In a WW1 inspired Fantasy setting, how would the advent of aircraft

File: latest[1].jpg (82KB, 696x455px) Image search: [Google]

82KB, 696x455px

>>54062336
Paragliders enchanted with Fly, Featherfall, ETC.

>>54062336
See the works of Jules Verne, HG Wells, and Edgar Rice Burroughs.

For a more modern look, try Diana Wayne Jones, or Scott Westerfeld.

File: Ilya.jpg (163KB, 1920x1080px) Image search: [Google]

163KB, 1920x1080px

>>54062336
I mean, it's more efficient to cast a single massive enchantment than to do it several thousand times over each soldier, and armies are all about logistics. Always have been, and it doesn't really change when you add flight magic or teleportation or whatever.

A fantasy aircraft doesn't have to worry about things like aerodynamics (since it just magically ignores gravity anyhow). It just needs to have a solid payload and a reasonable defensive plan. Your troops are (assumedly) not all spellcasters, but you still have to get the non-casters from point A to point B with all the supplies necessary to keep them at their posts once they get there.

Size isn't really an important factor: Bows aren't going to reach something that high and spells/other flyers don't really have to aim that precisely. It's more important to either be too high and out of reach or be too armored and protected so they don't matter in the first place. Or be too numerous so they'll make it through anyways.

If you're talking non-magical aircraft...I don't really see why it would, unless casters are just too rare to waste them on something like mass production of war-related resources (which is kind of an interesting argument in itself, but I digress). Typical fantasy magic depictions are just more efficient in terms of energy and manpower than anything that would be realistically buildable without it.

>>54062491
Which works specifically? I have a volume of collected works by Jules Verne and flipping through it could be fun.

>>54062539
All of them really. You're looking for inspiration after all.

File: 800px-Vasnetsov_samolet.jpg (78KB, 800x440px) Image search: [Google]

78KB, 800x440px

>>54062537
How do you think it would affect air combat or reconnaissance? What sort of everyday objects would an army turn to as a potential aircraft? Brooms, carpets, and mortars are the examples. What about bathtubs or surfboards, or carriages? Could they outfit it with weaponry?

>>54062539
War in the Air by HG Wells is a good start. Its about a fictional World War I that takes place in 1950 and predicted a lot of things about the actual WWI, particularly in regards to airpower.

>>54062336
FUCK OFF COLETTE

>>54062336
planes can exist because some madman made one, and some eccentric billionaire funded it because it looked promising. governments would fund the aero industry less aggressively in a world where flying isn't literally less than a year old, so i'd feel like it'll have to be private investors who see potential.

if it were to be used in war it'll have to be because planes can do something mages can't in combat.

maybe air combat mages aren't practical (mages too valuable/training too long, flying is too slow any good sniper can kill you, or you can't cast spells while flying, or you could stop flying if you stop concentrating), or planes just proved to be the better option. (faster? more maneuverable? machine gun beats mage in air combat? pilot+combat mage > air combat mage? it's really up to you)

>>54062336
Well given the obvious advantages of air superiority people would develop and take advantage of it as soon as they can, however, there are two factors to consider for how things would differ from the real world.
Magic tends to be rare and costly and generally doesn't come down in cost after initial research like with technology. On the other hand, magic doesn't necessarily have as many limitations.

Magical air-squadrons comparable to real life might be making magic too common but flying battleship fortresses that aren't really possible could work.

Depends on how easily accessible such magic is.

>>54062822
Depends on how you want magic to work.
The flying carpet was a rather iconic unique magical item
Witch items to fly could vary more, brooms, baskets, goats, but that was more about pacts with spirits.

If you're binding the flight magic to whatever then it'd make sense to be more efficient about it rather than using random junk. Chariots, gliders, something like a flying wooden motorcycle or even just harry-potter style brooms with contours for sitting or stirrups for stability and control.

For reconnaissance, though, it'd probably make more sense to use some kind of magical scrying or even just looking through the eyes of a bird familiar.