Wolfs Shipyard Forum

Truthly I drew the missiles before I had fully grasped (did the math) on the fighter scale realising that the missiles were in fact way too small, but they had unique shapes that were recognisable to their type and purpose so didn't want to redraw them.

That said, realistically the missiles that the Vipers are able to carry internally would end up being about the size of a ManPads Stinger and nothing more interesting.

I realise I have failed you all, I will hang my head in shame for the next 20 minutes as penance. :tired Oops fell asleep!

In point of fact the AGM-84 is more than 1/3 the size of a Viper or Raptor!

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https://www.dropbox.com/sh/bn38ajvren0g ... lZfSa?dl=0 - Star Trek Dropbox
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/g7rv2v2jw6j1 ... 6HCya?dl=0 - Star Wars Dropbox
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/lk77lxsp9vuh ... VKapa?dl=0 - BSG Dropbox
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/8ewiak4qui6r ... tt2Ua?dl=0 - ISS Dropbox

Just a reminder of the small scale of BSG fighters.

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"If you want to have dinner with the Devil, make sure to bring a long spoon!"

Permission is granted to use most of my work, so long as credit is given. Before using my commissioned work, please get the permission of the person who commissioned it.
Wolf's Shipyard

Yep, a BSG Viper's engine can put it in orbit and is less than 1/4 the size of the Tomcat's engine, now that's impressive!

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https://www.dropbox.com/sh/bn38ajvren0g ... lZfSa?dl=0 - Star Trek Dropbox
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/g7rv2v2jw6j1 ... 6HCya?dl=0 - Star Wars Dropbox
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/lk77lxsp9vuh ... VKapa?dl=0 - BSG Dropbox
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/8ewiak4qui6r ... tt2Ua?dl=0 - ISS Dropbox

It's all about the thrust to weight ratio and not needing to worry about air breathing engines!

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Kurt

Click the link to read Lady Hecate off line in PDF, .epub, or Kindle formats: http://www.bsg94.org/downloads/index.html
Click here for the Colonial Warbook for Lady H: http://www.photobucket.com/colonial_warbook

I never realized how small colonial vipers really are. That F-14 is twice the length of that Mk VII!

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Pizza the Hutt: Well, if it isn't Lone Star. And his sidekick, Puke.
Barf: That's Barf.
Pizza the Hutt: Barf... Puke... *Whatever*!

All this drawing does is remind me just how damn BIG our fighters are!

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RIP CanisD

I thought russian fighter jets tended to be overly large. Even for the "smaller" ones.

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Pizza the Hutt: Well, if it isn't Lone Star. And his sidekick, Puke.
Barf: That's Barf.
Pizza the Hutt: Barf... Puke... *Whatever*!

And yet if you compare it to the F-5 (light fighter with limited missile carriage and two guns) it isn't all that out of place.

The driving force behind airframes getting bigger are a combination of bigger/longer ranged missiles and a radar to utilize them, which then necessitated a larger airframe to carry the missiles and the radar, etc. The Rafale and Gripen are reversing this trend somewhat, and the F-16 never fully bought into it, but all three are still larger than a Viper, but not to the extent that an F-14 is.

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Kurt

Click the link to read Lady Hecate off line in PDF, .epub, or Kindle formats: http://www.bsg94.org/downloads/index.html
Click here for the Colonial Warbook for Lady H: http://www.photobucket.com/colonial_warbook

I still can't get over how small Vipers are. I'm assuming a Colonial Raptor is still smaller than the F-14, if only just.

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....................................
Pizza the Hutt: Well, if it isn't Lone Star. And his sidekick, Puke.
Barf: That's Barf.
Pizza the Hutt: Barf... Puke... *Whatever*!

The Viper reminds of WW2 fighters.The engines are small but a huge thrust to fly it up to the orbit.

I think it's likely that the vipers use mass lowering/anti-grav technology in order to allow them to reach space. Just like the larger ships.

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RIP CanisD

Possibly. The Raptor is VTOL, and uses what, a trio of fairly small thrusters to land? That might be possible with Tylium driven thruster tech, but a little assist in that area would be very useful.

As for the Viper, I am drawing a blank, have they ever displayed rough field landing capability? Oh, and Galactica doesn't count!

They did in the old show, but you can easily assume the same holds true in the new show. Skids and VTOL.

The Vipers we see in the show have to solely rely on their VTOL generating capabilities in an atmosphere to land or even for that matter to fly slowly as the wings are just too small to generate lift.

Any failure of or damage to the VTOL system would probably cause a Viper to be severely damaged or possibly destroyed attempting any other landing in a gravity well, even on the type of runway we use today as even if the fighter does manage to set down on the skids without ripping off it's landing gear as skids do not provide any direction control (wheels roll in a particular direction!) the Viper is going to drift all over the place possibly rotating or moving off the runway (especially as they are generally cambered to facilitate rain run off) and end up in the grass somewhere, not to mention skids don't have brakes, only friction.

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https://www.dropbox.com/sh/bn38ajvren0g ... lZfSa?dl=0 - Star Trek Dropbox
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/g7rv2v2jw6j1 ... 6HCya?dl=0 - Star Wars Dropbox
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/lk77lxsp9vuh ... VKapa?dl=0 - BSG Dropbox
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/8ewiak4qui6r ... tt2Ua?dl=0 - ISS Dropbox

Thrust is still thrust and with that comes heat. My guess is that the thrusters are there to give it directional momentum and little else, while the anti-grav handles the rest.

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Kurt

Click the link to read Lady Hecate off line in PDF, .epub, or Kindle formats: http://www.bsg94.org/downloads/index.html
Click here for the Colonial Warbook for Lady H: http://www.photobucket.com/colonial_warbook