Deathscythe Hell's Speed...

[Bord]

I've been told many, many times that the stats for Gundam Wing mobile suits aren't really that exact. Deathscythe Hell for example, has a speed stat of 170. We never got to see how fast that was in the TV series, mostly because that Gundam seems to teleport out of nowhere before attacking.

However, when I watched Endless Waltz recently, I saw something quite relevant. There was a scene there, a bird's eye view of the city with multiple explosions. A burst of smoke (or dust) appears at the top of the screen, and streaks over the screen at an impressive speed. The suit was later shown as D-Hell Custom charging at a group of Serpents. I replayed that scene and timed it... it took a second for it to cover 2 city blocks.

I think it's a good indication of how fast Deathscythe hell can actually move. What do you guys think?

[AU_Gundam MK II]

Deathscythe was made for its speed, so it seems logical. This should also be put into consideration when considering that Deathscythe is the lightest of all the Gundams.

[Bord]

That and its insane armor makes it even more fearsome.

[Den]

the apear out of nowhere trick was due to the jammer of the deathscythe. this leads to a question, does the jammer make it invisble to the eye like the mirage colloid or only to the sensor? and i agree that the deathscythe is the fastest. It should also be the fastest of all the gundam due to the lack of a real long ranged weapon, it would need to get in melee range fast to strike down the enemy. though this is just my 2 cents hehe

[AU_Gundam MK II]

True. Insanely light + the need to get in close fast= Fastest of the Gundams.

(One note. Us 3 are all Filipinos!)

[Toxicity]

does the jammer make it invisble to the eye like the mirage colloid or only to the sensor?

IIRC, the jammer effs up any enemy MS's cockpit monitors, and makes them display only static. And because the Deathscythe is made out of Gundanium, it is invisible to radar anyways.

And the ability to go invisible I think is given the the Hell only by the active cloak. I'm not sure if the custom can do that though....

[abrahamsen0]

As fast and as light it is how come we never see DH take flight into the air? This always bothered me as some have argued that it isn't flight capable. Is it cannon that the DHell isn't flight capable or it's just never shown?

[Wingnut]

As fast and as light it is how come we never see DH take flight into the air? This always bothered me as some have argued that it isn't flight capable. Is it cannon that the DHell isn't flight capable or it's just never shown?

It's not flight capable, though the wings might help it jump farther, but not to the point where one would consider it to be true flight on its own.

[midnightcitysky]

I don't think any of the wing gundam were capable of sustained long range atmospheric flight save for the wing in it's bird mode, as it was aero dynamic. and even in endless waltz I don't see the wing really flying per se, but just hovering at a high altitude (although it could be argued this is indicative of extreme thrust compensating for lack of aero dynamics and the possibility of sustained flight but how would it create lift... it's wings aren't really THAT much like a birds...trust me i have had many birds or like a planes either.... but i digress).

the only mechs that attained true flight wer the aries as they were built more like planes than the leos and the gundams were, and the tallgeese with it's ridiculously huge verniers which is the best case of thrust compensating for lack of aerodynamics. and NONE of the gundam aside from the wing were aero-dynamic in the LEAST. also...wouldn't the deathscythe flying make it stand out... I mean doesn't that defeat the prupose of duo's stealth specialization. also the amount of thrust necessary would create a large amount of heat which could give it away... using short bursts of speed makes it harder to track... in closing it probably is flight capable, but for it's purpose...flight is not useful and actually harmful to the suit and pilot's specifications and skills

edit: my first experience being ninja'd and i got proven wrong also.... not a good day for me

[AmuroNT1]

Actually, the visual invisibility seems to just be a built-in feature of Deathscythe Hell; both times we see it appearing, the active cloak is open and it's done as an exterior shot rather than being seen through another MS' camera.

Evidence:
http://aboutgundamwing.com/SC/SC32/vlcsnap-87245.jpg (from Episode 32)
http://aboutgundamwing.com/SC/SC39/vlcsnap-176819.jpg (from Episode 39)

Also, the thing about the Wing TV stats is that we're never told exactly HOW they measure things. Sure, Deathscythe Hell is listed as having a Speed rating of 170, but we don't know how that translates into thruster output or anything along those lines. You might think you could compare these stats to the Endless Waltz versions, but I've seen at least one artbook that gives entirely different stats for the EW mobile suits (but unfortunately I haven't found the book or any scans of it to get those figures).

And regarding flight, the only time Deathscythe ever exhibits anything resembling flight is its dramatic entrance at Brussels.

[Toxicity]

I know for a fact that just prior to the first screen shot, the Hell opened it's cloak. In that shot, you can see the outline of the suit, after the cloak has opened. Before, when the cloak was closed, you could see nothing.

[Recon 5]

It could be that instead of bending light around the suit, the visual stealth component of the Deathscythe consists of projecting a realtime image of the surroundings onto the DH's armor, or simply turning the whole thing jet black. Both can hide a MS in space.

[Bord]

I believe Heavyarms, Sandrock, Deathscythe and Nataku are capable of brief atmospheric flight, but not like Wing Zero who could stay in mid-air for long periods of time. The fact that they made reentry on their own in EW, and Nataku fighting Wing Zero above the ocean, yeah, they could actually FLY, but it seems they aren't built for sustained flight.

Let's go back on topic:
So Deathscythe Hell has insane speed. We saw it take off from one point in the city to another in seconds, fast for a thing its size. This may have to do with the large of boosters in its Cloak. Makes you wonder how Duo handles all that stress / G's, as Deathscythe seems to accelerate very fast.

[Seraphic]

Yes, this speed stat of 170 gives Deathscythe Hell the highest speed value out of all the MS in Gundam Wing, but watching how DSH performed against other Gundams always puzzled me.

In particular, the episode called "Crossfire at Barge" (or something) where Barge is about to fire its beam cannon and Quatre and Duo try to race forward to stop it. Sandrock and Deathscythe Hell do have to break through lines of enemies, but still, I thought DSH should have gotten there really fast, right? Instead, Epyon rushes past both of them and proceeds to cleave the fortress in two.

What does this mean about the Deathscythe's speed, then?

From observing all of the Gundams together, I think it means that Deathscythe simply has the greatest straight line acceleration, and it can't sustain this acceleration for very long. Rather, this acceleration is only used in short-ranged combat. In contrast, Epyon, Wing, and Wing Zero can keep up high levels of acceleration for prolonged periods (this is improved even further by their transformations), and likely also have much higher in-flight mobility than DSH.

About the Gundams being flight capable:

I believe at least three of the Gundams have enough raw thrust power to maintain some level of flight. As mentioned earlier, Altron and Wing Zero duel above the ocean all under their own thrust power. There may be some level of just free-falling, but I think at this point neither Heero nor Wufei really care. After this battle, Altron hovers under its own thrust power. Also, the Wing Zero uses its own thrust to get up from the bottom of the ocean (holy crap, those rockets must be really strong) and then he flies all the way to Brussels. This last part is offscreen...but I can't really imagine Wing Zero boost jumping all the way there, can you?

Our case of interest here is Sandrock. In the special edition of EW, there is footage of it being clung onto by two Serpents, and then it lifts the both of them (plus itself) into the air with its own rockets. Alright, that is just an insane level of thrust for a single mobile suit. I'm not saying raw power = flight, but that impressed me significantly. Sandy would be able to boost jump like no tomorrow in the least.

As for Heavyarms and Deathscythe, they do not demonstrate anything we can call evidence for flight capability.

[Bord]

In the TV series, Heavyarms was able to fight in the air, even going as far as spraying enemies with gatling bullets in mid-air.

So Deathscythe's like Batman eh? Bat-like cloak but no actual flight. Seems pretty ironic though...

[AmuroNT1]

Actually, in my rewatch of Wing TV, I noticed an interesting line in one early episode. Zechs is looking over some data collected on the Shenlong and muses that "flying must not be its strong point". At least to me, that seems like a pretty deliberate statement that it CAN fly, but it's not as good at it as a dedicated MS like the Aries.

[Wingnut]

Actually, in my rewatch of Wing TV, I noticed an interesting line in one early episode. Zechs is looking over some data collected on the Shenlong and muses that "flying must not be its strong point". At least to me, that seems like a pretty deliberate statement that it CAN fly, but it's not as good at it as a dedicated MS like the Aries.

I have a different answer for that. You said yourself that it was early in the series, before Zechs got to Victoria. It is possible that aside from his encounter with Wing Gundam he knew nothing about what the other 4 could do and likely assumed that they were the same, or at least very similar to Wing Gundam in their capabilities (that is, they could all zip around like Wing), when in reality they were very different machines.

Long story short, I think we can chalk that one up to Zechs not being completely informed on the performance of the other 4 Gundams.

[Kiggz]

All the Gundam's can fly there are countless scenes to prove they can all fly even for death scythe but it would seem they are less capable long periods of flight compared to Wing Zero/Epyon or a Aries ect.

Although the other 4 gundam's still can fly the Nataku seems to be closest to Wing Zero/Epyon with its boosters and the Altron is close also. The sandrock and Heavy Arms seem to be the least capable of long flight but they can if they need to.

The Tallgeese has excellent flight capabilities also.

[Wingnut]

All the Gundam's can fly there are countless scenes to prove they can all fly even for death scythe but it would seem they are less capable long periods of flight compared to Wing Zero/Epyon or a Aries ect.

Although the other 4 gundam's still can fly the Nataku seems to be closest to Wing Zero/Epyon with its boosters and the Altron is close also. The sandrock and Heavy Arms seem to be the least capable of long flight but they can if they need to.

The Tallgeese has excellent flight capabilities also.

I have to call BS on this one. Never have I seen them actually fly for any length of time at any point in the series. Remember that a rocket assisted jump does not equal flight in the sense that we are talking about here.
There are only 6 units that can truely fly on their own in the AC universe: Tallgeese, Wing Gundam, Wing Zero, Epyon, the Aries, and the Taurus units.

[razgriz]

the DSH wings didn't really seem like they were built with flight in mind, maybe the DSH custom could at least glide with its bat style wings a la batman but i dont see anything on the models or otherwise beyond the thrusters? inside the wings that says fly and stay flying more like jump glide and look badass while u do it