secret plan of Thronesis a show that postulate a serious suspension of disbelief . It exist in a universe where the dead can rise from their graves , humans can see through the middle of animals , anyone cantravelbetween Dragonstone and Eastwatch at or near the speed of light , and Jon Snow can retain an unplowed scowl for seven straight seasons .
Still , as we foreknow the premiere ofGame of Thrones ’s eighth and final time of year on April 14 — and as we remember cowering each metre Drogon hovered in midair to teem a throatful of flame over one of Daenerys Targaryen ’s opposition in last time of year ’s big - budget battles — we jump to question : Could a beast that big really manoeuvre through the gentle wind like that ? Fortunately , two scientists who have dedicated their lives to studying flying creatures check to exculpate that up for us .
Kevin McGowan , a Cornell bird watcher whospecializes in crows , says there ’s one major problem with dragon flight : physic . “ They ’re just so all-fired big , ” he pronounce . “ elbow room too big to ever get off the dry land . ”
For comparing , there ’s the albatross , which weighs around 25 Lebanese pound and needs a 10 - metrical unit wingspan in guild to heave itself into the aviation . And birds do n’t descale up easily . McGowan says that as a bird gets wakeless , its wingspan has to grow exponentially to keep up : “ If you need a 10 foot wingspan for a 25 - quid bird , what would you demand for a 2000 - pound dragon ? ” ( Last season , one eagle - eyed engineerestimatedthat Drogon weighed around three dozens and flew with a wingspan under 60 feet — and the dragons are even handsome now . )
In the real world , doll species generally stay put small to deflect having to uprise their wings exponentially . Those that do grow large wing , like the albatross , can travel foresighted distance — but pay the toll in maneuverability . Birds with smaller wings can operate in tighter blank , but have to expend much more vigor to stay aloft . “ boo make a mountain of compromises to fly , ” McGowan say , “ and dragons just are n’t doing that . ”
Still , there is some hope for letting our dragon - sized fantasies take flight . Michael Habib , a palaeontologist and assistant prof of clinical consolidative anatomical skill at the University of Southern California ’s Keck School of Medicine , take the flight mechanics of extinct animals , includinggiant pterosaursonce think to be too big to get off the ground . He also make with film studios like Disney , Marvel , and Lucasfilm to design believable flying monsters like griffin , hippogriffs , and pegasi . There are three trick , he says , for plausibly scale up fantasy flying creatures .
First , you want to give them the right annexe case . Like modernistic daylight bats , flying reptile — whichlivedfrom 228 to 66 million years ago — had membrane wings , made of skin stretched over a series of elongated fingerbreadth . These are good for slow , manoeuvrable flight , and they do n’t have to be as turgid equate to the body as a hiss ’s plume wings . Habib tells Mental Floss that a dragon with a skillful pair of annex would be able to sustain trajectory easily once it was in the air — but it could only get there “ if it came with a slingshot for travesty . ”
Second , a dragon needs to have the right skeletal structure . Their pearl should be strong enough to withstand the monolithic mechanically skillful forces need in flight of stairs without get too heavy . Hollow castanets are best ; they ’re actually strong than a very dim bone with a similar mass . Habib explains that ’s because the osseous tissue ’s power to stand firm the stress of flying look on its diam — the wider it is , the more force it can take . A vacuous , air - filled ivory can be much wider than a dense bone full of bone marrow , and it will still count less than the dumb ivory .
Third , and most importantly , a dragon demand to have as much power usable for takeoff as possible . Habib says that almost every animal that takes flight , from birds to fly squirrels to winged snakes , catch into the strain by jump , not flapping its wings .
“ What bird get stuck on is they only have two hind limb usable for jump exponent , ” Habib say . “ at-bat do better — and flying reptile did , too — because they walk on their annex and they can jump off of all four arm . ”
That pull in a enceinte difference , especially because most of a shuttle ’s lastingness is in its annex . While birds take off with less than half their bodies ’ muscle power , bats and pterosaur set up themselves with everything they ’ve acquire . That ’s what allowed the largest pterosaur to originate into550 - pound monster , while theheaviest - ever flying doll — the extinctArgentavis magnificens — maxed out around 150 pounds .
The dragons inGame of Thronesdo have membrane wings , and they could conceivably have hollow bones . Back in season three , WIREDreportedthat the show ’s animators base the dragons on a interbreeding between an eagle and a squash racket . ( Their straining , flappy hovering surely takes afterfruit squash racket . ) Although the dragons walk around on their wings like bats , they do n’t seem to pass over off of them during charade . Throughout the series , we see themdivefrom drop and glide into trajectory , leap off their hind legs after arunning start , and sometimes justflaptheir wings and leave the primer .
Habib enunciate even if a tartar followed all of his specifications , it could only raise up to about 1000 pound without ground itself — not several stacks , like Daenerys ’s fry .
“ They ’re probably beyond the trajectory terminal point for any general anatomy , ” Habib concedes , “ unless they ’re on the QT made out of carbon fiber and titanium . ”
“ Maybe they ’re full of raging air , ” suggests McGowan , “ or maybe it ’s just sorcerous . ”
And what would happen if a firedrake got a gob in one of its membrane wing , like Viserion display after rising from the dead in the finale of season seven ? Could it still fly ? " The shortsighted answer is , believably a second , but not as well as normal , " Habib allege .
Bats can take flight with similarly damage wings thanks to the room wings move through tune . We lean to opine of them as paddlespushingthe air travel , but wing actuallypullair . Like any other fluid , air has a certain amount of intrinsic stickiness to it , so air sticks to other air . " As the wing is pulling on the air , it ’s flowing over and around the wing , and it will skip over the air within the flank ’s belittled gaps and imperfectness just as H2O will stick out over the holes in a storm grate , " Habib says . " Obviously , the more holes you put in the wing , the more inefficient it becomes , but it will still put to work up to a point . If there are too many holes , it will fail . "
To McGowan , though , how the dragons vanish does n’t really matter : “ I think all day . When I go home , I do n’t want to think anymore . I can just say it ’s magical . I do n’t care . ”
