Onno Meyer wrote:
Consider a robot with 0.5 tons Lwt and a desired ST 200. For
reactionless flight, call it a 2,000-lb. super reactionless
thruster with vectored thrust and a 100-kW NPU.
Thruster: 60 lbs.
Power: 58 lbs.
-----------------
118 lbs.
Walking requires 3 kW to get the Body ST.
Drivetrain: 60 lbs.
Power: 19.2 lbs.
---------------------
79.2 lbs.
Roughly one third less ... against that, you save the legs
with their area and hence structure, armor, stealth, etc.
It's about 10 square feet of area, and going under 3 lb/sf is rather
tricky on anything military. In addition, the flyer will typically be
order of magnitude faster and totally unaffected by hostile terrain.
Then there is the question of sensor signature. A legged
vehicle can squat and power down even on moderately broken
ground. A flyer with underbelly skids (to save the landing
gear) needs even ground.
Not really. If you design the flyer with a rounded belly and reasonable
belly armor it will be able to set down in most terrains.
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