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Digital_Wolf v.2

Member

From: Bowling Green, Ky

Registered: 2003-06-15

Posts: 5

Website

Re: n00bish question

please don't flame me for asking this cause i've been wondering this for a while now.  Ok so we have the B2 bomber that does not have the fins in the back of the aircraft to fly so could something like this acutally fly. Earth or Mars.  Mods if you don't like this n00bish lame question than just delete this thread.

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Mark Friedenbach

Member

From: Mountain View, CA

Registered: 2003-01-31

Posts: 325

Re: n00bish question

fly? no.  glide? maybe.

The tail structure or fins are not what makes an airplane "fly", they just add stability.  The lifting is done by the wings.  A body- and tail-less design like B2 has greater lift (since the whole airplane is a wing) at the expense of stability and control precision.  In the case of the B2, the main reason they went that route is to cut down the radar cross section (most of which comes from the tail structure).  But this thing does have a tail structure.

The model you've got won't fly -- the craft looks heavy while the wings are way too small.  Whoever made the model was an artist not an aeronautical engineer (those wings, while cool looking, won't give you much lift).

But I do notice the rocket or jet nozzles on the bottom of the wings.  If the craft was reworked and smoothed out a little bit to give it a lifting-body design, it could be used to glide in from reentry like the shuttle and soft land vertically with rockets/jets, or just slow enough to drop troops or the truck and rocket back to orbit.  That's not too far fetched.  I assume it's a spacecraft because reentry speeds is the only thing I can think of that would make you want to limit the size of the wings.

Anyway, why do you ask?

GCNRevenger

Member

From: Earth

Registered: 2003-10-14

Posts: 6,056

Re: n00bish question

Its... a drop ship from the video game Halo, if i'm not mistaken...

A Mars aeroplane is obviously hard to fly since the Martian atmosphere is so thin... the best shape would be one with very large wings, perhaps folding or swing-out, and probably some kind of vertical engine or thrust nozzle for takeoff assist.

High-speed trains on Mars make more sense for short trips.

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[i]"The power of accurate observation is often called cynicism by those that do not have it." - George Bernard Shaw[/i]

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