I'd argue that animating a winged spaceship will allow him to focus on the animation of the wings, ignoring their effect on the body (of say, a dragon) thus making the process easier, if anything. Also, part of the charm here, for me, is the ridiculousness of it. I mean, yeah, flapping wings on a spaceship would be useless, but it's that whole "who-gives-a-shit-because-it-looks-cool" mentality that works for me here. It's like the whole space corvette thing in Heavy Metal. If you actually tried to enter the atmosphere in something like that you'd be instantly incinerated, but who cares. The man is
flying a
corvette. In
space. Likewise piloting a giant sword with dragon wings doesn't have to be logical. It's just fun.
Oh, and I do agree with you, Sharp. I mean, obviously the best way to learn animation, as with anything, is to study life (and in this case, I'd say studying a bat's method of flight would be even more informative that attempting a dragon). So yeah, I'd say
study the bat, and apply what you learn to the spaceship.
(This is likely terrible advice, so feel free to ignore it, Souly, and everyone else feel free to let me know as violently as I deserve. And Souly, if the chassis
isn't a sword, it should be.

).