If you have ever dreamt about how cool it would be getting your hands on Tony Stark’s Iron Man suit, then you are probably dying to know about all the cool gadgets and technologies on it.
Don’t worry, with a little research and a fresh Engineering background, I have put together my best assumptions and analysis of all Iron Man’s gadgets, techs and how real or closely resembled they are by today’s technology.
The Armor
Of course, you can’t have the suit without armor, and so let’s start off with Iron Man’s armor. In the movie, Tony Stark tells us that the armor is made from “Gold-Titanium Alloy”, and we have witness it to withstand not only bullets, but tank shells and high speed collisions with an F-22 Raptor. Unfortunately, unless our government is up to something sneaky, such high strength alloy is not possible (I have not heard of this alloy either, though I am not going to doubt its existence). Although Metallic Alloy is very strong, any metallic plating less than one inch thick is not going to stop a tank shell, Sabot or Armor piercing round, and especially not the depleted Uranium types most modern day tanks use… let alone a super sonic collision. If this kind of technology becomes available, we should call our bullet proof vest missile proof vest instead.
The Suit
The Iron Man suit itself, of all its various components, is surprisingly possible with today’s technology. As talked about in a previous blog posting about real life Iron Man, we have already begun to develop Exo-skeletons capable of giving us super human strengths! Our only limitation in a full suit is the miniaturization needed for all the hydraulic and magnetic components for movements- but that is the easy stuff once we get the electrical components to move as one with our body without any “lag”.
The Arc Reactor
How can you use the Iron Man suit without a power source? And that brings us to the Arc Reactor that Tony Stark uses to power the Iron Man suit. According to the movie (with unit conversion), the arc reactor used to power the very first bulky looking suit in the cave has as much power as 20,000 Toyota Camry’s- roughly four million horse power! It is simply unimaginable to have so much power in a jar the size of your fist… I wish it was possible. If it is- heck, forget the Iron Man suit, we would never have to pay for gas again.
JARVIS
Now the suit is all take care of, how do you plan on piloting it? Tony Stark has the help of JARVIS, but what about you? This aspect I believe is very attainable with modern day standards; with some help from a few smart computer techies you can run your own suit on Windows (although I don’t recommend that). JARVIS not only helps Tony to operate the suit, it also manages the Fire Control System (FCS) and helps it remain stable under high speed flight- both of which are already in use in our military today. Although Iron Man is not exactly aero dynamic, it will be highly unstable and not capable of handling super sonic flight, but if the F-22 can do it (highly complicated design of short wing span for stealth purposes, notorious for unstable handling at high speed beyond human capabilities) with an advance computer system, I am sure Iron Man can do it too.
The Repulsor Beam
Now I have never heard of anything close or resembling this “repulsor” technology, heck it’s not even a word, but from my best assumption base on this “word”, here are my thoughts. Since it’s called “repuslor”, then logically it works base on repulsion of some kind. And since it’s a beam, then it is not a rocket or any type of fuel based repulsion system. If I were to guess, then it would be that this technology focuses either light or particles in an ultra dense form on a spot and the energy from this high concentration of excited atoms are able to push or blast anything out of the way. Currently the only known repulsion of this form is using mirrors and foils… so you can form your conclusion on this one as whether or not it’s possible.
The Weapons
So far we’ve seen Iron Man use his flamethrower, anti personal guns on his shoulders, anti tank missiles on his arm and his repulsor beams. Now flamethrower is every little boy’s dream and have been in use since World War I, so that is definitely possible. The anti-personal gun looks to be rail guns of some sort where the projectile is shot out by a strong magnetic charge (think north pole pushing south pole magnets away, but in much larger magnitudes and instantaneous), that technology is already available and will be in our next generation of naval vessels to replace standard cannons. The missiles are also in use with our military, if you have ever seen shoulder mounted anti aircraft missiles aka STINGER, they are roughly about the same size though a bit longer but has a lot more range. So if you go with a lesser range missile, then you can probably cram them in your Iron Man armor as well.
Well that are all the Iron Man technologies and gadgets that comes to mind right now, hope that can satisfy your thirst for Iron Man information for a little bit. If you have any question or curious about something else, please let me know!
Brought to you by Costume SuperCenter, if you can’t built your own Iron Man suit that can resist tank shells, fly faster than jets, then at least you can be Iron Man for Halloween with our Iron Man Halloween costume!
Mike
12 responses so far ↓
Brady // November 11, 2008 at 6:46 pm |
how is the movie suppose to show how he fly n how was this constructed? Wat is his feet based off?
costumesupercenter // November 13, 2008 at 12:57 pm |
Hey Brady, I wasn’t sure what your question was, but to try and answer it: in the beginning of the movie, Tony was showing off the Jerico Missile, and the 2 special thing about that missile was its cluster bomb warhead, and also its special projection method: using the repulsor beam to launch the missile.
Basically all he did was attached the repulsor beam onto his feet and hands, and use it as thrusters. By moving his hands around, he can create thrust in different directions to control his movements in the air, and the flaps you see on his armor that moves around (when he was testing his armor) acts like flaps on an airplane stabilizing the air going over the armor during flight.
raymond // December 14, 2008 at 1:50 pm |
Wat about da “flairs” or dat circle he had on his thigh of his armour,da one he turned to remove the ice on his first flight,the one he used to blow up da missile dat was chasing him,don’t u think dats a gadget u left out, if it is explain it.and do you think if stark had an arc reactor equivalent to da one stain stole wud stark win the fight?and if starks armour is as strong as you say did u see the pictures of stark after the fight,stain practically made a full of his armour.how was he able to bend starks helmet like that?
costumesupercenter // December 15, 2008 at 8:44 am |
That’s a really good question, I completely forgot about flairs haha.
Well that thing is pretty cool, it is just flairs but if I remember correctly it spins around to shoot them out so it can carry more flairs around in a circle. Flairs are like those emergency candle that you burn when your car is in an accident so people can see you, so they generate a lot of heat and noise, leading me to believe the missiles were heat seekers.
As for breaking the ice, I don’t think that had anything to do with the flairs. He has a lever or something on his armor (below the flair place) that when it is pulled, all the flaps on his armor pops out. When the flaps popped out they broke the sheet of ice on his armor thus speeding up the de-icing process.
I think that if Stark had an equivalent arc reactor the fight can be won easily since Stark knows his own design and weakness better than Stain. Stain however, like the typical bad guys, went with all power, thus if you are comparing armors in terms of strength and weapons then Stain would be able to crush Iron Man easily.
Even if Stark had a more powerful reactor, he would of still been crushed if he didn’t use find a way to exploit the fact that Stain is slower and clumsier. Check out those massive hands and cylinder pumps on Stains armor, since his armor is based off the first Iron Man blue print, and made to be 10x bigger, you would assume it would at least be 10x more bad a** haha.
All Stark did was improve and miniaturize, he really did not expand much on the offensive and strength wise of his armor.
Ron Miller // December 22, 2008 at 8:17 pm |
Several times while Tony is flying in the Iron Man suits he crashes violently into the ground (for example, during his escape from the Ten Rings, when he is shot out of the sky by the tank, etc.) Wouldn’t he be crushed into a bloody goo inside the suit when he hits the ground at high velocity?
Ron Miller // December 22, 2008 at 11:31 pm |
One more question. The Ten Rings wanted Tony to build a Jericho missile. The Jericho missile was the first to incorporate repulsor technology. Since none of the equipment whose parts Tony had to use in the cave had repulsors, how could he have created the Jericho without repulsors?
costumesupercenter // December 23, 2008 at 8:39 am |
Hey Ron, thanks for your questions!
1. That is true isn’t it? Unless Tony found a way to break the laws of physics. I think the only logical way to explain this is that his suit is padded with some amazing jello stuff that can transfer almost all of any instantaneous impact and kinetic energy into heat and dissipates it out of the suit… which is why he didn’t turn into a bloody mess on the inside and still have some bruises. However, you brought up a very good point, no matter how good the padding and suit, they will not stop his organs from bouncing around and there is no doubt that doing what he does has an adverse effect on his life span… or if he hit something too fast there might not be much of him left within that suit.
2. Well in a way Tony didn’t create the Jericho missile, and his first Iron Man suit inside the cave did not have repulsors either (this is known from the fact that Stain rather use rockets for his suit that is based on Tony’s first one). I had no doubt he would be able to create one however…. if he can build a miniature core reactor from scrap, the repulsor shouldn’t too much harder right?
raymond // February 1, 2009 at 4:50 am |
hey,thanx for answering ma qtns. but two just came up.
1.did ironmans repulsor beams kill those dudes; could his repulsor beam kill you?
2.was the 2nd arc-reactor equivalent to the big
one in stark industries?
3.since the only reason he couldnt reach that altitude was that the mark 2 was probably made outta titanium only,when he built it out of gold titanium,(therefore solving the icing problem)did that mean that he could go to space.
4. the last qtn,did ironman have an oxygen supply,because moving at supersonic speed and reaching an icing altitude,dont u think he needed oxygen? thanx
costumesupercenter // February 2, 2009 at 4:08 pm |
Hey Ray, no problems.
To further answer your questions:
1. I dont think his repulsor killed those guys, but probably knocked them out and whatever they hit probably killed them. It is just like getting hit by a huge gust of wind at once, probably hurts a lot but whatever you end up flying into is going to do the physical damage to ya.
2. I think from an educated guess, the 2nd arc reactor was superior to the large one running the plant. The large one is the first one ever built, and Tony manage to build a miniature one with scrap, so I am sure with the added experience he was able to make an even better one with all the goodies back in his lab. Plus the engineers had the original design he made in the cave and couldnt even replicate it with the larger original, so thats why I think the one Stane stole from Tony is a superior version.
3. Maybe, as a different composite alloy might contain property that does not alloy ice to form as easily (no idea as gold titanium doesnt exist) as I vaguely remember that in the movie, the icing probably was the electronic component was icing over thus turning off the suit. He probably found some type of shielding that keeps the thermal difference within the suit so the electronics kept on working.
4. Yep he needs oxygen and you’re totally right. Or he might be able to process air from outside and store it in his suit to have a large supply of air.
raymond // April 10, 2009 at 6:46 pm |
Do u think tony starks suit was water proof? Then remember when he had just come back from alfaginistan in the mark3 afta killing those guys,wat was jarvis doing to tony stark in his suit;was he helping tony remove the suit or fix all its bullet holes and damage when pepper came in?
costumesupercenter // April 24, 2009 at 1:06 pm |
Well Ray, if Tony can keep himself pressurized flying that high in the air then I am sure its waterproof at least to the point he wont drown inside his suit.
And I think Jarvis was trying to take off the suit off Tony when Pepper walked in.
Michael // June 1, 2009 at 10:33 pm |
Gold-titanium alloys do exist but they are nothing exciting – gold would get a 12% of the atoms and forms gold-titanium compounds with more gold combined with the titanium but I doubt any of them are exciting iron man armour possibilities.
http://www.springerlink.com/content/x254q545051l2r1p/