Elytra

"Elytra! Soar through The End on your freshly-minted insectoid glider, or, if you’d rather practice first, why not put your aerobatic skills to the test by generating a world with the new Amplified Terrain option?"

- Marsh Davies

Elytra ( or /ɛl ˈaɪ trə/ el-ᴇʏᴇ-trah) are a rare cape-like item which is used to fly through the air. The word elytra is Greek for “wings”.

Natural generation
Elytra can only be found in in an item frame in the treasure room of the end ship at end cities. A shulker guards the location.

Gliding
Elytra are quipped in the chestplate slot. They can either be placed directly in the slot, or be equipped using a dispenser or by pressing while in the hotbar. They are usually gray in color, but when worn will adopt the design of any cape the player is wearing. Even if broken or enchanted, elytra on a player's back will always have the same texture,.

To initiate gliding, the player must press the jump key while falling. The glide direction will then be the cursor direction. A gliding player will slow down over time. If directs their glide upward, their speed will decrease faster. Moving downward increases the player's velocity. The mechanics allow a player to use the speed gained from gliding downward to almost reach their previous altitude if they switch to moving upward. Sudden changes in direction greatly reduce the player's velocity. In Creative mode, the player can also fly up by holding the jump key.

The optimal glide ratio while using a pair of elytra is 10/1 at 0°; traveling 10 blocks horizontally for each block fallen when flying at a constant 0° pitch, not including the initial fall.
 * The most efficient flight is at 5.9° down; trading a slightly less-than-optimal glide ratio for a bit more speed.
 * Maximum groundspeed is at 52° down (69.5 blocks/sec).
 * Maximum airspeed is 90° down or up (the player falls normally, at 80 blocks/sec).
 * Maximum flight time is 14° up.

Durability decreases by one point each second when gliding. A pair of elytra has 431 durability, resulting in 7 minutes and 11 seconds of gliding time without enchantments. It is possible to apply Unbreaking using an anvil and an enchanted book, which affects the elytra in the same way that enchantment affects tools, increasing glide time to about four seconds of use per point of durability for an Unbreaking III elytra. Mending can also be applied to an elytra.

The player will not take fall damage while gliding unless they hit the ground or a wall at too great a velocity, which can be caused by nose-diving or stalling. The fall damage will then be calculated off of the height fallen during the nose-dive or stall.

A gliding player has a shorter hitbox than usual: a 0.6 block cube centered on the player's feet.

Flight speed is not affected by Slow Falling.

Flying
Using a firework rocket while gliding will boost the player's flight speed for the the same time as the rocket's flight duration. If the rocket is equipped with a firework star of any kind, the firework explodes at the end of the flight, giving the player damage.

A trident enchanted with Riptide can be used for propulsion as well, but only if the player is in water, rain, or a thunderstorm for Riptide to work.

Repair
When durability reaches 1, a pair of elytra will no longer work until they are repaired. Since they no longer work, they cannot lose more durability meaning they can never fully break. A broken elytra has a tattered texture for its item sprite. An elytra may be repaired either by by use of Mending, combing two together in an anvil, or by combining the elytra with phantom membranes or leather in an anvil. Each piece of material will repair the elytra by 108 durability, requiring 4 pieces to fully repair a fully broken pair.

Enchantments
An elytra can receive the following enchantments, but only through an anvil:

Note: Thorns also works as normal on an elytra, but can only be put on using commands.
 * Unbreaking
 * Mending
 * Curse of Vanishing
 * Curse of Binding

Trivia

 * In reality, elytra are the tough forewings of beetles and earwigs that cover the wings they actually use for flight. Elytra are not actually used for flight in real life.
 * It is possible to glide while on a ladder. The player can do this by pressing followed by . This will cause the player to fall, with a speed decided by their vertical rotation. This means that the player can descend very fast on a ladder, but if their speed is too fast when hitting the ground, they can take fatal fall damage. Using a firework rocket can also speed up the player's descent.
 * If the player glides into deep water with elytra equipped, the animation will not stop, making it look as if there's better swimming animations. Once the player touches ground, though, the animation will stop.
 * Additionally, firework rockets can be used underwater but it will give lesser boost duration due to the water's effect, this is useful for underwater swimming.
 * Elytra can be equipped onto mobs using commands, although for some it doesn't work. Most mobs will follow one of three different flight paths (which they cannot control) before landing, at which they will regain their AI.
 * Exceptions to this are squid and chickens, as the squid's AI will cause it to try and "swim" in midair, making it fall straight down because it conflicts with the elytra mechanics. Since chickens fall slowly, they will only move so far.
 * Endermen, tamed wolves and cats which are not sitting will not teleport until they hit the ground.
 * 4J Studios created an elytra-centered tutorial map for console edition when elytra were first introduced to this platform, this map is themed as "ruins of an ancient civilization of Minecraft worshippers" and showcases the new amplified terrain generation. This map can be seen behind the scenes here.
 * On 28 March 2017, 4J Studios added an elytra themed Mini Games for console edition called "Glide"; it consists of Time Attack and Score Attack mode.