11-16-2018, 07:35 AM | #31 |
Join Date: Dec 2005
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Re: Are TL4 'Rocket-Pack's Possible?
Which is why we used trained monkeys. Well that was the theory anyhow. Does anyone have ideas how to deal with monkeys with jet packs flying around the city stealing things?
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11-16-2018, 07:46 AM | #32 | |
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Canada
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Re: Are TL4 'Rocket-Pack's Possible?
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Boomerangs include things more properly called wooden war picks with no special flight characteristics, things that are basically big heavy throwing clubs that are well balanced and crudely aerodynamic, small throwing clubs that do have airfoils, and the returning boomerang, which is used to circle around behind prey and flush it towards the hunter (which has really good airfoils). Basically, a series of snapshots in the development of the seriously-impressive returning boomerang, frozen in time because each stage was a perfectly good tool in its niche. But the periods of time are much much longer than a human lifetime.
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11-16-2018, 08:02 AM | #33 | |
Join Date: Jun 2006
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Re: Are TL4 'Rocket-Pack's Possible?
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Certainly developing one without aerodynamics is a risk I wouldn't volunteer for, but it's probably not impossible for even a first attempt at a hang glider to work well enough to be survivable.
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11-16-2018, 08:02 AM | #34 |
Join Date: Nov 2004
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Re: Are TL4 'Rocket-Pack's Possible?
Someone with silk and bamboo did; kites that lift humans are described in China some centuries back. The landings were a killer though, to the point where the described use is as a means of execution.
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11-16-2018, 08:14 AM | #35 |
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Canada
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Re: Are TL4 'Rocket-Pack's Possible?
Every time I've ever flown a kite, it finishes its run by nosediving into the earth. One way trip to broken-neck town, I would imagine.
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11-16-2018, 08:37 AM | #36 | |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: U.K.
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Re: Are TL4 'Rocket-Pack's Possible?
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The team decided to declare success at that point, and stop. Frankly, it all looked pretty hairy. The vehicle in Steampunk Conveyances was inspired by that, but kind of optimistically. I think a bunch of Renaissance tinkerers would actually just have killed a couple of people and then gone back to composing poetry.
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11-16-2018, 08:42 AM | #37 | |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: U.K.
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Re: Are TL4 'Rocket-Pack's Possible?
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One of the engineers observed that they had just proved that that bear was smarter than any of their test pilots.
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11-16-2018, 08:44 AM | #38 |
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Meifumado
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Re: Are TL4 'Rocket-Pack's Possible?
What's the gravity like on your home-moon?
Perhaps you could insert some naturally occuring rocket-friendly fuels to help the tech get started, or some conveniently flight-capable fauna to mimic. Another possibility- the 3 moons share similar ecosystems, and there's a migratory space-bird that moves between them with the seasons. Studying how they do so gives an impetus to the TL4 spaceflight tech.
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11-16-2018, 09:35 AM | #39 | |
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: The Land of Enchantment
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Re: Are TL4 'Rocket-Pack's Possible?
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That being said, that's an awful lot like how a pulse jet works. If you want potentially low-tech powered flight, a valveless pulse jet is about as simple as they come. And you can run one on almost any combustible fluid (with varying efficiencies, of course). One is forced to wonder how well various alcohols would work? I know that a lot of hobby designs run on diesel, so I wonder if vegetable oil would work? (Given the well-known trivia that the first diesel engines ran on peanut oil.) Anyway, there are all sorts of YouTube videos about them. One problem- they do need something like a spark plug. Another problem- how exactly would a TL4 designer have thought to make the damned thing?
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I'd need to get a grant and go shoot a thousand goats to figure it out. Last edited by acrosome; 11-16-2018 at 09:57 AM. |
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11-16-2018, 10:53 AM | #40 |
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Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Montréal, Québec
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Re: Are TL4 'Rocket-Pack's Possible?
For example, this.
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