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Minor Fleets - Style Suggestions

From: "Michael Blair" <amfortas@h...>
Date: Fri, 17 Jul 1998 02:22:40 PDT
Subject: Minor Fleets - Style Suggestions

Minor Fleets - Style Suggestions
During WW II larger Japanese ships were characterised by their 'pagoda' 
bridges. This would make an attractive and distinctive design style for 
the indigenous designs of the Imperial Japanese Space Navy.
What?
Let me explain.
If the decks of a starship are at right angles to the thrust axis (i.e. 
built like a building so that down is down) it would be built like a 
pile of sandwiches or a tower block (see figure 1). Several of the old 
Traveller ships were built this way (e.g. Azahanti High Lightning, PF 
Sloane, and the Broadsword classes)
This contrasts with the conventional SF starship which is built like a 
ship or aeroplane with the thrust axis parallel to the deck (see figure 
2).

Our Japanese spaceship would be built in layers about an armoured spine 
that housed lifts (and emergency ladders) and all the control lines and 
pipework.
Fighters (torpedo carrying of course!) would be housed in boxy hangers 
protruding from the sides of the ship.
Incidentally such a model would be easy to convert into an Orion (a 
proper one as in Footfall, not the cute Frankenstein job in Deep 
Impact).

	 =
	===
	===
	 =
       =====	    Figure 1
       =====
	 ^
	/ \
	 |
      Thrust

	    >====
Thrust-->   >===========>-   Figure 2
	    >====

MRB

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