Are Pegasus possible IRL?

[LucasB 195]

People have always gotten one thing wrong about the ponies, and that is how they compare to real ponies. When you measure a horse, the height is measured from the ground to the wither. However, since the ponies in MLP have necks that basically go straight up, people tend to measure the whole pony height. That is completely logical, however you can't use that height to compare to real horses. The dimensions of the ponies in MLP is fairly consistent with real baby horses (no adult pony is 2 feet tall in real life), the ponies in MLP simply have a larger head and an upwards neck, so they are basically 70 cm ponies.

Now to the idea of flying ponies in real life. In real life, a baby horse that is 70 cm tall is probably around 50 kg, and since MLP ponies are skinny yet have huge heads, their weight would be around 50 kg as well. Pegasi ponies might have lighter bones but they also have wings. The wing loading of the Golden Eagle is around 7 kg/m², so assuming a Pegasus in real life flies in a similar fashion to an Eagle, it's wing area must be around 7.1 m². However, it is possible for a bird to fly with a wing loading up to 20 kg/m², meaning the Pegasus can manage to take off slowly and glide with a wing area of just 2.5 m². The ponies seem to have a body length of around 60 cm and a body height of 30 cm, meaning the wings must fold within that dimension. When expanded like a normal bird, the wings would have a total surface area of no more than 1.5 m² total (assuming a folded wing is a quarter of it's total area. Completely insufficient for flight. In order to achieve just the minimum wing surface area, the wings would fold up to be 32 cm x 96 cm. This would cause the wings to extend far out of the body, probably protruding by 30 cm. That is half the length of the body. Possible? Yes. Maybe stretch the pony a little, make the wing folding a bit more compact, then add a bit more wing surface area to make a pony that can fly. So realistically,  it is actually possible for a Pegasus to physically work.

As for in the show, I suspect Pegasi don't actually rely on their wings entirely to fly. They have a magical power that allows flight. We seen that Tirek was able to steal flight from ponies, making them incapable of flight despite having functional wings. For Rainbow Dash to accelerate that quickly and have super agility, her wings would have to be much larger and impossibly strong. The only explanation is magic. Gravity on this planet can't be any lower than Earth since there is an atmosphere, and a lower gravity would cause the atmosphere to be too thin for life. The ponies do breathe, meaning respiration is a thing and they need oxygen.

[Goat-kun 2,502]

It is possible for some very large animals to fly but not in the way birds do it and not with the same body plan you see in MLP.

[Kadeda 178]

Anythings is possible.

[Lucid_Nightlight 923]

They'd require massive wings!

[Props Valroa 26,187]

It might be possible with genetic engineering and tampering with creation, though in the wild I don't see it happening.

[Vlazamal 338]

Ponies wouldn't be breaking the sound barrier like RD, sadly

[MangoFoalix 24,899]

I think they could with certain body modifications. Maybe give pegasi gigantic wings to help disperse their body weight out.

[Cwanky 17,472]

Magic is the key aspect that makes pegasi able to fly. Even Celestia said so explicitly when Tirek was robbing everypony of their powers. Otherwise ina world without magic and abiding by our rules of physics, there’s little chance that someone like this can fly on his own:

[RDDash 18,908]

You have something that is really heavy, like maybe 200 kg minimum per pony with the wings that realistically cannot support their body weight. Your pony is a lot more heavier if it's the same size as Celestia.

You also have a horse/pony that for some reason evolved two extra limbs for flight instead of just evolving upper body hooves into wings.

Maybe something like this

Edited June 30, 2018 by R.D.Dash

[Flutterstep 46,680]

From what I know, I don't think any 4 leged creature with wings has ever existed.