let's face it when it comes to Game of
Thrones we're all here for the Dragons
drogon rhaegal and Viserion
after all flying on dragon back is every
fantasy nerds dream now we know dragons
are just that fantasy but if these
colossal creatures did exist in our
world could they really get off the
ground
if you look toward the sky around 70
million years ago you might have thought
you saw a dragon back then enormous
flying reptiles called giant pterosaurs
ruled the skies their wingspan was
nearly as long as a telephone pole and
at least one species Quetzalcoatl is
northropi stood as tall as a giraffe and
weighed 300 kilograms that's 15 times
the size of the heaviest flying bird
today the kori bustard giant pterosaurs
may be the closest real animals to the
Dragons of Westeros so if they could fly
surely Danny's dragons could too right
well not exactly
let's consider the mechanics of flight
the hardest part of flying is taking off
and for most animals that requires speed
because the faster you go the more lift
you generate which literally pulls you
into the sky most animals including
Quetzalcoatl as' gain speed to take off
by jumping into the air and the heavier
you are the more power you'll need in
your jump now
Quetzalcoatl 'list got that power using
its back legs and wings they doubled as
front legs so it could push off the
ground on all fours and Dany's dragons
actually use the same approach so you'd
think they'd have no problem taking off
but there's one key difference dragons
are thousands of times heavier than even
the heaviest pterosaurs so even with a
four-legged launch drogon thighs would
have to be way more jacked and they
appear here to push his weight off the
ground
maybe flapping his wings really hard
could help probably not
dragons wings are actually small
relative to the size of his own body
in fact his wings would need to be about
twice their current size to work and if
they were they'd be much too heavy to
move let alone flap unless he had iron
biceps to match those thighs but that
would lead to yet another problem those
powerful
muscles needed for takeoff would put an
equally powerful force on the bones that
support them so unless they were thicker
they'd likely break but here's the thing
thick bones also weigh a lot more so
these dragons would either have bones
that are too heavy for takeoff or bones
that are too fragile to fly either way
they're not going anywhere
that being said all is not lost for our
fire-breathing friends we've assumed
they're made of the same stuff as other
animals but what if their muscles and
bones were made of something else some
special extra strong material perhaps a
metal that already exists in Westeros
Valyrian steel it makes perfect sense
after all who comes from Valyria that's
right
dragons and their Targaryen riders so
all in all could dragons fly in real
life maybe not on earth but in Westeros
with the help of some magic metal the
sky's the limit
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