In my brickshelf folder, you will find a design for a four-engine fighter craft. This un-designated white-with-red-trim fighter is an FTL-capable combat machine carrying four missiles and twin machine guns.
I built the fighter with an eye to eventually building something to carry the fighter. My plan was to always build an "escort carrier" instead of attempting, well, something like this , except spacey.
The concept behind the design is that my fictional UIW (Union of Independent Worlds) was in pressing need for fighter-defense (anti-piracy) of distant shipping lanes. Even equipped with FTL drives, the fighters don't have a very long range (can't expend all your fuel on a jump, then expect to do any serious combat flying). The problem which presents itself are that there are no bases in fighter range (previously, fighters had to make re-tanking stops to make it), and assigning a full-sized carrier is a serious waste of resources (I imagine a full size carrier has a dozen or more fighter squadrons).
UIW's Navy came up with a solution: they took a decomissioned freighter, sawed off the upper hull, sawed off the nacelles from the engineering hull. The engineering hull was completely retrofitted to serve a new purpose -- new engines were installed, crew quarters and bunks and a mess hall shoved between a command deck, med-bay, and pilot ready rooms. They sawed out a chunk of the engineering hull and welded in a huge cargo container and retrofitted it to serve as a maintenance hanger for the escort carrier's fighters. Elevators were constructed to ferry fighters from the hanger to the flight deck -- literally, bolted to the top of the hull.
Voila! An Escort Carrier was born! The carrier is not designed to enter space combat herself. Her few defenses are geared towards evasion of incoming missiles long enough to engage her FTL drive. Her primary mission is to position herself in close fighter-range of shipping lanes and await instructions from various listening posts -- at the first sign of an SOS from the shipping lanes, the carrier can deploy her fighters to assist.
The Escort Carrier has a crew of 120, including personnel to staff the ship itself, as well as the pilots, staff, and technicians who service the fighter craft. As I envision the Carrier, it contains up to eight fighters, two scout craft, and a small re-tanker. The Carrier itself has three decks (not including the hangar bay or flight deck). There is possibly a tall tower from which to monitor the approach of returning fighters.
Visually, the Carrier is modeled on the Engineering Hull of a Constitution-Class ship from the Star Trek films. Yeah, the fictional UIW probably doesn't have those, but I've been toying with ideas for an Escort Carrier for some time and it finally snapped into my head that this would be a pretty nifty and possibly easy idea to accomplish. (Actually, I thought of a neat way to build a movie-era nacelle and it expanded from there).
I don't know when -- if ever -- I'll get around to construction. I've got two and a half fighters already constructed, so I'll probably at least build the eight I need (all with subtle differences), then work on the other auxillary craft (I might try a fighter-bomber, too). I have some nifty ideas -- i.e., instead of the deflector dish, all windows looking into a three-story command center.
Posted by Shik (Member # 343) on :
Sadly, I'm a little more interested in the guy who built the fucking Truman in minifig scale...& what he's taking for stimulation (so I can uses it to finish MY projects)
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
Through-Deck is the way to go: possibly with part of the hull in spin to simulate gravity if the ship is large enough.
A cool option (though far afield of your Connie-hulled concept) would be to make the carrier tube-shaped with a large open area for the fighters to fly inside, be grabbed by internal tractor fields for storage and for the interior bay to have breathable atmosphere (but no gravity) so repair crews could work directly on the fighters in a sort of drydock enviroment. The outside of the "tube" would be either heavily shielded or have many defenses or both.
If you dont like the tube look, you can always carve out a medium sized asteroid or comet, slap a drive system on it and go from there- that would afford your ship with some nice camo and even a suprise advantage (assuming the ship itself is stealthy enough). Imagine a ship that could blend right into a system's asteroid field (and with FTL fighters, they could launch quick strikes at planetary targets while enjoying relative cover/secrecy from all the other asteroids.
Posted by jesus X (Member # 1201) on :
Those fighters look just like Vipers from BSG, which is actually what I thought they were at first. Really nice job on them, regardless of their original intent. Posted by Malnurtured Snay (Member # 411) on :
Shik:
He's been working on that for over a year. I built my Hogwarts in six months. Did you see photos of it?
Jason:
I like the asteroid idea. What I want to do with the design is to look like something slapped together quickly -- cargo containers welded onto a hull with a flightdeck is one thing, but the landing deck in the center would imply a specially constructed ship (which is what I'd like to avoid).
I love the asteroid design -- although, even minus the engines, as a fighter pit-stop or something, listening post, communication relay, starbase ...
jesus x:
Thanks! The original design was supposed to be a Viper Mark II, but morphed into something else. If you notice the engine notches in the nose, and the various printings on the hull, those were done to make it look as "Viperish" as possible. You're not the first person to remark on the resemblance, and I take no offense -- thank you!
Posted by Trimm (Member # 865) on :
Viper resembalance aside, that's a neat little fighter you put together there Snay!
Posted by Malnurtured Snay (Member # 411) on :
Thanks Trimm! I actually need to update the photos -- I beefed up the rear of the engines a bit.
![[Smile]](smile.gif)