Interested in designing something fun?

First topic message reminder :

I'm an author and illustrator in the fantasy genre, and I am working on a book series currently that requires some designs for repeating crossbows with a simple and effective lever or crank action that could be mounted on the back of a very large animal, say the size of a rhino, that could be operated by a single rider.

That was a mouthful...

I've done rudimentary first sketches which led me to understand that I didn't know enough about crossbows to fake it reliably, started doing research, and began to love crossbows.

But I realized that I need to find some crossbow enthusiasts to help me out a bit with terminology and the dynamics of such a thing; I want it believable, since I will be illustrating it in the books. Then I stumbled across this site while doing research.

It's a long-term project, so I promise I won't be a pest on the site. javascript:emoticonp('')

You can see some of my artwork here: http://www.toddlockwood.com/

Anyone interested in corresponding with me on designs would have my gratitude, and might be challenged to help invent something fun.

Many thanks in advance.

Interesting stuff! Those air racers have balls of titanium!

Regarding G-forces: yes, the riders will wear suits that lace tightly around the legs, such that when they draw them up their legs are squeezed to prevent blood pooling, much like the flight suits that jet pilots wear. The isometric stuff is interesting if only in that I sit all day and need to start thinking about blood pressure ... my wife will love you for that.

Not sure where you came up with 130 miles per hour. These are big animals, not jets. Perhaps in a full dive -- terminal velocity for a skydiver prior to opening his chute is 120 mph. That's full-on terminal velocity. Add wings, tail, and a need to control, and we're going nowhere near that fast. I hear your concern about the lances. It would take some engineering, for sure. They wouldn't be slender, they'd have to be fairly stout. Also the stop isn't on the chest, it's lower, braced on a thick reinforced pad, and yes the animal is armored everywhere that splinters might fly. I'm not giving it up for an atlatl... First of all, they need their tails for flight control, and in my mind's eye, it's very not cool.

But I will lose the coil spring.

Still unsure what the best approach is to the spanning thing. Freedom of movement for the rider has to be paramount. If your armor invention encumbers them with wing-like plates of armor, it's not good. Anything wide and flat is going to catch air. Also, when they're scrapping with other dragons in the air, they want to be free to use their back up weapon be it crossbow, sword, spear.

Hmm. So far, this discussion has danced backed and forth across just about every concern and idea I'd had, only more so.

Still, many thanks for the research and videos! You're awesome!

I just got this really nice difibrilator we can play with...who's in?

Hydraulics: Steampunk is becoming very hot all of a sudden, making me wish I had steam power. But that would require dragons flying around with tanks of compressed steam and a burn chamber of some kind, plus fuel, AND there ammo ... That just seems like a really bad idea.

I've been focused on writing for the longest time, and on the "paying work." None of this military tech really comes into play in the first volume, though, so all is cool. I'll be seeing it all in the next one though.

Book one done, agents are interested. Cross your fingers for me!

And many many thanks again for all the insights. It was fun to come back here after several weeks and read it all again with fresh eyes.

Haha...so I didn't miss the epic battle chapter. ....congrats on gaining agent's interest(you had it in your pocket from the start).

I was hoping I'd find something in time and I did....surprisingly it's not steam power or hydraulics, but simply compressed air that can handle it...some air valves and air flow direction switches and it's set. In the video, the pneumatics are oriented in such a way that it's not a very compact design, if one was to turn them around and place the cylinders right above the arrow track we can cut the crossbow length in half....only question is where to get/place the source of compressed air(tank, compressor, other means).

I was also thinking, since the dragon has the ability to pump out a serious high pressure burst of flammable substance out to a great distance, so why can't this stuff be used as a fuel source for a spanning mechanism powered by a small engine...say a small two cylinder.

Just dropping a few new thoughts into our idea cloud here.



PS: We should also think about the magazine since it's a serious aspect that can drag our complete and ready spanning mech into uselessness.

Sumthin for a rhino sized critter and repeating.hmmmm. Mounting machine on creatures back does not make much sense. Rhino pulling a cart mounted machine to shoot over the critters head makes sense. This way as the cart is pulled the wheels can be used as a powersource to load bolt projector.When the cart is stationary, the critter could pull a rope that winds around a pulley to provide power for full auto or semi auto. If you want to see what a real serious machine looks like go to www.wattsunique.com and scroll down main page to ballista links.5000lbs pull, 60 inches draw length, powered by twisted bundles of rope. 400fps. with 7500 grain "arrows". I have a smaller version mounted on a Scorpyd crossbow platform.Also check out www.alieninsect.com

Really interesting topic guys and gals. I lost track of time thinking about dragon powered crossbows and almost burnt lunch.

The comment about the Navi having carbon fiber bones made me think of R.R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire series. I think at one point he goes into some detail about how the increased iron deposits in dragon bones make them strong and flexible, perfect for making a bow (or prod?).

Haha, watch yourself man! You need the nutrition to survive.

Good to see you on the forums again, I was going through the member list and ran across your name...lol, couldn't resist sending you an invite.

The topic is a bit dusty, since we haven't touched it in a while - the original poster kinda just evaporated back into his work...pretty cool art though and it will be interesitng to hear if he's had any luck with our suggestions. We might just continue this topic with a fresh look on things...quite a bit of time passed since we last dipped in here, haha!

All in all, Crim, it's good seeing you man. Let us know how that all wood crossbow project is doing (yeh, I have good memory considering I have to have a virtual copy of the forum in my head to make things work...well..when I'm awake and sober anyway )

Ivo