Re: Galactica

On Wed, 11 Oct 2000 11:00:57 -0500 bbrush@unlnotes.unl.edu wrote:

> Several months ago there was a big discussion on the fighter 
carrying capacity of a battlestar and IIRC there was a general 
consensus that there wasn't really much in the way of hard numbers on 
how many they carried. <

Yes, and what you later quote -- "Sixty-eight..." etc. (I thought it 
was 67?) -- is about the only hard number that we have that way. 
However, by the final episode ("The Hand of God"), the Colonials seem 
to have picked up (or made) a few more, despite the regular weekly 
crashes/combat losses; in a briefing before the Galctica attacks a Base 
Star, Tigh describes the Cylon ship as having 300 fighters, and 
comments that that means that the Colonials will be outnumbered "2 to 
1". Even allowing for imprecision, that can't really be taken to mean 
much fewer than about 120 Vipers available for combat at the time.

Some of these new ships will have come from the Pegasus, since it is 
implied in at least one episode that Sheba and Bojay's squadron 
("Silver Spar") transferred to the Galactica en masse. This is typical 
of trying to put numbers to anything much about the Galactica universe 
-- it's all circumstantial evidence and inference, because they never 
said anything definitely (even in Colonial units!). We don't know how 
big a Colonial Squadron is, but if the Galactica has five squadrons 
aboard (we only ever hear three specifically referred to, but there is 
reason to believe that another two exist), then 24-30 fighters seems to 
be the figure. This is a little large by comparison with most modern 
air arms, but not unheard of in the past.
 
> This is probably just a completely pointless bit of minutae, but hey 
maybe it's useful to someone. <

Like a gamer who wants to do a Colonial-Cylon battle? I used a lot of 
stuff like that to come up with the BSG stats for the UFTWWWP. You make 
use of what you got... which means that it's not "completely pointless" 
at all.

Phil, wondering if the not-Vipers are out yet -- Tony?
------------------------------------------------------------
 Gravity is a Downer... So let's go flying!
   -- so sayeth Phil Atcliffe (Phillip.Atcliffe@uwe.ac.uk)