Re: [OT] Moon Dragon Review?

Thomas Barclay wrote:

> I'm not sure what the movement you are looking at is like, but I'd 
> imagine the following facts come into play:
> 1. Banking to turn sharper is mostly (AFAIK) a technique that 
> utilizes air pressure to aide the turn (Hence the Star Wars fighter 
> game is true to the movies but an offence to physics)

Yes and no. There are two other aspects to banking too:
a) If an airplane turns without banking, the outer wing will move faster
than the inner one and therefore generate a larger lift. This leads to a
natural banking anyway, but... less controlled than if you do it on
purpose
:-/ I don't know how relevant this is for modern aircraft, and it
certainly
isn't relevant at all for space fighters, but it used to be important.
b) It is easier to build a shock frame for absorbing g-forces directed
"down" rather than towards one side. By banking, you ensure that the
g-forces from the turn push the pilot down into the chair rather than
through the arm-rest <g> This *is* relevant to space fighter combat,
unless
your fighter has gravitic compensators of some sort (depends entirely on
your background, of course).

> 2. Gravity on the lunar surface is like 1/6th of earth. It is there, 
> but won't have as much pull as earth, hence dives to build up energy 
> will be less effective, and energy loses as one climbs will be less 
> pronounced.

However, in the absence of an atmosphere, the only thing you can do with
the energy gained from diving is to go on diving! Aircraft can translate
vertical speed into horisontal thanks to the air pressure on wings and
other lift surfaces; spacecraft can't.

Later,

Oerjan Ohlson

"Life is like a sewer.
What you get out of it, depends on what you put into it."
- Hen3ry