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Previous puzzle of this kind: #1

A bird without wing, body, feet or tail,
An invention am I who can effortlessly sail.
I am unlike my lowly brothers who only deliver mail;
Surging over the winds I am majestic without fail!

...Alas, that is a lie, I do have one shortcoming
In order to be useful to you I cannot be made thin.
Thanks a lot, you, you darned and cursed thing!
Now there are barriers I shan't break, oh, races I'll never win!

You say that there's a Wikipedia article for anything?
Find mine, then, and declare yourself this puzzle's king!

Hint 1:

My stability was an issue that my creators did see
That is the reason why they taught me to sweep.

Hint 2:

UFOs have a generic shape;
I do too, though not from space

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5 Answers 5

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Are you?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_wing

A bird without wing, body, feet or tail, An invention am I who can effortlessly sail.

Aircraft, plane or drone

I am unlike my lowly brothers who only deliver mail; Surging over the winds I am majestic without fail!

...Alas, that is a lie, I do have one shortcoming In order to be useful to you I cannot be made thin.

Needs to have room for engines, fuel, cabin inside the wing.

Thanks a lot, you, you darned and cursed thing! Now there are barriers I shan't break, oh, races I'll never win!

Will never break the sound barrier. Too thick to hold the equipment.

You say that there's a Wikipedia article for anything? Find mine, then, and declare yourself this puzzle's king!

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  • $\begingroup$ Correct! Green checkmark and bounty are yours once you come up with a better explanation for the '...Alas' line. It's closely tied to the line directly after. $\endgroup$
    – kanoo
    Commented Nov 19, 2018 at 19:44
  • $\begingroup$ Updated to explain correctly $\endgroup$
    – Instantsoup
    Commented Nov 19, 2018 at 19:49
  • $\begingroup$ That has wings... (it’s even in the answer: “needs to have room for engines, fuel, cabin, inside the wing”) $\endgroup$
    – SPK.z
    Commented Nov 19, 2018 at 21:15
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Perhaps a

Kite?

Paragraph 1

Kites soar through the air but do not have the anatomical parts of a bird. They are also an invention.

and

Kites have many purposes, from recreation to meteorology to military. Maybe its 'brother' refers to the mail pigeon.

Paragraph 2

A kite needs ample wingspan to stay afloat. (cannot be thin)

The clues also kind of sound like a

Balloon, for mostly the same reasons.

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  • $\begingroup$ Just looked at the previous wikipedia question and it seems like the correct solution is supposed to be decently obscure. $\endgroup$
    – 1848
    Commented Nov 16, 2018 at 7:30
  • $\begingroup$ obscurity isn't the goal, but the 'random article' feature tends to make it so; I stuck with one of the least obscure ones I found. You're headed in the right direction, keep it up! $\endgroup$
    – kanoo
    Commented Nov 16, 2018 at 14:51
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Well, I took a decent sized shoehorn, and with its help, I worked on

HMS Warrior

until it seemed it might fit:

A bird without wing, body, feet or tail,

HMS warrior is a frigate, which is also a bird

An invention am I who can effortlessly sail.

A steam powered ship

I am unlike my lowly brothers who only deliver mail;

HMS stands for "Her Majesty's Ship", the other well known ship prefix RMS means "Royal Mail Steamer"

Surging over the winds I am majestic without fail!

A steam ship can sail against the wind

...Alas, that is a lie, I do have one shortcoming In order to be useful to you I cannot be made thin.

HMS Warrior was an Ironclad (one of the first), so it had to have a thick armour.

Thanks a lot, you, you darned and cursed thing!

The armour was needed because of wars.

Now there are barriers I shan't break, oh, races I'll never win!

While the ship isn't actually very slow by any means, it definitely isn't the fastest either.

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  • $\begingroup$ Good try. Combine answers with @1848 $\endgroup$
    – kanoo
    Commented Nov 16, 2018 at 14:52
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Perhaps

some kind of war plane?

A bird without wing, body, feet or tail,

again, they don't have the anatomy of a bird but fly like one

An invention am I who can effortlessly sail.

it's an invention, and sails in the sky

I am unlike my lowly brothers who only deliver mail;

mail planes

Surging over the winds I am majestic without fail!

literally flies over the winds

...Alas, that is a lie, I do have one shortcoming

In order to be useful to you I cannot be made thin.

the planes need to be heavily armored

Thanks a lot, you, you darned and cursed thing! Now there are barriers I shan't break, oh, races I'll never win!

because of said armor, the plane is slower, so it won't win a race to a faster plane

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  • $\begingroup$ Closest answer so far, but no cigar $\endgroup$
    – kanoo
    Commented Nov 19, 2018 at 17:17
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I think you are a

Zeppelin

A bird without wing, body, feet or tail

A zeppelin has no wings etc.

An invention am I who can effortlessly sail

A zeppelin has motors and doesn't need wind.

I am unlike my lowly brothers who only deliver mail

Zeppelins were used in wars to drop bombs.

...Alas, that is a lie, I do have one shortcoming In order to be useful to you I cannot be made thin

A zeppelin is filled with some sort of gas to fly, and even unfilled it has a predefined shape.

Now there are barriers I shan't break, oh, races I'll never win!

Zeppelins are no longer really used.

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  • $\begingroup$ A little bit farther from the answer than Excited Raichu $\endgroup$
    – kanoo
    Commented Nov 19, 2018 at 19:08

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