On Mar 11, 11:05 am, Bill Swears <wswe...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> Crown-Horned Snorkack wrote:
> > In 1920-s and 1930-s (and later) plenty of aircraft were wood and
> > cloth, rather than metal. Their infernal combustion engines had to be
> > metal, though.
>
> I wonder if you could posit that magnetic activity causes thermal
> lifting bands along the planetary surface? Excite the air enough, it
> warms, and you'd get a lifting action. Then you could play with long
> distance gliders taking advantage of stable aerographic features that
> are unreliable here.
Fun idea, but I don't think so. I don't have any numbers, but the
amount of energy involved in ion storms is very small compared to the
amount of heat energy the Earth receives from the Sun. It's easy to
excite the ionosphere because its density is one-zilliionth that of
the lower atmosphere. If there was so much radiation coming in that
it noticeably warmed the atmosphere, it would be like living in a
microwave oven.
>
> > If magnetic storms are common, would they cause serious interference
> > with the navigation of a wooden ship (that has a compass)?
If you want them to, yes--it would depend on how weak the planet's own
magnetic field is and how sustained the disturbances. Continuous
turbulence in the magnetic field would make a compass needle jump all
over the place.
There are inertial navigation thingys that use electronic gyros and
don't need a compass at all, but perhaps the settlers left all of
those on their other colony ship.
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