Tutorials/Flying machines

Flying technologies are technologies that make the use of commands or new Slime Blocks to move a player, entity or structure in the air or liquids. Various technologies exist as of latest snapshots.

Using Slime Blocks
The Slime Block based flying technologies use clever placement of Pistons, Blocks of Redstone and Slime Blocks to make the contraption to fly. is the only way of flying in Survival mode. This type of flying appeared in the snapshot when Slime Blocks became sticky when moved using pistons.

Engines


Engines are the base of slime-block-based flying technologies, they can make a structure to move in the air and through liquids by pushing (or pulling?) it.

Engines divide into semi- and fully-automatic. The semi-automatic engines need player's intervention to move it. The fully-automatic move autonomously. However, to stop them, you must place blocks until they can no longer move. (Any block will do, but unpushable blocks like obsidian and furnace will ensure a stop.)

Engines can also differ in available directions and speed. Some can only move in a single direction. They are the simplest and most common engines, but for them to move in another direction, a complex external mechanism is needed.

More rarely, engines can move in multiple directions. Most multi-directional engines still require external intervention to move in another direction, but much less (e.g. you only need to replace some blocks of redstone). More rarely, these engines may employ a mechanism to do that.

Also, engines have different speeds, with smallest engines usually being slower. For example, the engine shown in the animation on top of this section is slower than the one at the bottom.

You can download from Planet Minecraft the smallest engines that move to a single direction. They are designed by Xbxp, aka tamedZombie:

Once again, the smallest engines are relatively slow, there are faster engines like DicoTheRedstoner's engine.

A compacted (by Xbxp | 14 blocks) version of Dico's engine is available to download here, or you can build it by following the schematic. This is how it looks:

The X-marked blocks must be placed the last, then the engine piston (E-marked) has to be updated in order to turn on the engine (e.g. breaking the sign as in the image).

Splitters and Ropes
Each piston can only push/pull up to 12 blocks, that is why it is very important to use minimal amount of blocks in flying machines. But there is a way to push and pull more than 12 blocks, it is done using little parts called Splitters. They split the structure into smaller structures that move together but have space between them. Once the part behind a splitter is pushed forward, it pushes the next part. Splitters can only push, but there are Ropes for pulling. Ropes are made of Splitters, while each Splitter is connected via slime blocks to the Splitter behind it.

List of flying creations
You can download here a world save with a guide that shows few versions of each mechanical part and explains what it does and how to use it.

Trivia

 * If you place a slime block over a piston's arm side and a redstone block over the slime block, the piston will become powered by that redstone block. However, after the piston extends, it will become unpowered and retreat. This gives the opportunity to make smaller engines.

Gallery
File:Flying_module_array.png|A flying module array. The first module is a covered engine, the second and third modules are the middle ones and the final one is made like the last two, but without a splitter in front. File:Ship.png|A flying ship.

Redstone-Schaltkreise/Schleimfahrzeug