Why skids?

Shaggy

Vice Admiral
I got to wondering, why would you put skids on a starfighter?

Battlestar Galactica, early (and I think Prophecy era) WC, Star Wars all have skids on their fighters.
I can understand why helicopters have skids bujt you would think with a fighter you would want to be able to roll it around the deck on its own wheels, particularly if ther was a scramble on.

I don't know it's just something that's been nagging at me.
 
Yeah, they're not supposed to glide on them. They're just props to stand on when the fighters are done moving. We do see some wheels on some craft occasionally though.
 
I'd think when you have a disabled fighter that you need moved somewhere quickly, you'd be pretty lucky to have it still be standing on its gear. That's why they have bulldozers to push disabled craft around.
 
Wouldn't the anti-grav have to be on to move it? Buldoze would harm the craft. If the engine/anti-grav was the only thing out wheels would be ultra handy.
 
Yeah, they're not supposed to glide on them. They're just props to stand on when the fighters are done moving.
Then how to explain takeoff animation in WC2 ?
It looks like those fighters are actually gliding for a moment (they're not hovering up)
 
Well, if a ship is capable of defying gravity and it has skids and not wheels, is there much explanation really needed? Maybe there's teflon underneath or wheels embeded? Like I was saying above, we do see ships with wheels too.
 
not to mention the landing sequence in WC2 wouldn't be half as neat if blair didn't land at high speed and slide his craft around in a perfect 180 into its recovery slot.
 
not to mention the landing sequence in WC2 wouldn't be half as neat if blair didn't land at high speed and slide his craft around in a perfect 180 into its recovery slot.

Ah, yes...the animation where the Broadsword does the 180 is almost comical.
 
Wouldn't the anti-grav have to be on to move it? Buldoze would harm the craft. If the engine/anti-grav was the only thing out wheels would be ultra handy.

Fighters mass a dozen tons or more--you are NOT going to be mahandling them even with wheels; you'll need a powered tractor anyway.
 
not to mention the landing sequence in WC2 wouldn't be half as neat if blair didn't land at high speed and slide his craft around in a perfect 180 into its recovery slot.
Ah, but Blair doesn't land at all - the automatic carrier landing system handles it.
 
My main thoughts on skids are the damage incurred to the deck. Watching BSG they land as if they had wheels and slide down the deck. That would tear it up wouldn't it? Even today the tail hook on Naval aircraft tear up the coatings on carrier decks and they only carry their own weight when striking the deck and they can still rebound.

Then of course the disabled plane element. It's not unusual for a fighter to receive a down gripe, preventing it from launching, and needing to be towed away rather than risking starting the engine and having something fail catastrophically. Towing an invalidated ship with skids out of the way would be much more difficult than a wheeled one.
 
yeah, I'm inclined to believe that a science fiction universe which allows for reactionless thrusters on its fighter craft would have no problem with frictionless skids. Not to mention, carriers withstanding, skids let you land where wheels do not.
 
Perhaps,

There could small 'tip' on the end of the skids that we don't see, possibly magnetic, that has a switch in the cockpit to 'fasten' if landing on an asteroid or uneven surface of a planet or something, then to 'slide' is being towed. Lighter than wheels with brakes and maybe better at 'hanging on' during high-g capship manoevers....

KvK
 
Only the craft in WC1, WC2 and Privateer have skids on them. You can see in the landing cutscenes in WC3, WC4 and Prophecy have wheels.
 
Star Wars avoided this problem by having most of its air and spacecraft VTOL capable. And in Babylon 5 fighters simply launch from racks they hang from when no one is flying them (and actually so do TIE fighters in SW).
I suppose it's possible the skids might have wheels in them-they're just so low to the ground we can't see them.
 
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