Good points, I’m not arguing he shouldn’t be capable of sustained flight. In fact, with the kind of power he has on tap, being able to fly is, by itself, an almost trivial task.

However the problem is that poor aerodynamic design makes for an incredible waste of power due to aerodynamic drag, especially at supersonic speeds.

And more importantly, any level of fine in-flight control should theoretically become near impossible to achieve at high speeds with a design like this, even with secondary vectored stabilizing thrusters…

@Kaze
Actually a chopper is a perfectly good flying machine. There is no physical reason why a chopper should not be able to fly.

But notwithstanding that, comparing Ironman with a chopper is comparing apples and oranges. They fly using completely different principles.

It would be more accurate to compare the Ironman suit to an F-117, which is the ultimate example of a brick that would be impossible to fly without the computer doing the fine management of all the control surfaces…

So I guess Tiki has a point about the computer managed control surfaces… And I think Tiki is also right about the reactors, I believe only the chest piece houses a reactor. All of the others are “stabilizers” LOL for lack of a better word…

I still contend that the suit is a flying brick… 😛