Ah, yes, JD's wings. I'm afraid you've caught us out there. They're a bit of an improbability, but one we've not quite been able to solve. Neither of us is willing to give up the fact that they'd have to be pretty big to allow him to fly. Still, to fold along his back and let him walk something strange has to be happening.
I admit to being the more visual one of the two of us, and I've been working on modified bird wings and attempting to pinpoint an anotomical structure that would allow for retraction, and I've more or less settled on a sort of modified extension principle--interlocking bones that can shift apart when the wing retracts and slide in along side one another, held by both muscle and tendon (which is why, when JD sprained his, he was having trouble holding it in tight enough). This doesn't present a particular problem for the primary and secondary rows of feathers, which can of course simply stack on top of one another. It's not a complete retraction, mind, but it's enough to allow the wings to settle in against JD's back, visible maybe four or five inches above his shoulders extending about to the top of his Achilles tendon. Extended, the bones snap into place, held there by the tension of the muscle that allows it to extend at all. It's why the wings seem to 'snap' when he pulls them out quickly.
Of course, slow and partial extension actually requires a good deal more muscle control, but fortuantely all that muscle came with the wing, as well as inborn instructions for how to use it. ;)
Unlikely, sure. But with my obsessively visual mind it's all I could come up with that would allow the wings to be both large enough to support a human (which, as you pointed out, is an aerodynamic impossibility, but whooo, fantasy!) and compact enough so said human can still walk and, yes, bonk. Eventually. ;)
Glad you're liking it! Hope you continue to do so! And never, ever apologize for a long comment. We love them, yes we do.
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Re: Drathis
Date: 7 Jan 2007 11:21 (UTC)I admit to being the more visual one of the two of us, and I've been working on modified bird wings and attempting to pinpoint an anotomical structure that would allow for retraction, and I've more or less settled on a sort of modified extension principle--interlocking bones that can shift apart when the wing retracts and slide in along side one another, held by both muscle and tendon (which is why, when JD sprained his, he was having trouble holding it in tight enough). This doesn't present a particular problem for the primary and secondary rows of feathers, which can of course simply stack on top of one another. It's not a complete retraction, mind, but it's enough to allow the wings to settle in against JD's back, visible maybe four or five inches above his shoulders extending about to the top of his Achilles tendon. Extended, the bones snap into place, held there by the tension of the muscle that allows it to extend at all. It's why the wings seem to 'snap' when he pulls them out quickly.
Of course, slow and partial extension actually requires a good deal more muscle control, but fortuantely all that muscle came with the wing, as well as inborn instructions for how to use it. ;)
Unlikely, sure. But with my obsessively visual mind it's all I could come up with that would allow the wings to be both large enough to support a human (which, as you pointed out, is an aerodynamic impossibility, but whooo, fantasy!) and compact enough so said human can still walk and, yes, bonk. Eventually. ;)
Glad you're liking it! Hope you continue to do so! And never, ever apologize for a long comment. We love them, yes we do.