Hangars

I've been reading the thread about storing fighters externally and
hangars would work.
1st the hangars.  I think that a hangar would be in 2 sections.  These
sections would be connected by an airlock or several airlocks in
parrallel.  The inner section would be preasurized.  this would allow
fighters to receive mainenance and repair in a shirt sleve envirement.
When the fighter was ready to be returned to service, it would be moved
through the airlock to the outer section.  The air in the lock would be
pumped into containers for reuse rather than being discarded.
The outer section would be a vacuum although it would still be entirely
enclosed.  This would protect fighters from the elements (hard
radiation, dust, rapid heat changes etc.) which could degrade the
performance of its systems while it waited for use.  Fueling and arming
would be doing by robotic systems.  The technology to do this kind of
thing exists today, it's just cheaper and easier to use people.  Pilots
could board their craft by one of several systems that don't involve
them walking through a vacuum.	The old show "Space, Above and Beyond"
showed a good method.  Another way would use a movable corridor like the
airlines use to board passengers.  It would have to make an airtight
seal around the hatch though.
Depending on how bulky the launching gear is, the fighters would be
launched from individual launchers like B5 or would be staged for launch
like modern aircraft carriers.	If the later, fighters would be moved
around on tracks rather than taxiing.

As for storing fighters externally without any hangars, it would not be
unreasonable to allow them to be fueled armed and launched that way but
amintenance and repair would be nearly impossible.  It is difficult to
do on deck of modern carriers.	Having crews and sensitive diagnostic
equipment hanging on the outside of the ship as it hurtles through space
would (IMHO) not be practicle.	Therefore, you would need a maintenance
ship somewhere nearby where such maintainence and repair could be
carried out.  Ships storing fighters externally would have a short
endurance caused by the need to make frequent stops there.

Tim