Well except now I just want to know about this “swarm of assembly robots” that will be apparently taking over the hand-fabrication…
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It figures that Lockheed could come up with a chopper like this; no idea was too ambitious for that company. As to the chopper’s demise, I’m not sure if one could say that it had been discontinued, since it never actually left the development stage, with the production award being contingent on how things went in testing.
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It strikes me that Holtzman-effect devices would be used in all kinds of things. We see them in shields, ranging from personal units to city-sized. We see them used as a kind of anti-gravity and thrust device in Hunter-seekers. I can see them being used in other circumstances.
Say you use Holtzman-effect lifters to counter the weight of an aircraft. It might not be enough to completely counter the weight, but would reduce stresses. But from the evidence of the Hunter-seeker, there are downsides, including a possible difficulty with maneuverability. (Good thrust, but maybe not so much with lateral steering?) So what if you used Holtzman effect devices to reduce the stress and friction on the joints in a wing assembly designed after a dragonfly’s wings? That way you get maneuverability and power in one vehicle.
That’s how I’d explain it, anyway. Something so fundamental and useful as Holtzman effect devices, they’d end up in all sorts of things where you wouldn’t expect them.
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There are few things in engineering as clever as the swashplate on a helicopter. It’s one of those things that makes a mechanically inclined person go “oh shit. That’s how those work?! It’s not just that the blade pitch can be adjusted while spinning, it’s that the pitch is different for every position in the rotation cycle, effectively creating more or less lift on different sides of the virtual wing created by the rotor. It’s the kind of idea that I would have pooh-poohed as totally impractical if it didn’t already exist.
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This is one of those things that’s always made my brains hurt.
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I remember learning about how that worked some years back and was surprised as well. Just goes to show that humans will pursue dangerous complicated solutions because… someone’s gotta do it?
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Maybe there is an issue with rotating devices in an environment loaded with airborne sand and fine abrasive. If they do away with trying to seal spinning shafts against infiltration of the grit, they can survive longer (and possibly also generate less unwanted static electricity).
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They seem to be used elsewhere. I don’t see why a vehicle on Caladan, that no one ever expected to end up on Arakis. Would be built specifically for Arakis.
I also don’t know that an exposed universal joint, flapping around insanely fast is all that different than a spinning shaft.
And you still have the other better solution issue with the other flying machines not having external lift stuff. They just levitate. If sand were the issue, then why have wings and rotors at all. Given you don’t have to.
I think the thread teased out a suitably Duney idea, even as there doesn’t seem to be a plausible real world benefit.
If the wings are not the primary source of lift, or even thrust, but mostly control surfaces.
Then you have something like the wing stubs on helicopters. Where the added lift lets more of the engine power get used for speed, and direction. And the added control surfaces help stabilize things and maneuverability.
The wings wouldn’t be the main drive of the thing. They’d be how you steer. And by flapping they’d provide bonuses.
So the ornithopter would fly and move mostly under power of magic scifi levitation, and those jet/rocket engines on the back.
The wings would mostly control direction, like flaps and what have. And I can see that being better in atmosphere than just floaty bits. Just hand wave it as better, quicker, and more variable than fixed wing stubs.
Lift and thrust from the flappy bits becomes bonus action on the 3 elements.
Like bow thruster on boats, control thrusters on a space capsule, or the tilt of a rotor it could push the aircraft in a direction. Rather than just manipulating air flow.
Added lift up and thrust forward could augment the engines in driving the thing. Making both stronger/faster. Or allowing smaller engines/drives to do the work.
That does roughly work with the films depiction.
The sand storm sequence seems to show that the 'thopter is capable of flight with it’s wings knocked out or not flapping, Including potentially gaining altitude. The 'thopter is pretty much out of commission right in the middle there, but they still manage to get above the storm like Kynes told them to.
It doesn’t just fall out of the sky when the wings are knocked out entirely. It doesn’t exactly glide or steer well, but it got something.
There’s still an issue because the things are still depicted much like helicopters. They don’t move or rise until the wings are deployed and full on flapping. And continue doing so until they fully landed and powered down.
Space ships aren’t a problem cause it’s as simple as they don’t need it. There’s no air to push around, or through in space. And floaty bits mean they don’t need this to land, or shift around a port.
But if you’re going to depict a benefit or need for external lift and control devices, and obvious engines in atmosphere. It doesn’t make a ton of sense that all the other in atmosphere vehicles we see lack all any of that.
The carryall is a classic style floating box. It doesn’t have the same sort of physicality as the 'thopters. It’d make a lot more sense if it had some rotors in there, like a quadracopter. And some little thrusters guys similar to the jets we see on the 'thopters.
And it’s not like these things aren’t part of our physical language for FUTURE! and SPACE!
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Well, who said anything about an exposed joint? It ought to be fully sealed inside a flexible material.
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why couldn’t a rotor have that? The wings here are doing a lot the same sort of motions as a helicopter rotor. Multi-rotor setups like we see on drones don’t require the same range of motion. And we actually fly, actual helicopters in actual deserts without much problem on this front. And we totally cover and grease that joint.
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in so far as the post and discussion are both inspired by the movie, there doesn’t seem to be anything special on this front. The joints seem at least as exposed as on helicopter rotors, and clearly take inspiration from them. You’d need a really similar sort of joint to get a wing moving like this.
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