Archive through July 07, 2020
Star Fleet Universe Discussion Board: Star Fleet Battles: SFB General Discussions:
Archive through July 07, 2020
SVC,
Is this a good time to open a topic where we can take this discussion?
I thought there was one. Well, there is now, I sent the whole discussion there.
SVC,
Thank you.
Interesting.
I just “stumbled” across a Wikipedia article about the U.S. Air Force YA-9 ground attack aircraft that was built in competition to the Fairchild A-10 ground attack aircraft.
Two YA-9 fighters Were built. One is on display in CA, the other was sent to the bone yard after years in service at NASA. The second one is now being refurbished.
Someone posted an idea for a captains log article for “Fighters that never were”.
I do not recall that there was ever a proposal for an A-9, but the real history facts include that both the A-9 and A-10 were about the same gross weight, size and rough performance.
The A-9 design used existing engines while (the article stated) the A-10 used an adapted engine from the proposed F-102 fighter.
As a result, the A-9 could carry a maximum of 16,000 pounds of ordnance (bombs, missiles, rounds of 30mm shells), the A-10 more than 25,000 pounds. (Actually, more total weight than the aircraft weighed empty.)
Not a proposal, just an observation of something “that might have been in Star Fleet Battles.”
I remember the YA-9; it housed the engines in wing-root fairings.
Yep. That’s the one. There were only two ever built, and the second one is being restored. The link I read did not say where the second one will end up, I got the impression that it will go to a museum.
Has there ever been printed "fighters that never were" conjectural fighters for nations that never built their own fighters like the Lyrans and Gorn?
nobody wrote one.
Understand, I am perfectly happy with "Lyrans and Gorns never even tried to build fighters" but if somebody comes up with something really clever I'd consider it. The problem is that any such "fighters that never were" would have to be really awful so who would want them anyway?
Would they have to be awful?
Couldn't they instead be completely impractical for other reasons, like cost, reliability, etc?
For instance:
Let's say that in Y170 the Lyrans capture a Stinger-2. They immediately begin a project to reverse engineer the thing, and use it as the basis for their own fighter. They replace the fusion beams with disruptors, and attempt to produce their own phaser-Gs, but (since technology sloshing is a priori verboten, especially with phaser-Gs) just can't get them to work. Maybe they throw on a phaser-2 instead of a phaser-G to compensate. By this point in the war the Lyrans are deploying purchased Klingon Z-2s, and so the best fighter engines they can support are 8-speed engines. Maybe due to what they learn from the Hydrans, or what's currently blueprint-level cutting edge they crank this up to 10. They're left with a half-decent fighter design. 10 Damage like the St-2, 10 speed from the supercharged Z-2 engine, 2 disruptors (maybe limit the range to 3 to show the Hydran pedigree and to not unbalance it compared to other disruptor fighters), and a phaser-2 FA.
The problem is that they have no domestic facilities to support the construction of such a fighter (which might take until Y172 to actually hypothetically deploy), and the cost to create these facilities and mass produce the fighter isn't justifiable compared to simply continuing to purchase Klingon fighters. If the new Lyran fighter was leaps and bounds ahead of what the Klingons could produce, which was the hope considering the project started with a Stinger-2, then the cost would be justified. Since it ends up being only about as good as the upcoming Z-D (or only marginally better), the cost and effort is just not worth it. The Lyrans produce a couple of mockups, and then a prototype, and the thing ends up in a museum and part of the national myth of the Lyran Star Empire. Twenty years later the LBC (Lyran Broadcasting Corporation) produces a miniseries about how wonderful the fighter was, and frivolously implies the Klingons had a hand in killing the project.
Would be more believable, Orions smuggled the Lyrans in a Kzinti fighter......
"Y169, the Lyrans, working with a purchased Klingon Z-1 as a starting point, succeed in building a new fighter to counter the Hydran St-1.
Stats for the... L-1 fighter?
Size: 1
Speed: 12
Phaser: 1xP-2-FA
Drones: -
Damage: 12
Other Weapons: -
BPV: ? (WAG BPV... 6?)
Year: 170 (for production)
DFR: 3"
Would this fighter prove a counter to Stinger-1 Fighters? Perhaps. Certainly (as the Borak book has shown) this fighter having a Phaser-2 gives it a good chance of crippling Stinger-1s before they can Fusion Beam Overrun the ship this fighter is trying to protect.
HOWEVER, it should be obvious that, on the year they would enter service, the new Hydran Stinger-2 is something these could never hope to counter, also would enter service.
(my 0.002 Quatloos worth... 
)
Mark:
The Orions *did* manage to smuggle in a TAAS, but despite repeated efforts over several years, the Lyrans couldn't remove the Kzinti stench -or- the fleas... ;)
pfft. The Lyrans captured many Kzinti fighters. But their little feet couldn't reach the controls.
The fact was that any Lyran with any brains. Would screw up flying the Kzinti fighters and ones that were adapted to fit there size. Why You may ask. They knew some body would kill them with the ships ESG.
Well... saves the cost of a funeral.
And no clean up afterwards.
Sounds like a win - win to me.
Grin
Tomorrow is the 4th of July, I am afraid I did not get to this today, and will not be in until Monday. I will review the topic then and try to clear up any issues at that time.
I thought there was something I needed to answer here, but I can see that I was mistaken. Sorry.
If 42 is the answer, what was the question?
"What do you want?"
“Life, the universe and everything.”
"Why is Gamora?"
“Who is Gamora?”
"What is Gamora?"
“Where is Gamora” Has to be in here somewhere...