I love the noise it makes and how it manages to look like a helicopter and biology inspired. And the wing folded dive to get to the spice harvester is just fantastic.

On the ground

In the air

  • Skua@kbin.social
    6·
    11 个月前

    Most of the problems with an ornithopter are the difficulties of engineering rather than concept, which I think it’s safe to say a society as far in the future as Dune’s may well have sufficiently solved. Considering how brutal the conditions of the planet are - sand is horrible to any and all mechanical workings - and how there’s only really one safe place to land, the fact that the ornithopters can effectively glide or even just keep flying if either of its two propulsion mechanisms fails actually offers a really good safety margin for that environment specifically.

    I mean, obviously they were chosen first and foremost because it’s a cool visual. But within the context they make some sense.

    • leftzero@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      11 个月前

      they were chosen first and foremost because it’s a cool visual

      They used ornithopters in the books (though I don’t think the specifics of the design were ever described); I don’t remember if Herbert ever specified why he used ornithopters and not helicopters, or planes, or airships, or levitating ships, though; maybe they’d be less likely to attract worms, maybe he just felt they added to the alien / far future feeling of the setting.

    • JohnDClay@sh.itjust.worksOPEnglish
      2·
      11 个月前

      Good point, maybe rotary seals weren’t up to the challenge of the extremely sandy conditions on dune so they needed to go with flexible bellows for protecting the internal mechanisms instead of gaskets. Or something.

      • Eheran@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        11 个月前

        Sealing a shaft is far easier than those flapping mechanisms and sand has been solved for many decades now. It never has to move lateral to the sealing surface, very unlike those flapping things. That is what makes it so easy.

        The flap surfaces themselves have to move faster during the stroke than a continuously rotating blade, so they will also suffer from more damage due to abrasion.

        • JohnDClay@sh.itjust.worksOPEnglish
          2·
          11 个月前

          I’m talking about something like this, it won’t need any gap between the surfaces. But obviously I’m not an ornithopter designer on dune.

          Seal

          • Eheran@lemmy.worldEnglish
            1·
            11 个月前

            Jep, if the range of motion is enough, the sealing surface does not move there too.