Fighter bay design (was: FT-Fighters and bays)

Before getting too deep into the way the rules interact with wet navy
carriers,
perhaps some thoughts on what space fighters would do might help.

First, space fighters do not require a launch deck, or even a catapault.
They could be
pushed away from the carrier and drift far enough to turn on their
engines, if worst
came to worst. Probably some sort of low-energy catapault, perhaps just
a compressed
air blast or something, could be used. Their desired vector is probably
quite
different from the vector of the carrier, and a high-power launch is as
likely to
impart velocity in the wrong direction as the right.

When a fighter is returning to the carrier, it is doing one of three
things (1) the
fight is over and it's coming home (2) the fight is continuing and it
needs more gas
and/or ammo, or (3) it's got a hole in it. For (1), time is generally
not a problem,
so let's skip it.

The next-easiest is (3): if the fighter pilot is wounded or the fighter
cannot be
controlled safely for some reason, it should not be allowed to approach
the carrier at
all. Either the pilot is in an airtight environment (even a suit) or
he's dead; if
necesssary I would image a one-man taxi would pop out to bring medical
and/or rescue
gear to a fighter parked a safe distance from the ship, or proceeding on
a different
vector. If the pilot has a leaky environment he's gonna be dead by the
time he gets
into air anyway. The carrier will not want any highly-explosive weaponry
and
high-velocity fighters near it, even if they are friendly, unless they
are under
reliable control.

If the fighter is incapable of fighting because of damage, it is
extremely unlikely
that it can be repaired in time to get back into the fight, in which
case it should be
shunted off to the side and dealt with later.

Now for (2). In this case the fighter is capable of continuing the
fight, and merely
needs a refill. The key issue here is, as in a racing pit, time.

I envision one floor of the carrier have opening walls. Fighters fly
into rearm/refill
bays from one side (or both, depending on your technology), get their
refill, and
blast right on out the other side. Damaged ships are parked in a
different area which
leads to the repair bay, and can be cycled into the carrier at a slower,
safer pace.
The cargo deck is located under the launch/receiving deck, with 
elevators (or open
holes with air blasts for power, perhaps) feeding fighters up for
launch. For safety
reasons, there might well be launch-only bays, to make sure that no-one
tries to land
into a bay that another fighter is just elevating into.

When a battle starts, the walls fall open and every fighter on the
launch deck
launches clear. Immediately the next set of fighters is elevated into
the launch bays
to launch, etc etc until they all launch. Once fighters begin returning
for refills
the process gets a bit more confusing, but not at all unlikely for a
military
operation.

Since fighters can be moved without gravity and without time constraints
after the
battle, a lot of the design considerations can be ignored. The key
factors for an FT
tactical battle would therefore be the number of fighter bays (=number
of fighters
launched in one wave), and the number of refill bays (=turnaround time
for reloads).
On the strategic level, the number of repair bays and their capacity
will determine
the number of damaged fitghters available after a fight.

In a do-or-die assault, for example, the walls would fall off the entire
ship, and
every fighter would be able to launch immediately andsimultaneously.
Could be quite a
suprise to someone...

=====
Edward lipsett
Fukuoka, Japan
elipsett@intercomltd.com