Science Behind “The Last Flight of The Aven”
In “The Last Flight of The Aven” the main character, Eva, uses wings made of nanofibers, that can change shape. The story takes place thousands of years in the future, in the sunset of humankinds history. The idea for the story was sparked by thinking about what the last band of Neanderthals must have felt, as they made their last stand deep within a mountain range. Knowledge has been long lost, surviving only as guild secrets that are passed on from generation to generation.
And Eva is the last Aven, using nanofiber wings made with nanotechnology that the Crafting Guild uses, but doesn’t understand. Eva’s wings are similar to a hang glider except that they can change shape, enabling her to soar in various conditions.
Soaring has long been utilized by nature, and one of the masters in the bird world is the albatross. This bird can fly for days without flapping its wings, and while their technique may seem counter-intuitive, this website gives a good explanation of how Eva uses Dynamic Soaring.
Gliding and Soaring uses other sources of lift, including thermals and ridge soaring and human glider pilots have stayed up for many hours and traveled over a thousand miles using the same techniques that Eva uses.
Spreadsheets are great for calculating wing loading, as well as just how long and wide Eva’s wings would have to be to provide a wing load of 3.483599 pounds per square foot, in order to support 180 pounds of Eva and wing.
