DeeBot

Actually, using classic aerodynamic models, even a Cessna can't fly. So they're just really horrible; bumblebees are so small that some different aerodynamic effects come into play. They're flying through what, to them, is like maple syrup. Turbulence, which is something normal aerodynamic design shoos off into a corner and tolerates, is exploited.

Works for me. Not like we'll probably get a definite answer, anyway; there's surely not enough running time left to cover minor plot points like this. Heck, I'm gratified they got to it at all.

Dunno, sounds like . I guess that might be better than . ?

Yeah, someone posted a HQ screengrab of it:

Milia, yes, but what made you think Max was a virgin?

You didn't miss much.

I predict:

They really built those things, didn't they? Definitely want to pour over this episode with a magnifying glass once the HD raws are out. Nah, Togo's always like that. Just gotta develop a thick skin around him. Anyway, my favorite part of this episode:

Maybe he's Australian.

We have variable fighters now. One of them is called the F-14... (Yes, yes, it's not a "Variable Fighter." ) The idea of variable geometry has a long history in aeronautics, dating back to mankind's attempts to mimic the flight of birds, who already use variable geometry (flapping wings, anyone?). Heck, birds even have GERWALK. So physically, yes, it's certainly possible, perhaps even efficient. The problem, of course, is our technology. The F-14 and B-1 swing wings carried a huge weight penalty, in the form of robust joints capable of swinging the entire wing assemblies. Even mimicking the capabilities of, say, a housefly is beyond our current technology. (It's interesting to note that research has been done in the last decade or so into true variable wings, however, that can transform the entire wing to different airfoil shapes, just like a bird does. That's even more radical than the sort of transformations you see in Macross, which are relatively simple mechanically. They can make fully transformable toys, after all. ) Throw in a healthy infusion of OverTechnology, though, and the leap isn't really so great from what we have now to what you see in Macross. As David Hingtgen noted, anything will fly if you apply enough thrust. That's essentially what rockets do, after all. A lightweight nuclear powerplant ought to do the job handily. Maintaining flight control during transformation is a trickier question, of course. Current aircraft are already aerodynamically unstable, though, so I think it's just a matter of throwing enough computing power at the problem. If you could solve all the other problems, I think transformation into battroid in midair wouldn't be impossible, though of questionable usefulness. By the way, Hereticpoo initially wondered how, say, the VF-1's wings could possibly support all the weight. First off, the VF-1 is generally modeled on the F-14, so it's not outlandish. Second, if you've seen a profile of a modern supersonic fighter wing, it looks essentially flat, with hardly any airfoil at all. At the speeds they're usually going, they don't need a lot of lifting surface to generate sufficient lift. (Nevertheless, something like the F-15, which is almost all lifting surface, makes a better air superiority fighter.) In fact, the physics of hypersonic aircraft has more in common with flat plates than with traditional curved airfoils.

The gg subs agree, so I'm pretty sure that wasn't a tricky bit to translate. The confusion comes from why Alto seems to think that it's still not a good idea for Sheryl to guzzle down her drink (born out one scene cut later). Some have speculated it's slightly alcoholic, and she manages to get drunk on it through excess, but I'm more inclined to think that the drink is simply very sugary, and Alto is going to warn her that drinking too much is still going to make her sleepy. I think her behavior isn't entirely a result of the food, though, but has a pre-existing psychological cause. It's unclear whether it's something to do with her pills (as Alto thinks), something to do with her childhood (as suggested by the flashback), or maybe a mix of the two. She's already acting pretty silly well before they get down to dinner; the drink may have just made her doze off. Alto. Seriously, Sheryl could have jumped all over him, and he wouldn't do anything. Heck, she already has. As an aside, my favorite part of this whole scene has to be when Sheryl's using her chopsticks. Alto's got this wonderfully artistic set of dishes out, and she's so unsophisticated in comparison. Kinda inverts your expectation of what a superstar should act like ("Sheryl's rich! She must dine like this all the time!"), but then she had a very unusual rise to stardom.

And we're talking about the fan art you were responding to. Trust us, we're not making it up, either.

While we had a discussion in another thread about it, I like the way you tie it all together. Although that story is apparently so convoluted, you could probably make all sorts of parallels between the two plots, with varying levels of accuracy.

I concur completely.

I'm not going to get into a war of insults with you--my original comment was mostly tongue-in-cheek--but I'll just point out that they're paper airplanes, not paper-and-metal airplanes. Just like it's not origami if you start taking scissors to it. You could build an airplane out of paper that has a gasoline engine, flies at 400 mph, and carries 4 people comfortably, but it's not a paper airplane. I enjoy building R/C airplanes out of balsa, but I'm not going to call it a paper airplane just because it contains wood fiber.

Well, the people who ran off with the Quarter are pirates. Alto & company are the real SMS. After all, it's Bilrer's company, not Wilder's or Ozma's. And of course, SMS was merged with NUNS, but possibly are still a unit within NUNS, rather than handing out NUNS patches to everyone. That's the way I figured it, anyway. Of course, it might just be that they're too lazy to fiddle with the artwork, but how much does it really matter?

Umm... she's holding it behind her back. It's not flying at all.

But, see, everybody wins!

SW1, I think, is sorta in analogy to WW1/WW2. SW2 would have to be a conflict so vast, it encompasses all of the now-dispersed branches of humanity. That seems exceedingly unlikely, so it seems like there'll never be a SW2. But you never know. There have been many small brush wars in the world since 1945, but you wouldn't have called any of them World War III just because they took place on Earth.

I still think the NUN is more of a loose alliance than a rigidly top-down government. Glass was president of the government on Frontier, but that government essentially reports to no one, even though all of humanity is part of the NUN political entity. Nothing we've seen seems to suggest that Glass, or now Leon, had responsibilities beyond Frontier. They certainly seem to have no idea what's going on on Galaxy, nor did Galaxy pick Frontier because Glass was there, but for many other reasons. You'd think if the seat of government were there, it'd figure more prominently in their calculations. The Senate also seems to be restricted to Frontier; when they vote to make the long distance jump, they aren't taking opinions from other fleets. Glass also seems mainly concerned about Frontier's fate, and nothing more; he wants to finish Frontier's colonization mission, not fight a war with the Vajra or investigate any larger threat to humanity. Think of it a bit like how the real world UN works. The UN of SW1 was a unified world government, quite different from the real world UN. This was forced by various events, such as the arrival of ASS-1 and the prospect of alien invasion. Once humanity began dispersing itself, political control would also need to be kept dispersed. Each fleet is independent enough and isolated enough that they essentially act as their own small nations. Since we know that mankind hasn't developed Vajra-style zero-latency fold communication yet, we can assume that it would be impossible to maintain a centralized, galaxy-spanning empire, even if it were desirable. Still, all of humanity (among other races) would nominally acknowledge that they're members of one international organization, the New UN. They would have what would essentially be diplomatic contacts between themselves, and pledge mutual defense aid. Asking Earth for help would be like having a small country (Frontier) ask a much larger country (Earth) for help in defending against an aggressor (the Vajra). I think it's significant that the government on Frontier is extremely reluctant to ask for assistance, even now, even though you'd assume that they'd ask for it as soon as they first came under attack. The NUN might not even have a single president. The NUN's executive might simply be a council of the various presidents of the various fleets and inhabited planets, making collective decisions. Now, I'll cheerfully admit that there's no evidence for any of this. But there's no real evidence Glass is anything more than essentially the mayor of Frontier (Milia-style), either. There's just the one vague, ambiguous statement that Glass is the president of the New UN, but I think it's most likely that this just means the NUN branch on Frontier. We took the statement at face value and ran with it.

Paper clips is cheating. Ideally, you should be able to design a paper airplane that has the right weight balance naturally. This is much easier said than done, of course.