[gurps] Dragon Aerodynamics

[Rupert Boleyn]

Anthony Jackson wrote:
> Rupert Boleyn wrote:
> 
>> How about swimming upside down, using their body's lift to push them 
>> downwards?
> 
> Huh? Their buoyancy will push them upwards regardless of what side up 
> they are in the water, and I haven't assigned them a magical lifting 
> ability. If you mean, using wings or legs to push downwards, that's what 
> birds do, it just takes a fairly substantial amount of work, making it 
> fatiguing, whereas a water dragon can probably just float mostly 
> submerged at minimal energy expenditure.

As I recall, your workup of a dragon included a lift component from the 
body as well as the wings. That lift should still be there in water, so 
I was wondering if it was significant enough that turning upside down so 
the lift worked downwards would help at all. I suspect not, but I 
thought I'd ask.

-- 
Rupert Boleyn <rboleyn at ihug.co.nz>