Usefulness of Aircraft in Equestria

[SidewinderX 5]

(Staff, I'm sorry if this is in the wrong section of the forum, but I couldn't find anything that really worked)

 

I have been thinking over the plausibility of aircraft in Equestria for a fic I want to write (think WWII combined with the NLR/SE combined with the Civil War), and I think it has merit. Why? Three reasons: endurance, capacity, and speed. The first is the most obvious; a modern 737-700 has a max takeoff weight of 154,000 lbs. A Heinkel He-111 could carry 4,400 lbs of bombs 1,212 miles. That certainly outstrips any pegasus's carrying capacity. That last number also applies to my next point: endurance. Modern long-range aircraft can fly 11,000 miles without refueling. Pegasi need rest, and even with that they certainly can't go that far in any reasonable amount of time. Finally, all but the slowest planes (looking at you, Wright Flyer) can outrun pegasi to a comfortable amount. 1 wingpower equals about 9 MPH according to Faust, and the pegasi in Hurricane Fluttershy seemed to think that 10 wingpower was rather impressive. So we can assume that 10 wingpower (90 mph) is the high end of average for pegasi. A single-engine Bf-109 fighter plane can go 426 MPH in level flight. A Boeing 737 can go 544 miles per hour. Even the slower He-111 that I used for an example earlier can reach 270 MPH. 

 

Pegasi can't outperform aircraft in combat, either. Although they might have the edge in maneuverability, they cannot carry either the amount of weapons, armor, or ammunition that even smaller planes carry as basic armament. A fighter can merely run away, turn around, and take down the pegasus without much danger at all. This discrepancy becomes even more pronounced with modern jets, who could engage pegasi at beyond visual range with radar guided air-to-air missiles. Bombers are still far faster than average pegasi, and can carry more explosives further. Machine guns, especially when fired en masse, can put out enough fire to stop large numbers of pegasi, and they can penetrate clouds. This means that once pegasi expose themselves, the chances of using clouds as cover are nearly nonexistent. Unicorn magic could also be used to enchant parts of the to make them magic-resistant, or give fighters all-around HUDs.

 

Add all this to the fact that plane engines have generally proved themselves to be dangerous to other flying things, and planes have serious potential to replace pegasi in combat, long-range cargo, and passenger flights.

 

What do you think? Would planes be viable in the MLP universe?

Edited yesterday at 02:04 AM by SidewinderX

[SharpWit 2,642]

They're absolutely viable! I would suggest taking a step back though.

You've jumped into a setting where pegasi seem to be completely caught off guard, as though it's humanity invading Equestria.

In a world with jet engines, let alone the fully established weaponization of powered flight, no one's going to send in what has essentially been relocated to winged infantry, in order to combat heavy machinery head on. We'd just be repeating the horrors of the first world war if we did that, with the comical effect of flying into a flock of geese.

Since planes would be the norm, a pegasus or any properly trained equine for that matter, would find themselves seated in an opposing plane or appropriate countermeasure. If this pegasus happens to be on a side that's ill equipped, that countermeasure consists of a hidey hole.

While they can't outperform modern aircraft, a pegasus would be faster and more agile than the earliest war birds. Their ability to control the weather would allow them to funnel or redirect lighter enemy aircraft, as well as implement machine gun nests or rockets, and these would be rather affective for the first decade and a half of airplane development. They could continue to a lesser extent into a WW2 setting, and make a comeback against helicopters for others like Vietnam or the Soviets in Afghanistan, but sooner or later every service member in the Equestrian Air Force would find themselves in a conventional aircraft.

[SidewinderX 5]

13 minutes ago, SharpWit said:

They're absolutely viable! I would suggest taking a step back though.

You've jumped into a setting where pegasi seem to be completely caught off guard, as though it's humanity invading Equestria.

In a world with jet engines, let alone the fully established weaponization of powered flight, no one's going to send in what has essentially been relocated to winged infantry, in order to combat heavy machinery head on. We'd just be repeating the horrors of the first world war if we did that, with the comical effect of flying into a flock of geese.

Since planes would be the norm, a pegasus or any properly trained equine for that matter, would find themselves seated in an opposing plane or appropriate countermeasure. If this pegasus happens to be on a side that's ill equipped, that countermeasure consists of a hidey hole.

While they can't outperform modern aircraft, a pegasus would be faster and more agile than the earliest war birds. Their ability to control the weather would allow them to funnel or redirect lighter enemy aircraft, as well as implement machine gun nests or rockets, and these would be rather affective for the first decade and a half of airplane development. They could continue to a lesser extent into a WW2 setting, and make a comeback against helicopters for others like Vietnam or the Soviets in Afghanistan, but sooner or later every service member in the Equestrian Air Force would find themselves in a conventional aircraft.

Heh, whoops. I probably should have provided context. The idea is that a fairly large amount of creatures seceded from Equestria due to a mix of Celestia's incompetence and the systematic speciesism against sheep, cows, etc.

As part of this secession, the rebels, led by former Princess Luna, have procured a deal with the Griffons (who would love to see Equestria weakened.) This deal includes the Griffons shipping mass amounts of aircraft, guns and vehicles to the rebellion in secret, who will use them in a last‐resort war if negotiations with Celestia for Equestrian national elections and governmental reform fail. Of course, well...they fail. This leaves Equestria, mostly equipped with muskets and swords plus a few Gladiator biplanes(because 'friendship/Celestia/the EoH can solve everything! We haven't had a major war in 1,000 years!') scrambling to defend against a foe whose tactics and armament are decades ahead. The rebels, of course, will have tons of supply issues, and the Equestrians will quickly get better equipment via the Crystal Empire, but in the opening part of the conflict it'll look pretty bad.

I mostly put up this thread to see if thre were angles I wasn't seeing, and how the conflict would work. Thank you tor the cloud machine gun nest idea!

Oh, and this is an AU of course. (No I haven't put way too much thought into this. Why do you ask?)