Battle of the Week : Battle of Hoth

[stitch626]

Yeah, as Seafort's saying, in space freezing isn't a problem. Its overheating.

[Mikey]

As an aside, to anyone with more EU knowledge than me - were the "foils" on the X-wing supposed to be radiators? They sure didn't have the proper cross-section to be airfoils for atmospheric operation.

[Captain Seafort]

That's one theory - another is that they're simply mounting brackets for the lasers. I don't think their exact purpose has ever been stated.

[Lighthawk]

I've heard it proposed that the s-foils had maneuvering thrusters. Course, given the amount of "realism" they've ever shown for space maneuverings...

[Mikey]

That's one theory - another is that they're simply mounting brackets for the lasers. I don't think their exact purpose has ever been stated.

Hmm. Given that we've seen the lasers have all of zero depression, elevation, or swivel, it makes one wonder why they'd have pylons - and especially why they'd have pylons which have the added liability of variable geometry.

[Captain Seafort]

Hmm. Given that we've seen the lasers have all of zero depression, elevation, or swivel

That's not quite the case - they're adjustable to converge at a set distance.

[Mikey]

From what I've seen (which doesn't include the EU, admittedly) they're fixed to converge at a given distance.

[Captain Seafort]

In flight they are - the convergence distance is adjusted by the ground crew.

[Mikey]

In flight they are - the convergence distance is adjusted by the ground crew.

[Captain Seafort]

What so unusual about that? Pilot says he wants the lasers zeroed to 250m (or whatever) and the ground crew set them up appropriately.

[Mikey]

What so unusual about that? Pilot says he wants the lasers zeroed to 250m (or whatever) and the ground crew set them up appropriately.

What's unusual about that? Fixed forward-firing would make more sense. Pre-setting the point of convergence means that you effectively but an immutable cap on the range of the pilot's primary weapons before actually seeing the combat conditions.

[Tyyr]

Converging streams of fire is the norm for that sort of thing. WWII fighters, the basis of fighter combat in SW, all had their wing mounted guns converge at a set distance in front of the aircraft.

[Mikey]

Converging streams of fire is the norm for that sort of thing. WWII fighters, the basis of fighter combat in SW, all had their wing mounted guns converge at a set distance in front of the aircraft.

Set by the engineers who designed aircraft, or by ground wrenches who never even had a class about airborne tactics? Further, those WWII fighters you mention generally had a co-axial gun, and generally could have predictable engagement range.

[BigJKU316]

Converging streams of fire is the norm for that sort of thing. WWII fighters, the basis of fighter combat in SW, all had their wing mounted guns converge at a set distance in front of the aircraft.

Set by the engineers who designed aircraft, or by ground wrenches who never even had a class about airborne tactics? Further, those WWII fighters you mention generally had a co-axial gun, and generally could have predictable engagement range.

They were able to be set by the pilots who would give instructions to the ground crew. Some wanted a sweep of their 6 guns converging at 200 yards, 400 yards and 600 yards. Others wanted all the guns to converge a single point at some distance out for maximum firepower. This is not really odd at all but was a matter of personal preference for the pilot.

[Tyyr]

Set by the engineers who designed aircraft, or by ground wrenches who never even had a class about airborne tactics? Further, those WWII fighters you mention generally had a co-axial gun, and generally could have predictable engagement range.

Set by the ground wrenches who had the pilots standing right beside them and worked with them hand in hand on a daily basis. And actually axial guns were not a given.

F4F Wildcat, F6F Hellcat, F4U Corsair, P40 Warhawk, P51 Mustang, P-47 Thunderbolt, Supermarine Spitfire, Hurricane, all ME-109's after the C model, FW190, A6M Zero, and those are all the ones just off the top of my head that had guns mounted in the wings.

Also, with the down right pedestrian velocities of the laser cannon bolts fried by the X-Wing's cannons I'd say that their engagement range would be pretty predictable as in awful fucking close.