Post by DC-Fan on Aug 26, 2018 19:21:01 GMT
This film is not a comic or a Richard Donner film.
There was a book titled "The Science of Superman". The author attempted to provide scientific explanations for how Superman's powers work. For example, heat vision. Superman stores light from the yellow sun in his eyes and then redirects the light through the lenses of his eyes. The lenses of his eyes cause the light to turn into heat, similar to how you can use a magnifying glass to reflect sunlight and start a fire.
The author attempted to provide scientific explanations for Superman's other powers as well. But the author didn't have a scientific explanation for how Superman flies because in order for something to fly, it has to generate lift (e.g. birds and planes generate lift using their wings, helicopters generate lift using their propellers). But Superman didn't appear to have any mechanism to generate lift so the author didn't have a scientific explanation for how Superman flies.
A few years after that book was published, a DC Comics writer came up with a brilliant solution for how Superman flies. Lift basically has the opposite effect of gravity i.e. gravity pulls things down while lift "pulls" things up. So the solution was basically "anti-gravity".
Under a yellow sun, Kryptonians have the ability to manipulate the gravitational field around themselves and any object they touch. So when Superman holds the helicopter with 1 hand in Superman: The Movie or holds up 1 side of the passenger jet in Superman Returns, he's able to manipulate the gravitational field around the entire helicopter or entire passenger jet. That's why the helicopter and the passenger jet don't break. That also explains why when Superman took Lois flying over Metropolis in Superman: The Movie, he was able to just hold Lois by 1 hand and Lois' entire body remained horizontal rather than the rest of her body hanging down from her hand. Because Superman manipulated the gravitational field around Lois' entire body.
Of course, like with most laws of physics, the heavier an object, the more force required. That's why it took a lot more effort for Superman to manipulate the gravitational field around the entire passenger jet as opposed to manipulating the gravitational field around the helicopter or around Lois.