Of Dragons, rampant speculation

At the first flight in 1903, airspeed was about 7 mph.
By 1910, the top speed had increased to about 50 mph. Most of this was due to civilian contests and air races. After about 1910, the major militaries started looking at airplanes for reconnaissance. In the Sharonan universe, Distance Viewers, Plotters, and Mappers fulfill the reconnaissance and spotting roles so there would be no real drive for the military to be interested in flight. So while there might be flight, it would mainly be adventurers and inventors. Maybe a few small aeronautical clubs. Call it about the same as 1910 flight technology with aircraft individually crafted by enthusiasts.
With the knowledge of dragons, there will now be a drive to develop a means to strike back against dragons.

Going back through HHNF, I was looking at the information on the dragons.
The battle dragons maximum level flight speed is between 200 and 240 mph.
The transport dragons maximum level flight speed is between 135 and 160 mph.
This equates to the capabilities of aircraft of the early 1930's, like the Grumman FF1. So there are major hurdles for the Sharonans to close the capability gap. Controls, engines, fuels, materials, and aerodynamics.
And we could see a steam plane. It was done at least once.
So how many books do you think it will take for the fighter vs dragon scene?

Trevor

So far, Sharona has shown *no interest* in flying at all!
Not even stories about "being a bird."

Now they need Mobile Anti-Dragon Platforms
(in other words, Fighter Planes)
so that they don't need the Dragons to come to their
AA Guns to be shot down.
It could take them long decades to build Fighter Planes.

But, there are other inhabited worlds in the Multiverse.
Some of them might already have fighter planes.
Sharonians running through the Multiverse, such as
the escaped diplomats party, might find them.
So might Arcanians, flying around through all
of those Gates.

Which side would the Fighter Plane Universe ally with?

HTM

Trevor wrote:At the first flight in 1903, airspeed was about 7 mph.
By 1910, the top speed had increased to about 50 mph. Most of this was due to civilian contests and air races. After about 1910, the major militaries started looking at airplanes for reconnaissance. In the Sharonan universe, Distance Viewers, Plotters, and Mappers fulfill the reconnaissance and spotting roles so there would be no real drive for the military to be interested in flight. So while there might be flight, it would mainly be adventurers and inventors. Maybe a few small aeronautical clubs. Call it about the same as 1910 flight technology with aircraft individually crafted by enthusiasts.
With the knowledge of dragons, there will now be a drive to develop a means to strike back against dragons.

Going back through HHNF, I was looking at the information on the dragons.
The battle dragons maximum level flight speed is between 200 and 240 mph.
The transport dragons maximum level flight speed is between 135 and 160 mph.
This equates to the capabilities of aircraft of the early 1930's, like the Grumman FF1. So there are major hurdles for the Sharonans to close the capability gap. Controls, engines, fuels, materials, and aerodynamics.
And we could see a steam plane. It was done at least once.
So how many books do you think it will take for the fighter vs dragon scene?

Trevor

Well, the authors don't really have the ability to show us everything in two novels. We haven't seen an automobile or horse race. Or flushing of toilets, either. :)
I'm assuming they have indoor plumbing, but there was a mention of an internal combustion engine. The horse is a given. But at this point in the story, there has been no good reason for a Sharonan to speculate about what advantages flight would provide or to speculate on which horse will win the New Ternaithian Triple Crown. Putting it in doesn't advance the overall story, leaving it out does not preclude showing it in the next book.

I'm going to stake out book four for the fighter vs dragon scene, and I'll lay all the money from my Monopoly game on it. :)

To design effective fighters they'll need a few items.
A wind tunnel for testing wings, fuselages, propellers, and control surfaces.
Engines with a high power to weight ratio.
Gas operated machine guns.
Pilot training programs.

So, two decades would probably be enough for some sort of flight program to get off the ground. Just in time to meet all the new combat dragons that Arcana will be breeding because of the terrible war losses.

Sharona, they would be more able to trade useful resources for technology. Crude oil for old flight trainers. Titanium or uranium mining claims for a squadron of Mustang equivalents.

Trevor

Howard T. Map-addict wrote:So far, Sharona has shown *no interest* in flying at all!
Not even stories about "being a bird."

Now they need Mobile Anti-Dragon Platforms
(in other words, Fighter Planes)
so that they don't need the Dragons to come to their
AA Guns to be shot down.
It could take them long decades to build Fighter Planes.

But, there are other inhabited worlds in the Multiverse.
Some of them might already have fighter planes.
Sharonians running through the Multiverse, such as
the escaped diplomats party, might find them.
So might Arcanians, flying around through all
of those Gates.

Which side would the Fighter Plane Universe ally with?

HTM

snip

I think one of the books said something about a internal combustion engine and some type of aircraft i think it was some thing like hot air balloons.

Trevor wrote:I'm going to stake out book four for the fighter vs dragon scene, and I'll lay all the money from my Monopoly game on it. :)


So, two decades would probably be enough for some sort of flight program to get off the ground. Just in time to meet all the new combat dragons that Arcana will be breeding because of the terrible war losses.


Trevor

More like book forty at the current pace. Two books and Jathmar and Shaylar still haven't reached Arcana.

One point to remember is that the Sharonans do not need to match the Arcanans plane for dragon. If they trade twenty planes for one dragon they come out ahead because they can build new craft and train new pilots so much faster. Also, planes have a lot of uses other than air to air; scouting, transport for key personnel (Talents especially), strafing exposed troops. Even inferior aircraft, such as WWI biplanes will be very useful. For that matter even a Piper Cub type with no combat capability would be a godsend. I suppose they'd say godssend :)

Finally, qualitative advantages in pilots could go a long way toward ofsetting hardware weaknesses. Imagine an entire squadron of Voice pilots manuvering in close coordination. I don't think DW threw in that mention that Voices were the most common type of Talent and that many of the less able ones were underemployed without forethought.

Gene