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Subject: 
Re: Ben's LEGO Millennium Falcon back on-line
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.starwars
Date: 
Tue, 26 Nov 2002 02:58:35 GMT
Viewed: 
919 times
  
"Gregory Cook" <gfoxcook@houston.rr.com> wrote in message
news:H65FG8.3G4@lugnet.com...
In lugnet.starwars, Craig Stevens writes:
Hi Gregory,

The quote you used reffers to the docking rings on each side of the
Millennium Falcon, not the six circular "vents." If you look closely, the
circular protrusions are not covered in fan blade slits and look rather • like
solar panels instead. I believe that they are hatches covering escape pod
tubes for the following reasons:

According to a publication called "The Official Star Wars Fact File", the
two large circular openings at each side are escape pods.  There are four
Equipment Access Bay hatches shown at the front of the Millenium Falcon, on
the forward mandibles, past the circumference of the circular portion of the
Millenium Falcon.  Two are shown on each mandible.  There are also six vents
shown at the back of the Millenium Falcon in this publication, and it is
plain that they are vents, as they are clustered closely together, and have
ventral slits on them.

The quad laser cannons are mounted right on the centre of the circular
portion.  This would give them the most line of sight to shoot at targets.

It appears obvious to me, from the photos published in the publication I
mentioned, that the areas at the front of the ship are quite different from
the vents on the other areas.  It also fits with what I have seen in the
movies.  The docking ring that was used for the Medical Frigate is also
visible on the right side, behind the mandibles and opposite the Sensor Dish
on the left side, and in the same relative location.

[snip]

It doesn't matter whether we're talking about pods firing from the 6 • circles
on the top, or from the "floor", the horizontal position is the same, just
which direction, up or down, the pods fire. The point of the quote was • that,
as you can see, there would be no room for pods just in front of the • engine
exhaust vents, because the engine needs to be big. ESPECIALLY since the MF
is supposed to be one of the fastest ships of its size in the galaxy. Does
anyone really believe that the engine is just this thin little "watermelon
rind" right next to the exhaust? It has to go inward, probably all the way
to just behind the gun turrets.

A) The Increddible Cross Sections book shows that the "vents" are nowhere
near the engines. In that diagram, the ring corridoor should have been • moved
forward slightly, the the six pods could rest right underneath their • covers.

ICS has been wrong about other stuff. Why would the ship need 6 pods,
anyway? That's way too many.

Given the photos/plans in the Official Star Wars Fact File I mentioned
earlier, I would have to agree here.  That is most definitely the engine
section.  There is also no clear-cut means of identifying whether the ring
corridor actually goes right around the Millenium Falcon.  Although I would
strongly agree that the engine compartment takes up a good chunk of it.

B) There is a large rectangular area sticking out of the underside of the
ship which allows the pods to stand vertically inside the Falcon.

That's possible, but it could also be that it's filled with more engine
space.

They wouldn't need to, since they are at either end of the top of an
imaginary "T" shape that can be visualised by taking the bulge between the
mandibles, in line with the gun turrets, and at end of the circular
corridors that lead out to them from the centre, which are plainly visible
in the Official Star Wars Fact File I mentioned.

C) In the Empire Strikes Back, Medical Frigate's docking tube is clamped • on
to one of the "vents" - more likely an escape pod tube doubling as a • docking
port.

That's addressed in one of the two links I made. It's most likely an • error.
Yep, even canon can contain errors. The docking ports are in the arms you
referring to earlier, as seen with Lando's rescue of Luke. And anyone, an
escape pod "tube" doubling as a docking port is kinda silly, when the port
and starboard docking areas are available. Also kinda unworkable. Is this
supposed to happen while the pod is present or while it's ejected? Either
way seems silly.

See my point above.  It is most definitely a docking port, and not an escape
pod hatch.

D) The position of the "vents" exactly matches the curve of the ring • corridoor.

Only 3 of them could, since they're in two rows, and even that's a maybe. • No
one ever goes all the way around the ring corridor in the films.

Since nobody did go all the way around the ring corridor in the films I
would venture to say that at least 90% of the space between the hyperdrive
engine and the gun turrets is occupied with sublight/hyperdrive engines.
The other 10% being, of course, to have access to the engine itself in the
likely event of repairs being needed to it.

E) The pods had to be placed somewhere visible to the audience "Several • of
the escape pods have been jettisonned..."

That line can be explained by the fact that what we now know as the
Corellian Corvette/Rebel Blockade Runner/Tantive IV was originally going • to
be Han's ship, and the 4 big bulges on top of the midsection of the • Corvette
were going to be escape pods, but when the ship was deemed too similar to • a
ship from another movie/show (Space: 1999, I think?), and Lucas suggested
the hamburger shape, the Corvette was changed in scale to be much larger,
with a hammerhead bridge section, and the escape pods were moved under the
midsection, the large bulges being made into secondary gun turrets. And
according to ICS, additional escape pod space, but who knows.

Well, from what I've seen here with the publication I have, that's totally
wrong.  Either someone has their facts wrong, or has altered them to suit
their own theory.

The point is, a lot of the script refers to the original Corvette, not the
eventual MF, and it's very possible that escape pods were NEVER intended • to
be included in the MF.

F) Can anyone explain to me exactly where else they can be? Are there any
other AFOLs with Falcon models who plan on tackling this sticky issue?

They can be nowhere, I thought this was a pretty well known option. Look, • it
could be either or, but there is a very distinct possibility that there • are
NO escape pods at all, or at least not 6 pods under the circles, whatever
they are. Please, though, go look at a Corellian Corvette, or even the • LEGO
model, even it has 4 little circles atop its engine slops that look just
like the MF's circles.

There are escape pods all right.  Two, one either side and at 90 degree
angles to the forward mandibles, 180 degrees from each other.  I don't know
how many people they would have carried, since the official fact file
doesn't list this information.

I would have thought that most escape pods would be fairly standard and that
those coming out of one ship would be not be too different from those in
another ship, in order to prevent the problems associated with having to
find spares in the event that one needed replacement or repair.


--
Cheers ...

Geoffrey Hyde

(Remove spamblock to reply.)



Message has 1 Reply:
  Re: Ben's LEGO Millennium Falcon back on-line
 
(...) Whether the 90 and 270 degree objects are escape pods, or as has been suggested elsewhere, merely cargo transfer docking mechanisms, doesn't matter too much to me. I merely wanted to disprove the "those aren't 6 engine-related vents, they're (...) (22 years ago, 26-Nov-02, to lugnet.starwars)

Message is in Reply To:
  Re: Ben's LEGO Millennium Falcon back on-line
 
(...) The quote I used, I used for this: "large under-hull box. He has them firing out through the 'floor' of that section. I strongly believe that ALL StarWars ships have very large engines, as a percentage of total ship size. Look at the Blockade (...) (22 years ago, 25-Nov-02, to lugnet.starwars)

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