Talk:Gnomish flying machine

Flying Machine Evolution
The evolution of flying machines in Azeroth is a tricky subject since the events of Warcraft III have monoplanes being invented before biplanes; but this can be resolved. The first flying machines were gyrocopters, simple machines that follow logically from the basic idea of Leonardo da Vinci's helical airscrew. A rotor produces lift and a propeller produces thrust, with some of that thrust being deflected to resist the spin of the rotor. This design was pioneered by the gnomes in the second war but by the time of the third war the air corps were staffed by dwarves using similiar but presumably slightly larger versions of the same craft. It's quite possible they were using craft that the gnomes had built, but that the gnomes had recalled their active duty pilots to serve in the defense of Gnomeregan, leaving the dwarves to pick up the slack. This would make some sense in that gnomish pilots and submariners would be the only gnomes to have any actual combat experience of any type.

The Gnomeregan invasion came while the Gnomish flying machine (the biplane configuration) was being prepared for use. A sizable force was already prepared and in service. But with gnomeregan gone, the production lines for this aircraft were lost and the gnomes had an opportunity to revise their designs, resulting in the more modern dwarven monoplane; designed by gnomes after their city fell, but produced in Ironforge and thus attributed to the dwarves.

I think they should rename them Gyrocopters cause that sounds better. I mean, Flying Machine? That's kinda vague...

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 * Its called Gnomish Flying Machine as that was what it was called in Warcraft II. I can't find any source that calls this model a "gyrocopter" so I've removed that tidbit.Baggins 05:38, 11 November 2007 (UTC)