DawningTape wrote: ↑Sun Jul 25, 2021 10:28 amI mean Im unsure of that as we know that the thermal transition thrusters are also used as the main ones in the ships they use. And after talking to people who look a lot into the cosmic era, UC and 00. Most say that the ability to change altitude and hover is in essence already a way to show flight capabilities. Something that someone pointed out to me is how if it didnt then the Battlogue wouldve been quite a dumb match up.
They're the same type, but whether they have the same power is a different matter. Probably the ships are stronger because they have larger Ahab Reactors and even then the ships in IBO are all strictly space-to-space and can just build up traveling speed.
There are shuttle rockets that are used to escape the planets with enough thrust to also carry mobile suits with them but we do not have confirmation on what propulsion they use. Thermal Phase Transition Thrusters used by the big ships and mobile suits require Ahab Reactors to heat and expel the hydrogen propellant. The SAU scout plane seen briefly in early Season 2 did not have an Ahab Reactor so we know its not using Thermal Phase or Ahab Thrusters either. The only non-Ahab propulsion mechanism we officially know are hydrogen engines, confirmed on space mobile workers and the Kutan Type-III.
In Gundam 00 and CE we saw a number of MS fly, maneuver and float at high altitudes for long periods so they are indeed flying. In IBO, we never see mobile weapons hover at high attitudes for long, usually they jump maybe stay in the air for a short while and then fall back. The only exception that we have seen stably hovering in the air is Bael and it seems to have binders designed for that purpose.
DawningTape wrote: ↑Sun Jul 25, 2021 10:28 amWe basically only saw it hover when moving through mars. However, if you look into its set, the legs can be put in the sides, leaving it with the shape of a bird fully and always being positioned as in flight above the Plumas.
If you're referring to the
HG box artwork, the problem with that is that it also shows some Plumas flying higher than Hashmal behind it, and we know they likely do not have that ability. Without knowing how they got there, we don't know whether it was just a short jump or actual flight since they are all within a canyon and can easily have jumped or dropped from above.
Model box artwork are also designed to be stylish so there is also the question of how seriously we can derive ability specs from it.
For the manual, there is only one picture with both where there isn't a Pluma above Hashmal. It is the one where both of the gunplas are mounted on their respective stands. That Pluma is essentially floating in the air in the picture too and we cannot, for example, infer that the Plumas can fly from it.
I do think it's possible that Hashmal can fly, the tech certainly exists as seen with Bael and it cannot be definitively ruled out. The problem is that given the huge majority of Ahab mobile suits can't, the lack of direct statement of Hashmal having the ability as well as the official ground-use classification, it isn't the safe default assumption. Even if we take some of the kit air poses seriously, they can still be plausibly attributed to jumping, which is a common ability in IBO.
Hashmal was indeed a bird but maybe the ground focus made it more more like the chicken of mobile armors.