The Giant Roc and Pulse Jet propulsion

I am currently in the process of making a world, and am trying to ground it in scientific fact as much as possible. The world is a hard magic setting, and while fantastical creatures exist, they are usually rare or exaggerated re-tellings. Dragons, for instance, do exist, and can fly, but only short distances due to their weight.

While Dragons rule the ground and the air around it, the Roc is king of the sky. I am not particularly scientifically minded myself, but have been looking at various means of making a creature that could have conceivably been created by evolution (and if necessary helped along somewhere by an incredibly powerful and rather insane wizard).

Would it be possible to create a creature that does the following?

1. The Roc would be able to fly at high altitudes, up to 15,000 feet
2. The Roc would be able to maintain altitude for long periods of time, rarely returning to the Earth to land.
3. The ability to take off again, given that it is supposed to be massive in wingspan and would most likely be heavier than a typical bird by quite a lot. (I have thought about some sort of pulse jet assisted takeoff that would double as a means to escape more dangerous prey near the ground, where they are slower and more vulnerable. Perhaps using Nitrogen collected in flight, which is then ignited by powerful electric shock, generated in a similar way to an Electric Eel?)

If necessary, some of this can be hand-waved as magic, although I am interested in limiting magical involvement in/with the Roc.

Thank you in advance, and may you have a wonderful day.

posted almost 5 years ago

Exec_Jack‭

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