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Biomechanics of Flight aka Can Dragons Fly?!
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<blockquote data-quote="nightwyrm" data-source="post: 4767703" data-attributes="member: 75542"><p>So, very simplistically, the more mass an object has, the greater amount of lift is required for the object to fly. Lift is usually generated by wings and is essentially a function of the surface area of the object and its speed. </p><p> </p><p>Generally, if an object scales according to geometric similarity (ie. the object doesn't change its shape as it gets bigger), the mass of an object grows as the cube of its length while the surface area grows as the square of its length. That's why a larger flying creature must have a larger set of wings in relation to its body than a smaller flying creature.</p><p> </p><p>Of course, it's not as simple as simply increasing the wing size for a larger flying creature. The wings also have their own mass, and there is also the matter of the strength of the material making up the wings to consider. A large wing that collapses under its own weight is useless.</p><p> </p><p>This is why a pterosaur is shaped very much like a large kite. Its main body is rather flat with flaps of skins between its limps to add to surface area and the wings makes up a huge proportion of its body. Also, I think the more recent hypothesis about the pterosaurs are that they live near coastal cliffs where they can either jump off or rely on the strong ocean gusts to get enough momentum to get airborne. Once airborne, pterosaurs and other large birds are essentially gliders.</p><p> </p><p>A dragon with its large central body mass and relatively small wings can never fly in the real world. And the idea that they can get airborne from a stationary position by flapping its wings like a small bird is completely ridiculous.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>For the tl:dr crowd: Flying is not a simple matter of size and weight. The ability to fly depends heavily on the object's shape. A modern plane can fly because the surface area of its wings are relatively large compared to the rest of its body and it can propell itself continuously at high speeds. A dragon can never fly because of its traditional "lizard with wings" shape.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="nightwyrm, post: 4767703, member: 75542"] So, very simplistically, the more mass an object has, the greater amount of lift is required for the object to fly. Lift is usually generated by wings and is essentially a function of the surface area of the object and its speed. Generally, if an object scales according to geometric similarity (ie. the object doesn't change its shape as it gets bigger), the mass of an object grows as the cube of its length while the surface area grows as the square of its length. That's why a larger flying creature must have a larger set of wings in relation to its body than a smaller flying creature. Of course, it's not as simple as simply increasing the wing size for a larger flying creature. The wings also have their own mass, and there is also the matter of the strength of the material making up the wings to consider. A large wing that collapses under its own weight is useless. This is why a pterosaur is shaped very much like a large kite. Its main body is rather flat with flaps of skins between its limps to add to surface area and the wings makes up a huge proportion of its body. Also, I think the more recent hypothesis about the pterosaurs are that they live near coastal cliffs where they can either jump off or rely on the strong ocean gusts to get enough momentum to get airborne. Once airborne, pterosaurs and other large birds are essentially gliders. A dragon with its large central body mass and relatively small wings can never fly in the real world. And the idea that they can get airborne from a stationary position by flapping its wings like a small bird is completely ridiculous. For the tl:dr crowd: Flying is not a simple matter of size and weight. The ability to fly depends heavily on the object's shape. A modern plane can fly because the surface area of its wings are relatively large compared to the rest of its body and it can propell itself continuously at high speeds. A dragon can never fly because of its traditional "lizard with wings" shape. [/QUOTE]
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