The beginning of flight on Safehold
Alex
will be reintroduced on Safehold, and whether there's any way of doing
so within the Proscriptions. Since the Proscriptions haven't been
explicitly laid out yet in the material I've read so far -- I'm about
halfway through BHD now, and just finished rereading OAR and BSRA --
I'm guessing only David could provide a definite answer, and they
might well explicitly forbid humans from trying to fly, as that's one
of the powers reserved for the Archangels. If they don't, however,
than it seems likely that some form of unpowered flight might be
developed by the Charisians for aerial reconnaissance purposes fairly
early in the war.
The properties of steel thistle silk thus far described would make it
an ideal material for the construction of hang gliders and/or hot air
balloons. A tethered hang-glider or parasail, flown kite-style from a
ship's masthead, could greatly increase sighting distances at sea in
clear weather, while a balloon (probably also tethered, preferably to
three or four widely separated treetrunks to enable it to maneuver by
reeling in or letting out slack on the ropes, the way a spring-
anchored ship or floating battery can) could provide a similarly
commanding view of the land battlefield, as well as a potential
platform for extreme-range sniper fire at angles high enough to hit
dug-in artillery crews. Return fire would be working against gravity,
and would have to target the snipers themselves to be effective --
puncturing a big hot air balloon with something as small as a rifle
round or even a cannonball wouldn't have much effect on its buoyancy.
Tekkaman
Quadibloc
> Where are you in the series?
There is no relevant spoiler to his question in "By Heresies
Distressed"; Nimue/Merlin has still _not_ begun having Charis build,
say, biplanes instead of galleons while playing Connecticut Yankee in
King Cayleb's Court. I think we may have to wait two or three more
books before _that_ happens.
John Savard
Loren Pechtel
I doubt he can build a gasoline engine--spark plugs are electric and
high frequency.
I don't know about diesels but I've never heard of diesel engines for
aircraft.
Robert A. Woodward
Loren Pechtel <lorenp...@hotmail.invalid.com> wrote:
Looks like there are some in the general aviation market
(<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aircraft_diesel_engine>). However, I
suspect that the Prescriptions outlaw all types of heat engines
(steam, internal combustion, turbines, and any other method of
getting power out of burning fuel).
--
Robert Woodward <robe...@drizzle.com>
<http://www.drizzle.com/~robertaw>
deowll
"Loren Pechtel" <lorenp...@hotmail.invalid.com> wrote in message
news:0041e041$0$8176$c3e...@news.astraweb.com...
If you want land cars a Stanly Steamer was the hot car of its day. I think
it could do a 110.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Motor_Carriage_Company This article
short changes this machine a lot. The biggest reason the company failed when
it did was the owner didn't get mass production nor was he willing to let
go.
You should be able to crank start a diesel but it might be a lot of work. I
have no doubt a modern diesel could handle a plane but making one with
primitive tech might be something else.
deowll
"Robert A. Woodward" <robe...@drizzle.com> wrote in message
news:robertaw-CCD93E...@news.individual.net...
A side thought. You need more than a mechanical clock to keep good time for
ships to navigate by.
Pendulum clocks don't keep time accurately on ships.
You need a very good high grade spring driven clock and the quality of the
spring itself is a major issue we, or rather the British, didn't solve until
rather late.
Bob Casanova
in alt.books.david-weber, posted by "deowll"
<deo...@gmail.com>:
For reference:
http://www.horology-stuff.com/more/people/john-harrison.html
--
Bob C.
"Evidence confirming an observation is
evidence that the observation is wrong."
- McNameless
Quadibloc
> However, I
> suspect that the Prescriptions outlaw all types of heat engines
> (steam, internal combustion, turbines, and any other method of
> getting power out of burning fuel).
They do, as this much was explicitly given in Off Armageddon Reef.
However, if things reached the point of building airplanes, this would
mean in any case that Merlin had already reached the point where open
defiance of the Proscriptions of Jwo-Jeng was appropriate.
Thus, the remaining issue would be avoiding anything that would
radiate emissions that the Gbaba could sense - and in that area, the
difference between a Diesel engine and a conventional internal-
combustion engine with spark plugs could well be significant.
John Savard
deowll
"Bob Casanova" <nos...@buzz.off> wrote in message
news:bgc9e5pheci94ujpl...@4ax.com...
I'm not sure he actually got his money during his life and certainly not in
a timely manner. There is no doubt that his clock met the standard. They
tested it very thoroughly. I'm not sure what the motive was for trying to
cheat him.
The article shorted him but then Wekipedia is like that. They want to keep
it short when there is often little to no reason not to make it much more
complete.