So you want to fly? What, When, Where, Why, How

n7axw wrote:Hi fallsfromtrees,

My guess is that her resource mapping probably did include those gas and oil fields. My question is did she turn in complete records of what she found to her superiors, or did she simply stash those records with Owl for Nimue to find later?

Don

Don,

You are quite correct - that is the major question, and one I think is going to get answered in HFQ (hope, hope, hope). We already know of at least one find she concealed - can you imagine that the Church would have forgone the bonanza of SilverLode island if they had known about it

fallsfromtrees wrote:

n7axw wrote:Hi fallsfromtrees,

My guess is that her resource mapping probably did include those gas and oil fields. My question is did she turn in complete records of what she found to her superiors, or did she simply stash those records with Owl for Nimue to find later?

You are quite correct - that is the major question, and one I think is going to get answered in HFQ (hope, hope, hope). We already know of at least one find she concealed - can you imagine that the Church would have forgone the bonanza of SilverLode island if they had known about it

The vicars of the CoGA certainly would have enjoyed the tithes from Silverlode. Fortunately those tithes will be going to the CoC, which will use them for appropriate purposes rather than lining the pockets of the priests and vicars.

As for the oil and gas fields, the societal matrix that Langhorne envisioned wouldn't allow for their use, so Shan-Wei didn't need to map them at all, and she certainly didn't need to report them to Langhorne and his cronies!

quote="n7axw"]Hi fallsfromtrees,

My guess is that her resource mapping probably did include those gas and oil fields. My question is did she turn in complete records of what she found to her superiors, or did she simply stash those records with Owl for Nimue to find later?[/quote]

McGuiness wrote:

fallsfromtrees wrote:[You are quite correct - that is the major question, and one I think is going to get answered in HFQ (hope, hope, hope). We already know of at least one find she concealed - can you imagine that the Church would have forgone the bonanza of SilverLode island if they had known about it

The vicars of the CoGA certainly would have enjoyed the tithes from Silverlode. Fortunately those tithes will be going to the CoC, which will use them for appropriate purposes rather than lining the pockets of the priests and vicars.

As for the oil and gas fields, the societal matrix that Langhorne envisioned wouldn't allow for their use, so Shan-Wei didn't need to map them at all, and she certainly didn't need to report them to Langhorne and his cronies!

Actually she would have had to include a lot of that stuff. It would have been suspicious if Shan-Wei hadn't put some of those in since she was responsible for prepping the planet for humanity. At the time the plan was officially (even if it had been derailed by Langhorne and crew and was unofficially changing) that in time there would be a technological rebirth and development. So the location of some of the natural resources a higher tech society used would be a necessity.

The sorts of formations that hold oil and gas are relatively easy to recognize and identify to people trained in petroleum geology, so even a "general" survey would reveal where likely deposits of oil and gas could be found.

Of course knowing and getting are two different things, even here on Earth. One only has to look at how sharply the estimated reserves in the Bakken formation in the Dakotas was revised once "modern" extraction techniques were developed (horizontal drilling and Fracking).

fallsfromtrees wrote:

Philip Stanley wrote:One problem which hasn't been addressed in this topic in re flying machines on Safehold is the fact that aluminum will not be available for either airframes or engines. Aluminum requires the use of electricity to obtain the metal from the ore, and electricity is definitely a no-no!
Without aluminum, the weight of any projected flying machine is going to be probably close to twice what it could have been otherwise - a major obstacle.
Philip Stanley

There were any number of aircraft built without aluminum - virtually all WWI aircraft were built from wood, so no aluminum is not a prerequisite for aircraft.

Dont forget the WWII Mosquito! Outstanding plane made of plywood
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Havilland_Mosquito