20.9k
34 votes
28 answers
7k 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 ...
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27 votes
9 answers
8k views

Sailing without wind, but with strong currents

Context On my world, there is a lot of water: sea, oceans, ... There are also firm land and islands, so it's interesting to travel on the water. The problem is that there is NO wind at all, and lots ...
  • 4,544
16 votes
14 answers
4k views

How to make vehicular combat viable in a Post Apocalyptic world?

I want to create a Mad-Max-esque post apocalyptic setting. Unfortunately after a bit of looking into this, there is one massive issue with the idea of lots of maniacs tearing across the barren ...
  • 6,041
16 votes
14 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 ...
  • 2,995
13 votes
6 answers
11k views

A radar-invisible stealth car?

It's common knowledge that one of the things that makes stealth aircraft so stealthy is that the body is covered in a skin of special material that interferes with radar. Would it be theoretically ...
12 votes
3 answers
1k views

Effects of ~10atm pressure on engine design

Take a planet with an atmosphere similar to Earth's but, say, 9-10x as dense. What is this going to mean for the performance and design of the heat engines that are so familiar to us? Higher oxygen ...
10 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. ...
  • 2,461
9 votes
4 answers
2k views

How feasible and capable is a preindustrial land yacht?

This question is based in the desert world described in this question: Can my civilization be totally isolated by deserts? A pre industrial society is adjacent to deserts and mountains to the East and ...
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8 votes
8 answers
3k views

Why develop AT-AT or AT-TE walkers? [duplicate]

After thinking about the issue of the development of this type of vehicles, I have some doubts about why the decision of this type of transport and not another. Realizing that AT-AT and AT-TE are ...
  • 257
6 votes
4 answers
305 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/...
  • 1,651
6 votes
2 answers
460 views

Monolithic vehicles vs a convoy; So you want to go on a road trip

The scenario; suddenly a modern human world finds their nice, simple, understandable spherical world/solar system going poof overnight, and it being replaced by a mine-crafting plane world. Everyone ...
  • 4,636
6 votes
5 answers
575 views

Designing vehicles for different gravities

In my story, humans have colonized both a high-G and a low-G world in the same star system. How would surface vehicles have to be designed differently for practicality and economy on each of those ...
4 votes
2 answers
461 views

What might be an effective mode of transportation for Giants?

In my story Giants, humans, and a bunch of other fantasy races live along side each other and i'm curious as to what might be an effective mode of transportation for 10 foot tall Giants with Ancient ...
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1 vote
1 answer
196 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 ...
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