posted
Looking at a Danube class Runabout from the front, you can see these yellowish lighted areas underneath the warp pylons that bear strong ressemblance to the Defiant's nafigational deflector. Is this the runabout's deflector dish? I don't know if this has been answered before but I always thought it has something to do with the impulse engines, which are located directly behind this deflector/whatever.
posted
There hasn't been any on-screen dialogue on these grilles, so I guess we are free to interpret them any way we wish.
However, the various Okudagrams of runabouts do not show the traditional deflector symbol behind the grilles. Then again, there is no obvious deflector symbol (the easily recognizabe trumpet shape) anywhere else, either.
An alternate location would be underneath the cockpit; there is a grey forward-facing grille there that could be the deflector. Or then the tiny grilles above the cockpit (flanking the transporter antenna) serve this function. However, both these areas are already quite crowded with other types of equipment: there are the sensors and the microtorp/probe launcher below the cockpit, plus that equipment cavity seen e.g. in "Hippocratic Oath"; and in addition to the transporter antenna, the area above the cockpit has sprouted tractor beam and even phaser emitters in the past.
posted
I think that "sensor panel" underneath the cockpit was also seen several times emitting a tractor beam. Considering the alternatives, I'd say the pylons are still the most probable location for the deflector. An interesting effect, however, would be that this is the only instance I know of a navigational deflector split into two halves. Moreover, it doesn't leave much room for the impulse engines' fusion reactors.
posted
One would assume that big, glowing nav deflectors aren't necessary for vessels of runabout size and speed. After all, the Starfleet interceptors of similar size and performance also lack visible deflectors. And many large starships of implicitly higher performance also lack them. Then again, the tiny type 10 shuttle of the Defiant has a glowing deflector, and the type 9 ones on the Voyager (and the Delta Flyer!) have non-glowing ones similar to the aux deflector of the Voyager herself. Go figure.
The orange grilles seem almost unique to the Danube class at any rate. There's nothing directly comparable aboard any other small craft design. There IS a similar glowing grille on the Intrepid impulse engine unit forward ends, though. One might thus speculate that the grille is somehow connected to atmospheric flight of vessels larger than shuttlecraft... A cooling system or something.
posted
I thihnk there is a similar 'spilt deflector' on the TNG shuttle... you know the one that premiered in "Darmok"... aft of the 'cock pit' on either side, although its not nearly as prominent as the Runabout grills... Maybe its just a facet of the shuttles that the designers incorporated into the Danube class?
Andrew
------------------ "I threw bitter tears at the ocean But all that came back was the tide..." 'I Will Not Forget You' Sarah McLachlan
posted
I dont't believe that air is used to cool any engines during atmospheric flight. At speeds of >mach 20 the air will make your engines burn, not chill! And remember, impulse engines don't work in atmospheres, as stated in several episodes, so why an atmospheric cooling system for impulse engines? However, we've seen lots of other examples of impulse engines looking like a present-day jet's air inlets. Andrew's type-6 shuttle (that's what you meant, isn't it?), for example. The Vor'cha class also has similar grilles at the front of its warp pylons opposite to its impulse engines. But why the heck should one need whatever kind of "inlet" in space? I mean they have the bussard collectors to collect interstellar particles. BTW, you said something about the micro torpedo launcher. Where exactly is it? The DS9TM says something like benaeath the cockpit, I think.
posted
If impulse-engines doesn't work in an atmosphere then there can be no air in the spacedock.
------------------ Ready for the action now, Dangerboy Ready if I'm ready for you, Dangerboy Ready if I want it now, Dangerboy? How dare you, dare you, Dangerboy? How dare you, Dangerboy? I dare you, dare you, Dangerboy...
Its the grey strip under the 'cockpit' with all the nobbly bits on it. There is an episode (I can't remember which one) where you see microtorpedos emerging from it.
------------------ "I threw bitter tears at the ocean But all that came back was the tide..." 'I Will Not Forget You' Sarah McLachlan
posted
The Runabout could have the same deflector system as the Type 6 Shuttlecraft.
------------------ So why don't we make a little room in my BMW babe Searching for some peace of mind Hey I'll help you find it I do believe that we are practicing the same religion - from the song "Fastlove"
@Nimrod: Good point. Maybe impulse not impossible but only dangerous in atmospheres (it could ionize the oxygen molecules or something), which would also be why impulse is forbidden in the spacedock (and even if it was dangerous I don't think Kirk would have cared). Anyway, I never was I big fan of the air-in-spacedock-theory, and it's anything but canon, right?
posted
The runabouts don't fire microtorps in that episode, but one of the Maquis fighters does fire torpedo weapons that may be microtorps.
The runabouts are shown firing torpedoes in two episode only - "One Little Ship" and "The Search pt II". In the former, we see the single (quantum micro-?) torp coming from just below the cockpit, but the exact location is hidden. In the latter, the viewpoint is from inside the cockpit, so all we see is that four torpedoes of unspecified type emerge from below the craft. For all we know, they could be coming from the amidships modules which, according to the DS9 TM, can drop-launch full-sized photorps.
Then again, in "Past Prologue", we see a clear side view of a small probe/bomb being fired from just below the cockpit, just where Andrew said he'd seen torps emerging from. It's very likely that the probe/bomb was fired from a microtorp tube. Interestingly enough, you can load this tube by opening a hatch on the cockpit floor, as shown in the episode.
Printer-friendly view of this topic
