posted
Not completely laughable, mind you. I'll give you a real world example - the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, which is 25% larger than its predecessor. Yes, the structure was completely redesigned for the new version (and made more efficient), but the advantage here was that the aerodynamic analysis was basically done, save for a few minor tweaks here and there. (Aerodynamics scale easily.) So the hard part was done, and there wasn't a lot of time wasted iterating different shapes and configurations, so the structures and systems people could start their work a lot earlier.
Applied to Trek, you could say that the hard part of designing the hull shape and warp dynamics was reused, and they just designed a new larger interior for the shape.
B.J. (BTW, I spent 2 years on the Super Hornet program as a structural design engineer.)
Registered: Jul 2002
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posted
Depending on the level of accuracy you want, aircraft are more often "scaled" than not, really. And just for the above reason - vehicles moving through the air have their fluid dynamics dictated more by shape than size (to a certain limit). The world's jet transports tend to be scaled-up or scaled-down versions of each other, despite not necessarily sharing *any* common components. And it's quite customary to build half-scale or quarter-scale models before committing to a full-scale prototype. Or at least it used to be, prior to modern computational fluid dynamics.
This excuse can be used quite nicely with the apparently scaleable Klingon BoP, since this is a transatmospheric design.
Nautical ship scaling depends on your priorities. If you aim for speed, your best bet (with non-planing, non-flying monohulls) is to go for something really long and really powerful. Which is why the final WWII battleships look very much unlike any other vessels. Prior battleship designs that paid less heed to speed would have been more remniscent of cruisers and destroyers.
Whether this sort of logic applies to starships and their "warp dynamics" is unknown, but presumably it plays at least some role in Starfleet vessels. Few alien designs go for the systematic smoothness of Starfleet designs, though. Then again, e.g. Cardassians may insist on "scaling" their ships for quasi-religious reasons. If the Galor class really is shaped after the Cardassian national symbol and not vice versa, then we could expect the shape to be applied in other ship sizes as well.
quote:Originally posted by Jason Abbadon: it's silly that they used the freighter at all but for a sperate race to use the EXACT design but paint it bright green and scale it up 300% is ridiculous.
Better to keep it the same size as the cardie freighter, say the Klingons bought the design (as it's a colonists transport) and converted the storage facilities into living quarters.
I was reading the ST:DS9 companion the otherday where they mention the Klingon cargo vessels... they were GOING to make a new design - but ran out of time and decided on using green-painted Cardie cargo vessels - as it made sense they most probably being procured as spoils of war.
-------------------- "Bears. Beets. Battlestar Galactica." - Jim Halpert. (The Office)
-------------------- "You are a terrible human, Ritten." Magnus "Urgh, you are a sick sick person..." Austin Powers A leek too, pretty much a negi.....
Registered: Sep 2000
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posted
Best to discount the whole "size issue" as poor recollection on behalf of those testifing. Besides, there were 300 (?) colonists being transported? Plenty of room in a converted Cardie Freighter for them, once you consider how klingons shun creature conforts- and it being wartime and all.
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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posted
Princess Abby, you're on the wrong episode. These freighters are the ones from "Sons and Daughters" not the green Merchantman from "Rules of Engagement".
-------------------- Hey, it only took 13 years for me to figure out my password...
Registered: Jan 2003
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posted
Ah. I stand corrected. ...and here I was gonna ask for a screenshot too...
Of course, using a merchantman is even worse scaling fuckery: the one we first see in STIII cant be longer than 25-30 meters (practically a shuttle!).
I's STILL rather believe that's a tiny KBOP than enlarged freighters....or that the freighter positioned at lower left is in the extreme foreground. After all, Sternbach went to a lot of trouble designing them to be Cardassian.
What ARE those nacelle-thingies made from anyway? They look more like weapons to me than nacelles. Gotta be kitbashed parts of some other model slapped onto the Cardie studio model.
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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posted
They may look Cardie - but why not them just be repainted by Klingons. Yes the size issue is a problem - but either they are a larger version - or the Klingons have attatched one of their infamous ship-scaling-deceiving-devices on them! SSDD's for short.
-------------------- "Bears. Beets. Battlestar Galactica." - Jim Halpert. (The Office)
posted
The ship's nose looks diffrent as well- the Cardassian version is kinda a tuning fork shape.
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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quote:Originally posted by Jason Abbadon: The ship's nose looks diffrent as well- the Cardassian version is kinda a tuning fork shape.
I, for one, do not have a problem with this representing another ship what-so-ever. Its not like there is/was an unlimited supply of models and/or budget to create such a supply of models and so with that in mind I can see each ship on an individual basis as a new ship if that is what the presented is attempting to convey - they are MODELS afterall, not REAL ships. Besides, it's what's in the transponder code that counts.
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Registered: Jan 2003
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Okay: I can now accept them as two seperate designs that two rival races created independant on each other yet still retail many simmular features.
Are you happy now!?! You've shattered my entire world-view.
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
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just made by the Presbyterian Church
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posted
You cannot shatter that which is already fragmented. B)
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![[Razz]](tongue.gif)
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SSDD's for short. 
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