Subject:
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Re: Peether T-8 (Lightning contest entry)
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.space
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Date:
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Wed, 25 Feb 2004 19:25:27 GMT
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Viewed:
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567 times
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THERE BE SNIPPING HERE
I personally don’t get offended by winged spacecraft since I am generally
predisposed to finding aerodynamic looking shapes aesthetically pleasing.
However, wings in space can serve legitimate functional purposes.
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I agree. In the end, it’s all about looking good. (Like Hernando says: “It’s
more important to look good than to feel good, darling.”) Note, though, that in
most of the cases you mentioned, we aren’t talking literally about wings so
much as support structures, mounting points, solar panels, etc. -- all of which
are sound reasons to incorporate winglike structures on a spacecraft. Two
obvious and well-conceived examples are the X-Wing and TIE fighters, which
incorporate rationales #5 and #8 respectively:
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5. Wings make a good place to mount weapons. They expand a ships surface area
& volume to provide mounting points for weapons. They also can help limit
interference to other ships systems by mounting the weapon further away from
the main body of the ship. The wings can also house radiators to help cool
high power weapons systems.
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8. Wings could also be a good place to put high-efficiency solar panels for
those who prefer to fly an emissions-friendly spacecraft.
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To #5, I would add that placing weapons away from the ship increase its field of
fire (which in the case of the X-Wing is increased exponentially when the wings
are “deployed” in “attack position”).
However, when I look at the hyperaerodynamic Naboo spacecraft, I can see no
purpose for those streamlined control surfaces other than aesthetics (which is
rationale enough, isn’t it?).
So here’s a question: If we take aesthetics, aerodynamics, and
mechanical/electronic limitiations completely out of the equation, what’s the
most functional (i.e. “perfect”) design for a spacecraft? The cube? The sphere?
The saucer? The Spiff saucer-and-bubble?
Matt
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Message has 1 Reply:
Message is in Reply To:
 | | Re: Peether T-8 (Lightning contest entry)
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| (...) I personally don’t get offended by winged spacecraft since I am generally predisposed to finding aerodynamic looking shapes aesthetically pleasing. However, wings in space can serve legitimate functional purposes. I generally rationalize (...) (20 years ago, 25-Feb-04, to lugnet.space, FTX)
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