How does Toothless's prosthetic tail fin work?
By moirai
@moirai (2853)
Philippines
July 21, 2018 4:08am CST
Oops, I did it again. 
Just followed an innocent looking notification (YouTube) and ended up making an essay about how something I lack knowledge about might work. 
If you know how Toothless's prosthetic tail fin actually would work, or have a better theory/explanation than mine, please enlighten me. Thanks. 
The following is just me guessing...
Will start with a link (that hopefully works) to an image of Hiccup's cheat sheet in the first movie: (see below)
Note: I'm not really going to explain what's on the cheat sheet because... (I don't understand it!). It's just a nice picture. And I only wanted to point out that there are supposedly six positions.
My guess for what these six positions are as follows:
(a) collapsed(?),
(b) extended in the horizontal,
(c) extended 45 degrees above horizontal,
(d) extended 90 degrees above horizontal (i.e., vertical),
(e) extended 45 degrees below horizontal, and
(f) extended 90 degrees below horizontal (also vertical).
As I've mentioned before, my knowledge of aerodynamics or whatever is miniscule to nil. 
So I don't really know if these would work and what each position would do specifically in flight. These are just my guesses as to what the positions could be, for now. Also, the degrees are meant to be just estimates, not exact. So 90 degrees mean closer to vertical, and 45 degrees mean around halfway between vertical and horizontal.
Whether the tail fin is extended or not (a-b) is controlled by the left foot (Hiccup's prosthetic), while the angle (c-f) is controlled by the right foot. Meaning there are two positions on the left, and four on the right.
If it turns out that there are three positions on each side, then obviously I'm wrong, and I don't know how that works. Haha. 
(The more I think about it, the more this is likely... 
)
In the second movie, the tail can be locked in an extended position by a lever on the left side (makes sense - the left side is basically just an on and off switch). But the angle changes is what makes Toothless able to turn (without losing his balance) so... with a locked (extended) tail, (and without a rider to control the angles,) he can only fly straight and will have difficulty turning. (And so those hidden spines along his back, which he can move, will help him later.)
As for the GotNF (Gift of the Night Fury) tail... the prosthetic works by mimicking the position of the uninjured right side. This way, the tail fins will always be in a symmetrical position.
If this is really how tail fins work, then I might be wrong about the angles above (because I thought, for example, a position where the prosthetic is at 45 degrees above while the right fin is horizontal - not symmetrical - is possible).
Or maybe being always symmetrical is the limitation of the GotNF tail. It can let Toothless fly on his own (to an extent), but it's not perfect and will not give him full range of his flying abilities.
What do you think? (If I made sense at all...)
Add:
Btw, in the second movie, the handlebars on Toothless's saddle serve as a second set of controls for his tail fin. It's like a redundant system. It's what enables Hiccup to control the fin while he's flat on Toothless's back. :)
Just followed an innocent looking notification (YouTube) and ended up making an essay about how something I lack knowledge about might work.
If you know how Toothless's prosthetic tail fin actually would work, or have a better theory/explanation than mine, please enlighten me. Thanks.
The following is just me guessing...
Will start with a link (that hopefully works) to an image of Hiccup's cheat sheet in the first movie: (see below)
Note: I'm not really going to explain what's on the cheat sheet because... (I don't understand it!). It's just a nice picture. And I only wanted to point out that there are supposedly six positions.
My guess for what these six positions are as follows:
(a) collapsed(?),
(b) extended in the horizontal,
(c) extended 45 degrees above horizontal,
(d) extended 90 degrees above horizontal (i.e., vertical),
(e) extended 45 degrees below horizontal, and
(f) extended 90 degrees below horizontal (also vertical).
As I've mentioned before, my knowledge of aerodynamics or whatever is miniscule to nil. So I don't really know if these would work and what each position would do specifically in flight. These are just my guesses as to what the positions could be, for now. Also, the degrees are meant to be just estimates, not exact. So 90 degrees mean closer to vertical, and 45 degrees mean around halfway between vertical and horizontal.
Whether the tail fin is extended or not (a-b) is controlled by the left foot (Hiccup's prosthetic), while the angle (c-f) is controlled by the right foot. Meaning there are two positions on the left, and four on the right.
If it turns out that there are three positions on each side, then obviously I'm wrong, and I don't know how that works. Haha. (The more I think about it, the more this is likely... )
In the second movie, the tail can be locked in an extended position by a lever on the left side (makes sense - the left side is basically just an on and off switch). But the angle changes is what makes Toothless able to turn (without losing his balance) so... with a locked (extended) tail, (and without a rider to control the angles,) he can only fly straight and will have difficulty turning. (And so those hidden spines along his back, which he can move, will help him later.)
As for the GotNF (Gift of the Night Fury) tail... the prosthetic works by mimicking the position of the uninjured right side. This way, the tail fins will always be in a symmetrical position.
If this is really how tail fins work, then I might be wrong about the angles above (because I thought, for example, a position where the prosthetic is at 45 degrees above while the right fin is horizontal - not symmetrical - is possible).
Or maybe being always symmetrical is the limitation of the GotNF tail. It can let Toothless fly on his own (to an extent), but it's not perfect and will not give him full range of his flying abilities.
What do you think? (If I made sense at all...)
Add:
Btw, in the second movie, the handlebars on Toothless's saddle serve as a second set of controls for his tail fin. It's like a redundant system. It's what enables Hiccup to control the fin while he's flat on Toothless's back. :)
Found on Google from dragonnotesbyrose.blogspot.com
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