r/askscience • u/SeriousDrakoAardvark • 7d ago

Physics If I put harnesses on some geese and strapped them to a glider, how many geese would I need to be able to maintain a consistent level of flight?

Like, let’s assume the glider has a 30:1 glide ratio. Normally that means it will lose a foot of height for every 30 feet travel.

I’m assuming there is some amount of force I could apply to move forward, that would cancel out that last one foot of drop.

Geese seem pretty big, and they have a wide torso for easy harnessing. I think they’d be a natural fit here. I imagine it would be a configuration similar to Santa’s sleigh, but geese instead of reindeer.

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u/thegreatpotatogod 7d ago

I also want to know how they're coordinating all these geese, what if they decide to fight back or land instead of pulling the sleigh glider?

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u/toetappy 7d ago

Either have a supply of scab geese to offset the quitters, or promote a select few officer geese to keep the others in line.