Drawing ships

[GypsyComet]

The first two Type S, Judges Guild and Snapshot deck plans are single deck ships and did not try to cram things into two other partial decks as in S-7 Traders & Gunboats.

The Upper Gallery of a Sulie is all part of the Bridge allocation. So is all or most of the "Common Room" to port-aft. The lower Gallery likely is, too.
All three hulls as depicted are reasonably close to being accurate 100 dton hulls; and certainly closer to design size than the Marava was until TNE.

The proper exterior art for the Sulie was first hinted at with the Seeker in Traders & Gunboats (1980), page 28, and first appeared as whole ship art in The Traveller Book (1981-82), pages 50 and 64, and JTAS 18, page 37 (1983). All prior exterior art was the JG Scout or indistinct (wedge ships appear in the background with no distinguishing details). JG Scout appearances include Traders & Gunboats pages 13 and 17; JTAS #5, pages 12 and 34; and JTAS #6, front cover and page 10.

The two versions in Traders & Gunboats also visibly support the idea that the height measurement given for the Scout (7.5m) is derived from the JG Scout, while Sulies are 9m high, per the aft shot for the Seeker.

 

[GypsyComet]

The footage from the Six Million Dolar Man is actually the Northrop M2-F2. It is one of a number of similar lifting body styles that USAF/NASA were experimenting with back then (including the HL-10). Note that the M2-F2 does not have the center fin of the HL-10, and neither does Steve Austin's craft in the TV-Series footage.

The opening sequence shows two different models. The flight pics are of the two fin M2 or M3, but the separation shot (at 1:17 in the linked video) shows a third fin.

 

[whulorigan]

The opening sequence shows two different models. The flight pics are of the two fin M2 or M3, but the separation shot (at 1:17 in the linked video) shows a third fin.

Good catch. I never noted that on the separation-launch before. Perhaps that makes the opening dialog more understandable as well. He says in the opening credits:

• " . . . I've got a blow-out < *something* > #3 - Damper 3. Pitch is out; I can't hold altitude . . . ".

Perhaps the switch from the 3-fin to the 2-fin shot in the video sequence was deliberate, and the fin was supposedly lost in the blowout and contributed (among other things) to the cause of the crash.

EDIT: Edited - thanks to Spinward Flow.

 

[GypsyComet]

And since the show was Action SciFi and not Military Procedural we never got the post-incident Inquiry, so we may never know.

 

[Spinward Flow]

" . . . I've got a blow-out < *something* > #3. Pitch is out; I can't hold altitude . . . ".

"I've got a blow out. Damper 3."
"Get your pitch to zero."
"Pitch is out, I can't hold altitude."

 

[whulorigan]

"I've got a blow out. Damper 3."
"Get your pitch to zero."
"Pitch is out, I can't hold altitude."

Yep. Re-listened to it. "Damper-3" it is.

 

[Vargr Breath]

I remember watching the M2-F2 crash on the news after it happened back in 67. They have the later X-24A lifting body aircraft at the US Airforce Museum in Ohio.

Martin X-24A

This aircraft represents the Martin (now Lockheed Martin) X-24A, which the U.S. Air Force and NASA flew to study flight characteristics and maneuverability of “lifting bodies.” A lifting body is a

www.nationalmuseum.af.mil

 

[Grav_Moped]

Interesting (and I really ought to pull my set out of storage). There are two separate avionics bays, the ship's locker is a room off to the side of the bridge and it probably fits, and the drive bay has no user servicable parts inside.

I know it was drawn as an arena for a small-arms combat game, but there's a lot of unstated assumptions about how starships work in-universe going on here.

Oh, and there's 32Td of living space -- enough for 8 staterooms, in a ship that has only 4 of them. Well, you might clip off the top and bottom outside corners of the actual staterooms, but that still leaves way too much living quarters space.

I see where the Sulie got its problematic internal volume issues from...

And there's the "drive bay". Well, the drives themselves are close to right (16Td of grey space there for 15Td of drives), but then there's the 4.5Td "drive room" and 3.5Td of passageway and airlock next to the 16Td of drives....

The drives themselves would be kind of hard to work on from inside the ship -- at most, there's only 4.5m of accessible interface, and no indication of personnel access beyond that.

 

[kilemall]

And there's the "drive bay". Well, the drives themselves are close to right (16Td of grey space there for 15Td of drives), but then there's the 4.5Td "drive room" and 3.5Td of passageway and airlock next to the 16Td of drives....

The drives themselves would be kind of hard to work on from inside the ship -- at most, there's only 4.5m of accessible interface, and no indication of personnel access beyond that.

I figure there is a pretty hefty access method under the floor, like computer rooms. Lets you get to the underside of the components and the corresponding fuel/power lines, special plotium particle feeds, control cables etc.

Otherwise submarine engine room ergonomics, which is cramped.

 

[Grav_Moped]

I get that -- but it's not really there in the deck plans.

Of course, it doesn't really need to be there because the plans are drawn for playing Snapshot on, rather than to describe the functional details of the spacecraft.

Still, it looks very much as though any void spaces in or between the drives are not places humans are meant to be. This is distinct from most later official starship deck plans (though small craft quite reasonably lack such access). Then again, the way battle damage in LBB2 works, repairing it isn't going to be an issue (Size A drives aren't resilient in that system, to put it mildly).

Regular mntenamce would be, though.

 

[Spinward Flow]

Otherwise submarine engine room ergonomics, which is cramped.

This is the correct starting point for thinking about the problem. You need an environmentally sealed pressure compartment with "machinery" in it. Volumetric space is at a PREMIUM inside of sealed environments and pressure compartments.