How do fighters manuver?

Flywheels are primarily used, in SF, for inducing spin to simulate gravity. Since WC has gravity manipulation as part and parcel of the universe, there's no need for it.

I suppose one could, theoretically, use them for maneuvering, but they'd be so large that it wouldn't be practical due to the space taken up that could be put to other uses, with the functionality replaced by maneuvering jets.
 
On the subject of wheels, isn't it stated somewhere that the Piranha's rotating core aids its maneuverability?
 
The rotating engine pods on the Panther and Vampire were described as enhancing maneuverability.
 
I think that the whole George Washington episode was at least 2 years ago... don't know.

Yeah, I do think the fighters use both systems... Anyway, there are some small differences between military and civilian craft, the civilian ones have an energy pool shared by guns and afterburner, and the fuel is just for jumps, while military craft have fuel shared by AB and jump, while the gun capacitors are discrete.
 
Edfilho said:
Anyway, there are some small differences between military and civilian craft, the civilian ones have an energy pool shared by guns and afterburner, and the fuel is just for jumps, while military craft have fuel shared by AB and jump, while the gun capacitors are discrete.
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Well, and that Dragon made a big deal about how it could recharge the afterburners. I just played Standoff, and running out of AB is the one of the top bad things that could go wrong on a mission, especially escort ones where you must be running around to protect ships. If we could just divert some of that gun energy to the AB, which would be this simple, available civ tech, would really be nice.
 
Delance said:
Well, and that Dragon made a big deal about how it could recharge the afterburners. I just played Standoff, and running out of AB is the one of the top bad things that could go wrong on a mission, especially escort ones where you must be running around to protect ships. If we could just divert some of that gun energy to the AB, which would be this simple, available civ tech, would really be nice.
Click to expand...

Yeah the amount you have the AB on in Standoff is impressive. I've only run out once and it felt like I was flying with a drag chute deployed...

"Where you going?"
"No wherae!"
 
Well, Pliers says "Imagine the speed" when speaking of the Dragon's powerplant, so it seems to be implied that taking afterburner power from the engines is nothing new--you do it in Privateer. However, getting the kind of speed and acceleration that a military fighter needs couldn't be done within weight limits without sacrificing everything else in favor of bigger engines (which would take up more bulk and expense than just adding more fuel). Note how civilian craft in Privateer were significantly slower than their military counterparts on afterburner.
 
I was wondering if the hydrogen scoops on fighters are like say the bussard collectors in star trek? Also i was reading action stations recently and there is a passage in the novel that makes me think that hydrogen scoops are a field that encompass a ship.

"while cutting off the hydrogen scoop field which served the dual role of pulling in the stray hyrogen atoms to be found in deep space for fuel and at the same time providing the dragwhich enabled a ship to turn and maneuver as if it was inside a planets atmosphere"

I hope any of this makes sence :)
 
Basically the scoop is a huge funnel-shaped magnetic field that extends in front of a ship. As the ship moves, stray hydrogen, helium, and space dust get collected at the point of the funnel (where the ship's intake port is), and are sent to the fuel tank. By pointing the field at an angle, the drag created by the field pushing against several square kilometers of interplanetary medium creates an off-center torque that turns the ship. Fully extending the field and cutting engine thrust lets the field act as a parachute to slow the ship down.
 
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