Tag: seekers

hey i see you getting attacked by paint crazy anons and i, good anon have come to save you with just a question. i’m interested in something and given it could be medical i need to ask you. normally during cold days the wings of a plane need to be de-iced so it can fly properly. do cybertronians de-ice their wings too? if so do the medics have to do it or do they do it themselves? what do you use? or are there heaters in the wings? do those with door wings need them de-iced too?

tyrantofthefirmament:

ask-dr-knockout:

It depends on what type of modifications the wings on said flier have. Some have built in mechanisms that will warm and properly regulate the wings. Most have this to some extent but this can’t always account for the various extreme conditions we can face with environmental factors.

Medics can conduct these procedures but to my knowledge most of the time any flier with half a processor could self prep for the proper conditions. Metal fatigue and sensor malfunction due from extreme conditions on the other hand is more of a medical need.

They might need a help reaching their wings occasionally though either way heh heh.

If I may, Knockout, I will explain. Cybertronian fliers almost never need to de-ice our wings, but when required in certain extreme cases, we have ways of doing so. We also prepare ahead of time so we don’t get iced up to begin with. Ice is pretty rare on Cybertron – it is a very dry world with hardly any water. Our precipitation is mainly hydrofluoric acid, which freezes at -118.4 degrees Fahrenheit, or -83.55 degrees Celsius. However, Seekers specifically encounter ice when most Cybertronians have never even seen it, and then we also must account for other planets’ climates as well. I’ll get to that.

First things first. Earth planes need regular de-icing because they sit outdoors in the elements and they are inanimate objects with cold, hollow wings. Seekers live indoors like civilized people, and our wings are also quite warm. Even in cold, wet places like Earth, our own body heat is normally sufficient to keep our wings clear of ice, at least for the amount of time we can comfortably be out in icy conditions. 

But let’s look at conditions where we would need to de-ice. I said before that Seekers actually do encounter ice from time to time, and that is because we operate so high up, and also because Vos is so far south. Our winters are very dark and very cold, and the wind through the towers could bring the temperature down enough to form frost. For those cold days we had spray coatings we would apply to our wings so ice wouldn’t form on them as we flew. Some were simply an adhesive carrying nanites with a simple ice-breaking program, while other, more expensive, brands were made of fluorocarbons and other plastics, and could last all winter if properly applied. They were a more slippery version of the sprays people sometimes used in the rainy season to avoid irritation from the caustic humidity. I can still remember the odd smell of those sprays. People who had to be outside for extended periods, such as law enforcement, had thermal sleeves they could slip onto their wings when they were in root mode. Usually they had someone help them put those on, but they were designed to come off with either a strong wing flick or a magnetic release, so they could fly at a moment’s notice.

Winter flying conditions could be hazardous if you weren’t careful about ice. As Knockout mentioned, acidic frost forming on your wings can lead to deterioration, and trying to shake it off our your control surfaces can cause metal fatigue. Ice forming over your sensors for even a short time can be deadly. At very high altitudes, there are thin, iridescent clouds that indicate ice, and flying near them, especially under them, can quickly place a layer of ice on your wings. Losing air speed data and having your control surfaces freeze up is not something you want to experience. Fortunately all of that is very unusual on Cybertron and only high altitude Air Command soldiers really had to contend with it.

Not so on alien worlds. I knew it would be an issue once we got to space, since I had read a lot of stories about the Golden Age when people went to exotic planets with other kinds of precipitation. Our patrols were outfitted with thermal sleeves for their wings, and we formulated wing sprays for ices made from all manner of unusual substances, such as ammonia, nitrogen dioxide, and sulfur dioxide. We spent a lot of time on Earth, and had to get used to ice because of its wet conditions. I trained the Eradicons for what to do if they did find their wings icing up when they flew.