Leaf on the wind wash how to#

Not only was Wash matching the speed of the train with exactness, but the Serenity also needed to be extremely stable as Jayne was lowered down, meaning zero roll, steady pitch and yaw, and zero slip in the northing and easting directions. Oh, by the way, the train is still moving!

The next step was for Jayne to be lowered into the train via a cable. Motion Planning. Wash hit the correct trajectory in order to hover over the top of the train. (If you want real math, read the academic paper that was the inspiration for this tale.)Ĥ.

And everything else is thrown out because this should be fun and no one is getting a PhD in differential equations here.

Z is the height of the Serenity as Wash first began high above the train then brought it down incredibly low to hover exactly over the roof of the speeding train.

This measures the time it takes the Serenity to move X meters to match the train, then maintain that exact speed. Duh. And we’re using meters as our measurement, because we’re not savages. At the point of touchdown, X of the Serenity must equal the X of the train.

X is our most straightforward axis, since we are talking about a train zooming down some tracks while an airship chases it.

At this point, it’s helpful to visualize three dimensional space: Remember, he was flying toward a moving target. When it came time to lower Jayne onto the train with a cable, Wash planned his approach and the trajectory he’d take. But Wash was clearly tracking it, plotting an approach that timed perfectly with the heist that Mal and Zoe were plotting while aboard the train.ģ. This was an area where the show gave us a short clip of the Serenity flying well behind and above the train. Once Wash detected the train, he needed to track it as he prepared his descent and approach. We don’t know, but the simplest solution was that Wash simply used his eyeballs: “ Oh, look, there’s the train.”Ģ. Plus, Mal and Zoe were already planted aboard, posing as passengers, so maybe they had a tracker on them. I’m sure the Serenity had sophisticated instruments that the television show wisely didn’t bother illustrating. In order to pull off the train robbery, Wash, the pilot of the Serenity, needed to perform piloting maneuvers that consisted of 4 stages:ġ.

Leaf on the wind wash how to#

Like a Leaf on the Wind: How to Land the Serenity on a Moving Train For now, I’ll simply discuss the key events of the scene under discussion, assuming you can play along as we have a little fun talking about the physics of landing a spaceship on a moving train. I’m assuming that like every other sane individual, you seen the “Train Job” episode of Firefly, but here is a link where you can get the recap if you want. OK, technically Wash landed a Jayne onto a moving train. Specifically, I’m talking about how Wash landed a ship on a moving train. I was watching the Firefly: Train Job episode for, oh, I don’t know, the 6,542nd time the other day, and I was reminded how many fun little touches the show has.