Badenov
SOC-12
At this point, we all call it air/raft because that's what the books all called it, and we want to avoid confusion because we're not all using the same book (CT, MgT1, 2, T5, TNE, etc) to refer to a thing that's ostensibly common between all the books. What an air/raft is, however, is a bit different depending on which book you're using, I've discovered.
At least in MgT1, the main book calls it 4T when as cargo on a spacecraft, though the price is different if you buy it a la carte (275kCr) or installed on a ship (600kCr). Now Book 1 didn't have hangars for small craft, so with MgT1 book 2 (High Guard), we could make one and maybe guess that the Book 1 ships with a 4T air/raft were including the hangar, though it was directly stated that this was not the case and in any event, the MgT1 HG cost would have been 800k for just a 4T empty hangar that would have allowed a 30m^3 air/raft (converted at the rate of 10m^3 per ton of space per dT per page 4 of MgT1 Supp 5 Civilian Vehicles), but in that book, air/rafts are .8T/8m^3, with a cost of 210kCr. I have no idea how it's broken out in Striker, so will stay away from CT comparisons.
The question I have, which I'm sort of looking for an official answer on, is which is correct, if either, and what are then the 'official' stats on an air/raft? In MTU, there are simply several different models of air/raft, which becomes a generic term like 'car' is today. But the idea that air/raft is a generic term and that there are many different models in different sizes and configurations is pure supposition on my part and implued nowhere in any source.
That said, in MTU, air/raft is a craft with full grav propulsion. You can make a craft much less expensively with grav lifter and flyer-jet propulsion for forward thrust. I borrow the term speeder for this, so one that flies becomes an air/speeder to use the same semantic construction. For about 280k, you can get a 30m^3 air/speeder with 1 full dTon of cargo volume, and it will do 400kph (same as a standard air/raft) with up to 5500kg/5.5 tons. Obviously, this only works in atmospheres with oxygen, where the full grav version works on any planet.
What sounds right from the name 'air/raft' is actually a craft with grav lifter propulsion, using the glider 'drive' (which can actually gives you thrust based on your power plant rating for no clear reason), but that won't work because even at 30m^3, with a pilot and 3 passengers, the top speed is around 160kph with the entire available space as power plant. So, maybe this was the original version of the air/raft, and when full grav drive was developed early in TL8, and the modern vehicle has kept the old name? Bonus that the lower top speed seems more raft-like.
At least in MgT1, the main book calls it 4T when as cargo on a spacecraft, though the price is different if you buy it a la carte (275kCr) or installed on a ship (600kCr). Now Book 1 didn't have hangars for small craft, so with MgT1 book 2 (High Guard), we could make one and maybe guess that the Book 1 ships with a 4T air/raft were including the hangar, though it was directly stated that this was not the case and in any event, the MgT1 HG cost would have been 800k for just a 4T empty hangar that would have allowed a 30m^3 air/raft (converted at the rate of 10m^3 per ton of space per dT per page 4 of MgT1 Supp 5 Civilian Vehicles), but in that book, air/rafts are .8T/8m^3, with a cost of 210kCr. I have no idea how it's broken out in Striker, so will stay away from CT comparisons.
The question I have, which I'm sort of looking for an official answer on, is which is correct, if either, and what are then the 'official' stats on an air/raft? In MTU, there are simply several different models of air/raft, which becomes a generic term like 'car' is today. But the idea that air/raft is a generic term and that there are many different models in different sizes and configurations is pure supposition on my part and implued nowhere in any source.
That said, in MTU, air/raft is a craft with full grav propulsion. You can make a craft much less expensively with grav lifter and flyer-jet propulsion for forward thrust. I borrow the term speeder for this, so one that flies becomes an air/speeder to use the same semantic construction. For about 280k, you can get a 30m^3 air/speeder with 1 full dTon of cargo volume, and it will do 400kph (same as a standard air/raft) with up to 5500kg/5.5 tons. Obviously, this only works in atmospheres with oxygen, where the full grav version works on any planet.
What sounds right from the name 'air/raft' is actually a craft with grav lifter propulsion, using the glider 'drive' (which can actually gives you thrust based on your power plant rating for no clear reason), but that won't work because even at 30m^3, with a pilot and 3 passengers, the top speed is around 160kph with the entire available space as power plant. So, maybe this was the original version of the air/raft, and when full grav drive was developed early in TL8, and the modern vehicle has kept the old name? Bonus that the lower top speed seems more raft-like.
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