This reminds me of Short Circuit Plot LOTR:
“OK,” said Gandalf, “Here’s the plan. We send the hobbits off with the fake ring, which is just an invisibility ring I cooked up. Then when the Nazgul are all after them, Gwalior here takes the real ring, pops it into Mount Doom and is home for lunch.”
“What about the hobbits?” asked Aragorn.
“Well, if they’re lucky the Ring gets dropped before they get eaten, and if not, well, it’s not like hobbits are an endangered species.”
Introducing very large eagles into any scenario is a potential plot changer, but Tolkien was only interested in the Dark Ages and wasn’t too hot on air power.
