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Capital Ships & Odd Hull designs

O

Ommadawn

SOC-1
Greetings and salutations!

I am new to the forum so I do apologise if these topics have already been discussed.

I am running a Traveller universe heavily influenced by Star Trek and Star Wars. Having been inspired by some Star Trek starship designs, I would like to introduce some large capital ships [L-120m+ x W-44m+ x H-20m+] with displacements of over 100,000mt to my Traveller games. Many of which have complex or unusual hull designs. Some such as the Enterprise have multiple hulls

I am using the T4 FFS rules, and would like some hints on how to calculate the volume of unusual hull designs such as the klingon bird of prey from Star Trek III+ and the Enterprise.

Also, I am looking for hints on how to build small fighter spacecraft such as X-wings, and Colonial Vipers [BattleStar Galactica].

Thanks for any tips.
 
Try breaking complicated ship shapes down into much simpler 3d shapes , e.g. the Enterprise is a saucer, three cylinders and three rectangular cuboid pylons; the Bird of Prey is a sphere, a cylinder, a box and a couple of trapezoid wings.
Calculate the volumes of the components and then add them together to get a rough approximation of the final ship's volume etc.
You'll need to know the approximate dimensions of each ship though... ;)

And welcome aboard
 
In general, to find the volume of an unusual shape, you must submerge it in water and note how much the water rises.
 
Originally posted by Sigg Oddra:
Try breaking complicated ship shapes down into much simpler 3d shapes , e.g. the Enterprise is a saucer, three cylinders and three rectangular cuboid pylons; the Bird of Prey is a sphere, a cylinder, a box and a couple of trapezoid wings.
Calculate the volumes of the components and then add them together to get a rough approximation of the final ship's volume etc.
You'll need to know the approximate dimensions of each ship though... ;)
...
Click to expand...
Found this when searching for something else. :D The Enterprise is about 20,000 CT dTons. Calculated just as Sigg describes using data from the Star Fleet Technical Manual (1st Ed., 1st Printing 1975).
 
Well, since he referenced a book published in 1975, that would be the USS Enterprise. NCC-1701. No A, B, C, D, or E.
 
Originally posted by RainOfSteel:
</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by SanDragon:
Which Enterprise?!?!?! ;)
Click to expand...
It doesn't matter. </font>[/QUOTE]Oy, yes it does matter!!

Each Enterprise was larger than the previous one until E dropped the civilian contingient.
 
Enterprise 1701 &1701 A: Flattened saucer, stretched at poles.Truncated cone. One trapezoidal solid, two rectangular solids, and two cylinders.

So, it's mostly cylinders with a saucer.

1701B (Excelsior Class): One half-saucer, one half cylinder, one rhomboidal sided half-oval extrusion, two curved rectangular extrusions, two rounded corner rectangular extrusions.

A saucer and a box

1701D (Galaxy Class) Loads of flowing curves... but basically: one saucer, two rectangualr extrusion nacelles, two pylons which have a trapezoidal base to a curved recctangular extrusion, and one "rounded diamond conic".

Also a saucer and a box.

NX01: two cylindrical nacelles, two trapezoidal pylons, and a rectangle backing the saucer.

Basically, a box SL.

Yep, which enterprise matters.
 
Originally posted by SanDragon:
Which Enterprise?!?!?! ;)
Click to expand...
I agree it very much matters, they only got bigger. The data was from my 1975 Star Fleet Technical Manual so it is technically for the Class I Heavy Cruiser, Consitution Class, MK-IX Class, so it should apply to Enterprise NCC-1701, the original.

I couldn't find my calculation notes from years ago so I did the calculations again. The margin of error is probably about 20% more likely on the side of too small. (For example if the primary hull is 1m higher that adds almost 1000 tons, and the outer hull line thicknesses are about 0.5m to scale)

Rounding, the number I get is 15,500 dtons.

Broken down as follows:
(1) Primay hull (saucer) central section (64m radius, 6m high): 5,515 tons; "hemispheres above, below and "bump" on which bridge sits, each about 305 tons;
(2) Secondary Hull (104m long, median radius 13m): 3,944 tons;
(3) Nacelle each (156m long, median radius 8m): 2,240 tons each;
(4) Nacelle Pylon (44m high, by 2m x 10m wide): 63 tons each
(5) Neck connecting primary and secondary hulls (30m long, 8m wide, 32m "high"): 549 tons.

I'm going to do the Saladin Class Destroyer now.

I've also done calculations for several Star Wars ships based off information in Essential Vehicles. In some cases I needed to guess scale from a feature. Some of the ones I have: Lancer Frigate, Millenium Falcon, Mon Cal Cruiser, Nebulon B, Rebel Transport, Skipray Blastboat, Slave I, Slave II, Starlight Intruder, Star Destroyer and various calcs for TIE fighters depending on the scale chosen. These I found. ;)
 
Thank goodness for standardized design. The Class I Destroyer, Saladin Class, MK-VIII Class, Saladin NCC-500 uses the same primary hull, nacelle and neck (which connects the primary hull to the nacelle in this case)
Total rough estimated tonnage: 9,200 tons.

Then the Class I Tug, Ptomely Class, would be: 11,500 tons and designed to carry a 200m x 20m rad. container (17,950 tons container)
 
Fed up of the absurd idea that the Millenium Falcon was a 200-tonner, I started a project a few years ago to settle the debate once and for all. This minor side project started to expand, however. I built 1:1 scale block models of various sci-fi ships in Studio MAX and then calculated the volume using MAX's handy built-in volume measuring tool.

They are block models but I think the results are easily within 10% give or take.
(oh, the Falcon turned out to be a 64 tonner depending on which length you accept as canon).

These are the results I have to date:

</font><blockquote>code:</font><hr /><pre style="font-size:x-small; font-family: monospace;">SHIP____________________Length__________Volume___________________DTons


X-Wing Fighter__________12.9m___________36.43 cu M_______________2.7
TIE Fighter_____________6.3m____________23.52 cu M_______________1.74
B-Wing__________________16.9m___________56.61 cu M_______________4.19
A-Wing__________________9.6m____________29.04 cu M_______________2.15
Y-Wing__________________16m_____________45.68 cu M_______________3.34
Jedi Interceptor________5.47m___________6.03 cu M________________0.45
Star Fury_______________9.7m____________191.91 cu M______________14.2
Colonial Viper__________9.05m___________18.14 cu M_______________1.34
Millenium Falcon________26.7m___________863.48 cu M______________63.96
Slave 1_________________21.5m___________432.18___________________32.01
Rebel Transport_________90m_____________17,876___________________1324.1
Enterprise A____________305m____________251,924.92 cu M__________18661 DTons
Enterprise D____________643m____________5.85 Mil cu M____________433352.2 DTons
Federation Starbase_____3730m___________2966.8 mil cu M__________219.76 mil
Star Destroyer__________1604m___________69.18 mil cu M___________5.1 mil
DeathStar II____________160,000m________17,088 bil cu M__________1265.8 Billion
Tyderium Shuttle________20m_____________594.10___________________44</pre>[/QUOTE]1 DTon = 13.5 M cu
1 Billion = 1,000,000,000,000
1 Trillion = 1,000,000,000,000,000,000
 
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