Post A Reply
my profile
|
directory
login
|
search
|
faq
|
forum home
»
Flare Sci-Fi Forums
»
Star Trek
»
Starships & Technology
»
First Contact Ships Sixteen Designs
» Post A Reply
Post A Reply
Login Name:
Password:
Message:
HTML is enabled.
UBB Code™ is enabled.
[QUOTE]Originally posted by Timo: [QB] That probably isn't a phaser strip, since the top view shows it to be a very broad feature that also varies in width. As for Lee's assignment: Many theories have been put forth about the significance of starship shape to their function. The saucerlike primary hull shape has been attributed variously to the requirements of warp dynamics, somehow imitating fluid dynamics; simple aerodynamics, reflecting the reentry role of this ship element; or efficient ratio of volume and surface area while minimizing side profile. Visually, though, the saucer harkens back to the classic flying saucers, familiar to audiences since 1947. And for those, there are three modes of flight, in the entertainment industry at least. First, there is flight along z axis, suggesting a centrally mounted Newtonian thrust source propelling a symmetric, balanced hull, but resulting in great aerodynamic drag. As a spacecraft, a saucer moving in this mode would be a sensible design. However, for audiences accustomed to seeing atmospheric flight, it makes little visual sense. Second, we have the edge-on mode. That makes one wonder for the reason to saucer symmetry. Why not an identifiable bow and a stern? Does the saucer perhaps rotate in flight, like a frisbee? Surely the thought makes the audience a little queasy... Third comes the mode the audience is most familiar with: tilted flight mode. Seemingly making no aerodynamic or Newtonian sense at all, the mode still feels intuitively very "right" to the audience, since they have seen it before - in just about any war or action movie depicting the post-1950s. This is how helicopters, the sexy and powerful war machines of the modern military, behave in flight. In fact, take any hovering vehicle and make the transition from hovering or vertical flight to horizontal flight, and the audience demands a forward tilt. The faster the vehicle goes, the more acute the tilt, up to 30 or sometimes even 45 degrees. As long as there is an up-down philosophy to the vehicle design, the audience assumes a gravity source "down" of the camera, and a forward tilt wrt that gravity source. Remove hints to the vehicle's ability to take off or hover, and you can abandon forward tilt as a speed-establishing feature - at least if your vehicle is elongated in the direction of travel, to depict speed in a different way. But if you retain a saucerlike design, the tilt still serves you well, as seen for example in the opening credits of TOS. Now, reverse the angle of tilt, and your "helicopter" seems to be braking for a landing. Or then your "planing boat" is slowing down and will soon settle deep into water again. At best, you could hope the audience to think that your "motorcycle" is "wheeling" or your "horse" is "rearing" in anticipation of a speed burst - but the burst should then follow, via a loss of the aft tilt and hopefully also a gaining of at least a slight forward tilt. Illustrations omitted for brevity. Just go to a movie theater or video/DVD rental near you to verify the visual impact of the various modes of flight. ;) Timo Saloniemi [/QB][/QUOTE]
Instant Graemlins
Instant UBB Code™
What is UBB Code™?
Options
Disable Graemlins in this post.
*** Click here to review this topic. ***
© 1999-2024 Charles Capps
Powered by UBB.classic™ 6.7.3