As far as dragonflight goes, I'm going to go with Magic, since it does exist in skyrim.
Either they have a 'featherlight' enchantment in their basic physiology, Eat primarily foods that contain that effect... or have very very hollow bones.

I mean, seriously.
The weight of a chicken thigh is 30% bone. A 100 lb leg would have a 30lb thigh bone.
(I'm going with experience de-boning chickens to use their meat after skinning. The weight includes water and marrow that dries up when the bone has been left to sit. Dry bones you find outside are super light compared to the ones fresh out of an animal)
To gather what looks three or four good-sized bones from this dragon -fresh from the corpse... And have the total only weigh 15 lbs?
The bones must be hella-filled-with-air.
A very intense inner lattice? -hollow like bird bones-
Anyway, it does seem brittle enough to be hollow, since you can apparently slice through the skull (finishing move) with an axe.
It doesn't seem that impressive, since you can see axes slicing through people's heads whenever. But even just an elephant's skull has nearly a foot of bone to go through. Hunters have Special bullets are made to punch through that.

If we assume the bones are all super-low-density, the rest of the body must be fairly lightweight as well, to avoid breaking the bones while doing anything involving motion.
So all the armor and scales must be of a similar lightweight but sturdy material.
(So you can shoot an arrow and it will actually stick, instead of bouncing off like a rock wall)
So the scales would be something like hardened chitin or ivory. Enough to defend one's soft bits, but not hard enough to deflect determined swords.

Dragons also don't seem to be very adept at flying.
They can flap up into the air, but it seems very tiresome and time-consuming. They tend to swoop by with minimal wing-beats to breath fire, or just land and bite at the person.
Very rarely will a dragon pick up someone to fling them and kill them. (So aerial acrobatics are difficult)
Their wings look more like bat wings, which requires a lot of flapping to keep aloft, but they tend to glide more than anything.

It reminds me of a turkey getting into a tree. They can't REALLY fly, but they can glide and use wings to get places a normal jump cant.

So it appears that -although biologically they could be super-light and therefore more attuned toward flight than they first appear- they still have to keep themselves aloft with magic.

Since their shouts are attacks that summon huge destructive magics, and their power is called 'The Voice'
couldn't their magic be imbued into their entire language?
I read in one of the tablets on the way to... that one place where the four greybeards? teach you words of power and how to Whirlwind sprint.... that either dragons or a dragonkiin could not tell lies in the language of dragons, because the words would only speak of what is true - what would happen.

Perhaps a dragon is singing itself aloft? Or whispering. Or maybe the loud cries that you hear while they circle is just a re-application of their flight magic?

You mentioned it yourself, feather spells. Or more generally speaking, magic.

I'm quite certain most everything about dragons can be explained with "magic"

M-A-G-I-C

The sun is also a hole in the sky to Aetherius.

This is a game where you can carry 10 sets of armor and you're worried about dragon physics?

Uhm...Eldunari.
Duh.

Booya.

if you take anything from real world mythos dragons fly do to their air sacs like how birds fly but they use the gas inside them from specific plants when digested to make them lighter ( hot air rise's ) and if you do not want to think of it like that then try this.





A wizard did it... Dragon wizard

How realistic is a dragon flying?

Are we really having this conversation?

:blink:

Really?

Wasps/bees aren't meant to fly either according to physics.. They do really break the laws of physics so i don't see why dragons couldn't....

You know the mistake you made right?

You tried to apply logic and science to a FANTASY GAME.

In Daggerfall an dragon explain thats dragons use their voice for levitation magic and dragon by self says thats their physiology don't allow them fly well without magic.
Too bad Dragonborn cant learn such shout.

Well said

continuing with this logic the dragons don't seem like they should exist

So you think...

Doesn't mean one can't wonder, ya know? Not everybody likes to brag about their computer specs and whine about bugs. There is more to the game than clicking your mouse to swing a sword.

I think if you take in consideration the weight of their bones and whatnot, it isn't out of this world to see one of those big things gliding around without much problem. But, I don't know that their wings would have what it takes to get them off the ground. It's gotta be the power of their voice! In Skyrim, anyway.

That's been figured out now: http://www.livescience.com/528-scientists-finally-figure-bees-fly.html

WOW ... you are putting waaay too much thought into this!

This is an urban myth. Wasps and bees don't break the laws of physics or aerodynamics. Nothing breaks the laws of physics and nothing that flies breaks the laws of aerodynamics. There was a tv programme a few years ago about dragons on british tv. Seriously. It was a drama about a dead dragon being found in eastern europe. It was presented in the style of a nature programme. They investigated the properties of dragons and their explanation for flight was pretty cool. It was due to a dragon's digestive system breaking food and water down into hydrogen which gets channelled into two organs a bit like swim bladders. The hydrogen is also how dragon's could breathe fire. It was a good show. Never been repeated sadly.

Wasps and bees beat their wings at incredible speeds, allowing them to fly, they don't break the laws of physics. Common misconception due to the difficulty of studying how they and other insects fly.

dude, do you know how extreme the mechanics would have to be for a giant lizard to fly? it would have to have the relative strength of an ant, wingspan of 500 ft, and bones so light they would break if it ever tried to land.

i think the concept of dragons is so popular partially because the idea of a giant freaking lizard that can fly is so frighteningly outlandish. its basically a t-rex that you can never escape because it can follow you into the sky itself. as for skyrim, i think its a shout or more likely considering the age of the dragons, the apparently lost levitation spell.

basically, magic. dragons fly because theyre magic.

That is actually a dang good theory. I love how they use it to also explain how dragons breathe fire. Very cool, and much more imaginative than "it's magic!"

Also think how dinosaurs used to be able to fly. I think one of the largest Pterosaurs had a 18m wingspan and was able to fly.

its because dragons aren't real and are honestly a dumb concept to begin with considering nothing that big can fly. even the old school prterosaurs had less body mass and more wing span. but the dragons do probably have hollow bones and relaly powerful muscles. they also tend not to lap alot whch is something larger birds also do. flying is about catching the currents not necessarily powering through the air. thats how birds fly. Bats on the other hand have to keep beating and beating their wings. a dragon. wul dprobably prefer to flap few times.

It's a dragon shout. That's why dragons are constantly screaming in the air.