Mark spake thusly upon matters weighty:
> From what I can tell, it would appear that much of the games
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)
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. 3.
Atmospheric drag on airless worlds should not be a factor.
That's just my 0.02.
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> Thomas Barclay wrote:
> I'm not sure what the movement you are looking at is like, but I'd
If I remember correctly Moon Dragon does not include any of the above 3
factors into its system. I know that it ignores gravity and atmospheric drag.
I'm not as sure about the first.
Enjoy,
> Thomas Barclay wrote:
> I'm not sure what the movement you are looking at is like, but I'd
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,
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,