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One must think about seagulls and how they effortlessly stay airborne for hours. Every single feather has nerve endings and muscles for optimal aerodynamical pe
by timonoko 6y ago
One must think about seagulls and how they effortlessly stay airborne for hours. Every single feather has nerve endings and muscles for optimal aerodynamical performance.
Also Neal Stephenson describes how a wingwoman departs from a space station in orbit and lands on terra firma and goes back only utilizing air currents. Totally believable me thinks.
- Robotbeat 6y agoSailplanes effectively do this. The new high performance sailplane Nixus actually uses fly-by-wire to do microadjustments to optimize aerodynamic performance analogous to what you said, although skilled pilots can do similar. https://www.flyingmag.com/nixus-fly-by-wire-glider-takes-flight/ https://www.flyingmag.com/nixus-fly-by-wire-glider-takes-fli... Future long distance electric aircraft will resemble sailplanes.
- outworlder 6y ago> Also Neal Stephenson describes how a wingwoman departs from a space station in orbit and lands on terra firma and goes back only utilizing air currents Goes back where? To orbit, using air currents? That's physically impossible.
- timonoko 6y agoBe amazed: The orbit station is a "giant space wheel", whose central mass is in orbit, but has rotating pods synchronized with earths rotation, some 100 km below. There are some issues with centrifugal forces (which Neal also describes), but otherwise all the wingwoman has to do is to reach the altitude and speed of this pod. The energy needed to move this person from the pod to the central station comes from the sol and is quite miniscule.