As an avid RC glider enthusiast of some years and an on-again-off-again initiate of aerodynamics, I feel morally obligated to chime in on this thread long enough to point out that, from a "realism" standpoint, dragoons using the spikes/fins/blades on their drachen/wyrm armor to help control their descent through the skies is absolutely ridiculous.
Ignoring the fact that most of said protrusions are on their backs (there's an argument to be made there for increased air resistance and drag that insures that a dragoon will always descend face-down with their backs to the sky), those that aren't are nowhere near large enough nor positioned well enough to act as ailerons, elevons, flaps, air-brakes, or anything of the sort. To affect a change in course, you need a sufficiently large enough surface area with enough fine motor control over it to affect the right change in airfoil and/or cause enough deflection. Dragoon armor simply doesn't have that. Any change in vector on their way down will owe more to skydiving practices than those too-large-for-ornamentation-and-too-small-for-practical-use protrusions.
I posit that the spikes are there in case, oh, a dragon tries to eat the dragoon and finds that the little man or woman makes too painful a meal to be bothered with, thereby saving the person's life. Let's not try to further justify the ridiculous drachen and wyrm armors by dragging the principles of flight through the mud, shall we?
(inb4 a wizard did it AETHER)
Ignoring the fact that most of said protrusions are on their backs (there's an argument to be made there for increased air resistance and drag that insures that a dragoon will always descend face-down with their backs to the sky), those that aren't are nowhere near large enough nor positioned well enough to act as ailerons, elevons, flaps, air-brakes, or anything of the sort. To affect a change in course, you need a sufficiently large enough surface area with enough fine motor control over it to affect the right change in airfoil and/or cause enough deflection. Dragoon armor simply doesn't have that. Any change in vector on their way down will owe more to skydiving practices than those too-large-for-ornamentation-and-too-small-for-practical-use protrusions.
I posit that the spikes are there in case, oh, a dragon tries to eat the dragoon and finds that the little man or woman makes too painful a meal to be bothered with, thereby saving the person's life. Let's not try to further justify the ridiculous drachen and wyrm armors by dragging the principles of flight through the mud, shall we?
(inb4 a wizard did it AETHER)
![[Image: 1qVSsTp.png]](http://i.imgur.com/1qVSsTp.png)
