Engine Flame Red or Blue?

Which engine exhaust is better?

  • Blue-White Exhaust?

    Votes: 38 90.5%

  • Orange-White Exhaust?

    Votes: 4 9.5%
  • Total voters
    42
The Dragon has infinite afterburner., and the WCP doesn´t have infinite AB so they don´t have M/AM engines, one property of the M/AM engines is the unlimited fuel for AB (they use the hydrogen of the space).
 
Originally posted by CamW
That's my guess. Since before WC4's Dragon fighter, the fighters in WC never had any bright glowy intakes so I'm assuming in WCP it's the same as WC4's Dragon fighter (which DID have a M/AM engine) which signify's the presence of a M/AM engine.
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The red glowy bit is called a buzzard intake, i think they are employed in jump engines as the excalibur had some as well as the dragon and cap ships. ( i think) cap ships also have blue intakes on their engine blocks, i would assume that they are hydrogen intakes
 
No, Wing Commander uses Bussard Intakes as well. Those are the blue plumes on the front of the Victory's exhaust (I assume). I know that the novels refered to "scoops" that were opened to collect hydrogen, which is exactly what the Ramscoops do in ST.
 
I thought that buzzard intakes were involved in jumps rather than collecting hydrogen, as Vale, the confed wing leader out of the text that came with WCIV noted,
"....The ship had top mounted buzzard intakes, suggesting jump capability...."
I vaguely remember cap ships having red glowing intakes as well as blue glowing intakes which suggest to me that one set (the red one) is for the jump engines, but the blue ones are ram scoops for collecting hydrogen.

...maybe I talkin' rubbish, who knows:confused:
 
What I am referring to now folks is the fact that WCP fighters also have blue bussard intakes. Does this mean they all jump, or just the fact that all of them have M/AM engines? They may not have infinite afterburners but they have infinite fuel for cruise mode flying--doesn't that also mean the need for an infinite fuel source? From all games up to WC4 they used to have a finite fuel source on the fighters right? Therefore up till the advent of M/AM engines on fighters (the first being on the Dragon) in WC4, fighters had only been able to store finite fuel sources. From WC4 onwards (which is only WCP), they were using M/AM engines. That's my hypothesis.

This is just from my memory so I could be totally mistaken. :D
 
I think red engine glow is good for kilrathi and confed ships look good with blue engine flame. In WCP the engine flame didn't changed color when the afterburners were fired. The flame got extended I believe. U can see that good in the sim missions against the kilrathi dralthi and vaktoth.
 
Every Confed fighter we've ever flown has had a bussard intake and unlimited cruising fuel... the only fighter that *didn't*, IIRC, was the Dralthi I, which had an atomic powerplant.
 
I thought one of the endings in WCIII, if you fought thrakhath instead of returning to the victory was that blair drifted in space after he ran out of fuel and died a slow death painful death?
 
There's no actual ending/death, though... you're just stuck there with no place to go (you can fly around forever if you want).
 
Originally posted by Ghost
The green flame is because of the prescence of Cupper (Cu++). a red-violet one can be because of sodium (Na+).
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I assume you mean "copper". Thx for the tip.
Interesting: Rapid oxidation (being "on fire") BURNS green, and slow oxidation (aging/exposure to the elements) "rusts" green (which is why Lady Liberty is bluish green). Hmmmm.
 
Originally posted by Ghost
...one property of the M/AM engines is the unlimited fuel for AB
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You forget that the Excalibur had a M/AM engine, although it wasn't efficient enough to have unlimited afterburn.

Originally posted by Bandit LOAF
Every Confed fighter we've ever flown has had a bussard intake and unlimited cruising fuel... the only fighter that *didn't*, IIRC, was the Dralthi I, which had an atomic powerplant.
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Atomic, eh?

I find it a bit strange that the fuel indicator always decreases slightly during flight in WC1/2 - even without afterburner use.
 
Originally posted by Wedge009
I find it a bit strange that the fuel indicator always decreases slightly during flight in WC1/2 - even without afterburner use.
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maybe because WC/WC-2 ships actually ran off of fuel all the time.
 
Hey wait a damn minute, that's wrong! I know at least WC1 fighters didn't have M/AM engines!

Check their blueprints!!! :D

Does anybody have a link to them?
 
don't dispute the word of LOAF, Cam... even if you think/know you're right, you won't win ;)
 
LOAF did not say all fighters have M/AM engines, just that they have fuel intakes and unlimited cruising capacity.
 
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