Now I've been wondering this lately... in the Fallout timeline, I believe it says somewhere that most travel by vehicle had stopped, due to the lack of oil available throughout the few years before The Great War. Now, combine that with the fact that there are gas stations throughout D.C., and although there was that car that you could power by energy cells in Fallout 1 or 2, I'm pretty sure it's safe say that the majourity of cars were powered by oil/petrol/fuel, whatever you want to call it. Now along with the fact that the post-war world had been blown to sh*t, this seemed a viable reason for not being able to commandeer any vehicles throughout the Fallout games, besides from the Highwayman (which was apparently powered by electricity).

But now this got me thinking. VB-02 VTOL Vertibirds were not only used by the Enclave throughout the Fallout games, including a massive rampage in D.C., but they were also used in Anchorage, Alaska, to assist the U.S. Army with the transport of goods and soldiers. So, I am curious - if these Vertbirds required oil to function, where did this oil come from during the Anchorage Reclamation, and more importantly, 200 years after The Great War (even if it is the government that has it)? And if these Vertibirds do not use oil, what do they use? Because I'd find it a little unbelievable if they used electricity.

Anyway, discuss, hopefully someone can come up with an answer.

Thank you,
Foxtrot

We discussed a few ideas on the Vertibirds in another thread recently.

In the Fallout universe, small and light enough water pressure reactors (like those in submarines) were available to power cars so its very likely that the Vertibirds are also nuclear powered.

The rotors can be easily powered by electric motors which may recieve their electricity from typical fission reactor style steam-turbogenerators or maybe even from a fusion reactor of some sort.
There also seem to be no visible exhausts or air intakes on the Vertibirds so its unlikely that they are powered by fossil fuel.

Vertibirds are obviously hamster wheel powered.

You get 5 men and nmake them run. it makes the vertibird fly

The problem is, though, that even with nuclear power, you still need oil for lubrication. Heck, the only electric circuits on my AR-15 are the red dot sight, but I still need to oil parts of the gun for it to function properly...

There's a very easy answer for this:

the devs are computer software programmers, not mechanics (Although I'm the latter. ) .

Considering how far the west coast has come since the bombs, they probably had developed purely lab-created lubricants for their equipment than uses little, if any dino juice (Like modern engine oil and bearing grease.).

As for the east coast, probably pre-war stocks. (Refined oil can last for a LONG time if it's not contaminated by water.)

Since when do you need to be a mechanic to know that vehicles require oil to function?

I suppose they run with nuclear power in East Coast. Hence their blowing up upon being shot enough.

My little sister toasted her first car because she didnt know cars needed oil

I don't want to seem ignorant but didn't the Enclave did have one of the last oil rigs as their base of operations right. Was the oil it was sitting on already depleted before the war?

I've heard of people putting veggie oil in their cars thinking it works like motor oil, so I wouldn't be surprised if it's not common knowledge.

A lubricant can be anything: animal fat, vegtable oil, petrol, etc. Even water can be (though it's not recomended as it can easily rust parts.) All it needs to do is to keep the machine parts (relatively) clean and free to move. If you know how to use what's around you, finding a lubricant for machines isn't too hard.

Your forgetting the extreme heat and pressure (That's what an oil pump is for.) that engines, transmissions, etc. create.

I can't imagine the damage something like animal fat would do to an engine!

If you meant something like say, a retractable landing gear on a vertibird, anything that doesn't trap dirt would do the trick.

And NEVER use pure water as lubrication in machinery.

Concept artists need some sort of believable foundation to their designs to make them work.