How can a jet-propelled horse work?
I was reading more Laundry stories and just went through Equoid. The humorous "Procurement Specification" got me thinking. In a rational SF approach (as opposed to magic), imagine a civilization developing biological based technology. They don't build machines like we do, and never thought of a horseless carriage in the same terms we do; rather, designed an organism to carry loads.
Eventually they want to make powered flight. Given that some animals in the natural world do in fact fly, it was obvious to produce man-rated mounts and device cargo carrying solutions.
Given eventual technological advance, they can shape their planet's living things to their every will. Meanwhile, something like internal combustion engine is never invented.
How would they "make" a jet propelled aircraft?
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My answer is going to go well beyond what we can ever expect from reality, so I hope your definition of "rational SF" is fairly liberal.
This is going to be a major undertaking in genetic engineering, probably requiring several generations. As you suggest, we will start with equine DNA- horses and mules- in order to get the load-carrying ability. We'll also keep those horse traits that make them good human companions.
Next, we mix in some cephalopod DNA- squids and nautilus- to get jet propulsion, or better yet salps. We will likely have to tinker around with this a lot to convert the jet-pumping organs from aquatic to aerial, but we have lots of time and research grants, right?
Ah, but we forgot the wings. Finally, let's find some amber-encased mosquitoes and pull in a little quetzalcoatlus DNA, so we have large wings that fold up when on land and still allow quadrapedal motion. We'll also take from quetzy the extremely beneficial bone-strength-to-weight ratio.
Notice that I excluded the use of birds. Birds tend to hop rather than walk when on land, probably not a good thing for riders or cargo. Besides, as I've stated here before, modern literature needs more quetzalcoatlus.
This post was sourced from https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/a/35697. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
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