Scaling WC Fighters.

N

Nob Akimoto

Rear Admiral
Okay, this is an extrapolation based on the "Is the Raptor too big or the Claw too small" debate on the Tiger's Claw launch tubes thread.

I took the Claw Marks images of the Rapier-II and Raptor scaled the latter to be in the proper scale with the former then compared them to(again) a scaled image of the F4U-4 Corsair which based on cockpit images has roughly the same habitable volume as the WC fighters.

Here are the results:
WCFighterScale.jpg


Obviously there's a bit of a margin of error here, but if going by these line drawings, not only are the various lengths somewhat grossly exagerated, but the relation between fighters is rather skewed as well.
 
Interesting picture Nob Akimoto, i wonder how current fan mods like standoff scale their fighters in relation to cap-ships. Are they going strictly by the numbers stated in some manual or are they trying to achieve a fitting relation between cap-ships and fighters?
 
Well I like the explanation haesslich provided, he suggested that they just mixed meters and feet.

For 36 feet (instead of meters) you get 10,972 meters which fits quite nicely with the F4U-4.
 
Makes sense, although 11 meters could be too short for a space fighter...
something close to 15 meter would make more sense, but hey, it's fiction that takes place in the 27th century...
 
Simple feet/meter mix-up doesn't really account for the scaling problem between the two fighter designs.

Though I think these lengths fit better with the capship lengths established which seem to stay consistent next to things like artwork aboard ship.
 
A good way to scale the fighters is to just figure out what the conversion between the WC1 Rapier II and the WC2 Rapier II is... and then apply that to everything.
 
How do you mean, Loaf?

Just going by this piece, I just find it unlikely the Raptor's one and a half times the length of a rapier by any stretch, particularly in comparison to the launch sequence artwork for the size/scale of the Raptor vs the pilot.
 
Hm, on www.ditl.org (a star trek fanside, i hope i do not break rules for giving this adress) you can select the ships you are interested in and than the site shows you a size comparison.

Would be great to have the same feature for the wing commander universe :D
 
18m seems to make sense for a heavy space fighter that has to have a huge power source, loads of fuel, massive amounts of equipment (sensors, comms, life support, targeting, etc), a shield generator, so on and so forth.

The F-15 dwarfs most any prop fighter ever built, but the interior habitable volume isn't much more than that of, say, the Jug (P-47). And the reasons for the size of modern fighters is most of what I mentioned, fuel, sensors, etc, but they have less than something from WC would have.

Just wanted to point out that pit volume isn't a good indication of overall size is all. The P-47 is a good example as well. It's pit was roughly the same size as the Mustang, but the P-47 was practically the size of a small bomber. It was larger than most every other fighter. When the Brits first saw one and the pilot got out, they asked when the rest of the crew was coming out. lol (that was only the D, the N was larger still. lol)

IMHO, every carrier in WC except the Midway is just too small. That was the first one of reasonable size for what they are carrying. But that split design seems impractical too. It just seems weak. If there were to be any sheering force on it, it would just snap like a turkey wishbone. Don't know why they wouldn't just bother to connect the 2 halves anyway. One would think there would be a practicality to how they designed and built the ships (if we hold disbeleif suspended and don't just use the "well it's fiction" cop out. :D )
 
Well the designers of the midway knew that they later had to incorporate the huge plasma super weapon which nevertheless could fire only once :D (Reminds me on the Phase Transit Canon for the confederation class which would also blow up if fired, anyone else recognize a pattern here? :D I am sure if the behemoth had survived somehow the genius scientists of the confed surely had found out after the first shoot that this weapon can not be fired again :D )
 
How do you mean, Loaf?
Click to expand...

WC2 has more reasonable numbers for the fighter lenghts... it makes the Rapier II, for instance, 19 meters long instead of 24. Use that percent of decrease across the board and see what kind of numbers you get. (At the very least, you can claim there was some basis in fiction for such a correction. I personally believe that we don't need to fix the lengths, because later games have shown that they'll clearly keep using the wrong system... but it would be useful for a fan project type group that wants 'realistic' looking fighters compared to capital ships.)

If there were to be any sheering force on it, it would just snap like a turkey wishbone. Don't know why they wouldn't just bother to connect the 2 halves anyway.
Click to expand...

Sheering force in space :)?

They needed two halves so they'd have a place to stick the giant alien gun... (G)

(That's a joke, Sean Murphy says he designed the Midway before it was decided that it'd get huge crystal genitals.)
 
Bandit LOAF said:
Sheering force in space :)?
Click to expand...

Concussive blast from some nearby large explosion, being too near the edge of too strong a gravity well, etc.

It wouldn't be common place, sure, but wouldn't be too unlikely either. :)
 
Bloodspray said:
Concussive blast from some nearby large explosion, being too near the edge of too strong a gravity well, etc.

It wouldn't be common place, sure, but wouldn't be too unlikely either. :)
Click to expand...

The crew on one half decides to start jumping up and down in sync...
 
Bloodspray said:
IMHO, every carrier in WC except the Midway is just too small. That was the first one of reasonable size for what they are carrying. But that split design seems impractical too. It just seems weak. If there were to be any sheering force on it, it would just snap like a turkey wishbone. Don't know why they wouldn't just bother to connect the 2 halves anyway. One would think there would be a practicality to how they designed and built the ships (if we hold disbeleif suspended and don't just use the "well it's fiction" cop out. :D )
Click to expand...
I hate to get off topic, but I figure that the hull is seperated so that if one side sustains catastrophic damage, the other side can continue flight operations
 
Bloodspray said:
IMHO, every carrier in WC except the Midway is just too small. That was the first one of reasonable size for what they are carrying.
Click to expand...

Well the Confederation and Bengal were well sized. The sprites made it a pain to determine what size they were. The only carriers that did not make sence were the Lexington Intrepid Hvarrkan (or however one would spell it) Vesuvius, Bhanranka, and the Victory. Of course when you fly through them they are holding HUGE fighters and they have HUGE hangars and well it makes you wonder were the crew stays
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top