I'm with you on this one. Hot air baloons are most probable. After all, the first ones were made out of paper and didn't require a gas burner. IIRC it was held directly above a fire, flew up and landed when the air cooled.



Even better. Btw you made a typo, it's hydrogen, not helium Also, that hydrogen could be the gas for the gas burner of the hot air baloon.

A simple propeller aircraft powered by electric motors running on microcells/batteries would also be possible.

However, one thing surprises me though - lack of hovercraft. Take four robots apart for the propulsion, mount some sort of platform on top and use a fifth robot's propulsion system for forward drive. If you get the balance right, it'd be way better than aircraft - no need to worry about surviving the landing, and, also better than ground vehicles on the rough terrain that exists. Imagine the highwayman having a flat tire...

The jets in RC have a.) their electronics destroyed - EMP or not. b.) their parts rusted c.) no fuel d.) no pilots and e.) no perceived need to ever be flown. However, why haven't they been stripped for parts is a bit of a mystery. Besides, wouldn't their weight be causing some issues for RC's boyancy? One would presume that leaky rusty tub to be way better without that useless weight.

@ Mad Max

A EMP lasts only for a second.

That's true, but if nuclear bombs and missles are blowing up every second one after another, then the EMP would seem it would be longer because the EMP from one bomb and the EMP of another would be so close together in time, that it would really make no difference

Even so, the EMP would not last years, they might over lap during detonation but within a short time of the blasts, the EMP would already dispiate.

I wish there was a schematic for a powered ultralight.
Everything one would need (with some imagination) to build it is in the game.
It would be a cool way to get around the map. Might even be able to mount a minigun on one for some real fun with the raiders, lol.

Hopefully somebody will make a mod for this. It could be like Akatosh Mount mod for Oblivion.
If I knew how to use GECK, I would make one.

An ultralite would be cool, or a gyrocopter, but it would be pretty stupid to use a motorbike engine for it.

Yeah, that would be far too heavy. I was thinking more of a lawnmower or leaf blower engine. Or even some kind of energy jet. Small and not very powerful, of course.
I wouldn't want it to be very fast, just have good STOL characteristics so it wouldn't need a long strip. And a small inflight turning radius.

It almost makes me want to read some GECK tutorials, just to see if I could come up with something like that.
I once ask for it in the mods section, but not much interest in it.

The planes on the deck of Rivet City would be over 330 years old. They are a 1943 design. They are P-80's, (later they became F-80). But, this is a flaw, because they are NOT the Navy version of the plane. They are the Air Force version. The Navy carrier capable version was the T2V Sea Star and had a two place cockpit. They were used for training and as far as I know were never used in combat. The Air Force F-80 was used in Korea and I believe was the first jet vs jet dogfight against a MiG-15. The F-80 shot down the MiG. However, this was a not the norm. The MiG was a much better fighter and it wasn't until the F-86 could the US take on the MiG is a even fight.
They may have lasted due to being nearly all aluminium. But they would certainly need much restoration before they could fly again, if ever. I'm mean 330+ years sitting out on the deck like that would take it's toll.
The P-51's in RC and the museum would be covered in dust, but in near perfect condition, since it is inside and no sign of damage to the rooms they are in. Rubber hoses, wiring and such would have to be replaced, but the airframe would probably be fine.

That is some Aussie thinking right there. But if you put in a Harley 883 Sportster engine in an Ultralite or Gyrocopter, it could work depending on its size. The 883 engine is small enough, but you'd have to build the frame around the engine to get it to take off, and stay on the plane still enough

@TailFlamer: The early F-86's though they could hold their own, were not much against the Russian MiG-15's. Not until the F-86's 6/3 Wing came out did the F-86 really massacre the MiG-15s. And the 6/3 Wing wasn't put on the F-86 until the E-10, F-1, and F-30 came out.

That's pretty good for an Aussie about an American plane

well if the Gyrocaptain could make his own gyrocopter i think someone in Fallout 3 can make one too.

Exactly

I believe it'd be possible, hell if I was in the Fallout world my first goal would be to repair a car or something like that! Fission Batteries are a great source of power, they've kept Sentry Bots, Robobrains, Mister Gutsy's and Protectron's running for 200 YEARS! Without a change in a battery, does that show how much that works out? You know how much POWER those things use in one shot? Plasma runs at 6000 degrees celsius, that's enough to burn you into a crisp in a snap.

So, why should it not be possible to make a jet fly? Oh, right, reality... :brokencomputer:

^cuz bethesda havent included flying since Morrowind.

Yeah, like with most designs, they were in constant developement. However, it was the all flying tail that made the biggest improvement (well the more powerful engines of the later models too).
The wing changes were more to help counter the tactics used by the NK and Soviet pilots in their MiGs. Later models went back to slats, to regain the low speed/altitude characteristics the early models had. A friend of mine changed the 'hard' wing on his to the later slats version for airshow work, because it performed better in that environment.

@Francois Lachon.
Modders could make a jet flyable. However, a jet, even at slightly above stall speed would be too fast for the map of Fo3. A much slower plane would be far better, due to the map size. I would quickly get board flying a jet across the map. But a Ultralight, gyrocopter, or other really slow fying aircraft would be better suited. There are many places in the wastelands where you operate a STOL type plane, but there is nowhere a jet could operate from, other then the Harrier. But for me, a ultralight would fit the game better.

At the end of the day, a bot is more useful to a post apocolyptic survivor than a jet. The bot can farm, guard, and do other work.

A fighter jet is only really useful if you want to shoot down a bomber. And you have the training to fly the thing - most folk who jump into a cockpit are likely to kill themselves without some training on how to land, or how to deal with a aerodynamic stall, etc.

Thus the knowledge get losts over the ages.

Yeah. BTW are those particular models capable of making it to Europe?

The ones on Rivet City seem to be Lockheed P-80 A or B "Shooting Stars" introduced in 1945. (At least in our universe)

Nope, they had a maximum range of 1.930 kilometers. From Washington to the UK or France it is around 5.200 to 5900 kilometers.

Even if you attach all additional fuel tanks available up to its maximum take off weight you still wont find fuel anywhere and if there is still something left in a not ruptured or rusted tank of Rivet City (Assuming the carrier was not a museum piece) its either decomposed and not burnable anymore, totally polluted but most likely it would be completely condensed after 200 years.

I was thinking, it would be interesting that if Beth ever does go out of the US with Fallout, like to Europe or Asia, there could be MiG-15's in ruin? Just a thought. I think seeing what the Fallout equivalent of a MiG-15 would be cool. Like the varient of F-86's in Resistance 2 :tops:

maintenance, or lack of.