CT standard small craft deck plans

[AnotherDilbert]

Design brief: A set of standard small craft that can easily be incorporated into deck plans and stored aboard.

The idea is that all standard small craft have the same cross-section, so can fit into the same docking rings, hangars, and launch tubes. Airlocks and hatches are in standard positions. They only differ in length.

They are long slabs with rounded edges and a rounded nose. They are all 2.9 m tall, to fit into a single deck aboard ship, and 7.4 m wide, to fit into a 7.5 m (5 square) wide hangar. The cross-section is about 19.2 m², so each 10 Dt of craft is 5 squares.

Airlocks are left and right, 3 m from the bow. Cargo hatches a few metre aft of that. Additional iris valves, without airlocks, in the centre of the bow and stern makes them stackable lengthwise. Emergency hatches up and down from the airlock.

Due to the iris valve in the centre of the bow, the bridge is offset to the left and offers a glassteel bubble with a good view except to the right and aft.

The sides are rounded, so side-mounted iris valves are covered by rounded hatches that slides into the hull and rear-wards. Cargo hatches work similarly. Nothing can protrude from the craft as it must fit into a specified docking tube. Some craft have rear cargo hatches that extend outwards, they can only be used when there is plenty of space.

Overview:

 

[AnotherDilbert]

Boats:

Deck plans for the Ship's Boat, Slow Boat, and a Slow Gig with the same drive package as the Slow Boat but a smaller hull hence better performance:


The bow section is the same, the aft drive section comes in a few variants (fast, slow, and launch). In between is the payload area, the length of which varies with the hull size.

The fast drive package are the 2 EP drives from the Cutter, Pinnace, and Boat.
The slow drive package are the 1 EP drives from the Slow Pinnace and Slow Boat.
The launch drive package are the minimal drives from the Launch.

 

[AnotherDilbert]

The Pinnace, Slow Pinnace, and the Franken-Pinnace with an added launch drive package for added performance. Somehow it has never become popular...

 

[AnotherDilbert]

The Cutter and the Slow Cutter, with a blank module:

 

[AnotherDilbert]

The Launch and the Gig:

The Launch has a variant at TL-13, as the more efficient power plant can support 2 G. It is otherwise identical.

The Gig is basically a Launch hull with the 1 EP drives from a Slow Boat. Small, nippy performance and can mount a single laser. Unfortunately the hull is not long enough to have space for the side-mounted hatches to slide into the hull. The airlock hatch slides in behind the cargo hatch, and the cargo hatch slides in behind the airlock hatch, consequently only one of them can be used at any one time. The Slow Gig above was produced to solve that problem.

 

[AnotherDilbert]

Originally a Fighter with the same dimensions was produced, but it was never satisfactory. At 7.5 m long and 7.5 m wide it wasn't stable for combat, especially in atmosphere. The bow mounted iris valve obscured the pilots view, with instrumental data holoprojected over it, that was never popular with the pilots.

Later, a more conventional design was produced, that was half as wide and twice as long. Together two fighters fit into a standard hangar side by side.

The original fighter hull was used, with the drives from the Launch, to produce the Dinghy. The Dinghy omits the standard bridge and substitutes a computer, to gain some useable space and performance despite the small hull.

The Skiff was created by stretching the hull of the Dinghy to be able to fit the side-mounted cargo hatches from the Gig, suffering the same problem, but at least it had cargo hatches, unlike the Dinghy.

It was realised that the hull of the Skiff with the drives from the Slow Boat would have excellent performance, creating the 15 Dt Fighter with a full bridge, space for a full three weapons, and possibly a magazine, a loader, and a better computer.

 

[AnotherDilbert]

The point of all this if that they fit into a single deck and all of the above craft can use the same hangars. They also fit into a single deck cargo hold, if the hatches are large enough. E.g. a Subbie can load a pair of cutters and perhaps some smaller craft.

If you include e.g. the Ship's Boat into a deck plan, any other of these craft will fit the same hangar and be able to dock, even a Cutter although the aft will stick out of the bay.

Several smaller craft will fit the hangar for a larger craft, a Launch and a Dinghy will fit into a Ship's Boat hangar.

On a deck plan the hangar should be 5 squares wide and one deck high.

 

[AnotherDilbert]

All the craft are streamlined, have scoops, and are delivered with a Collapsible tank and the cargo hold filled with removable couches. By default it can scoop and carry fuel, cargo or personnel as needed.

Other configurations with special equipment or more luxurious interiors are of course available, at a cost...

 

[Swiftbrook]

With virtual reality and 3D imagery this may be moot, but I think your pilot's physical viewing angle is very limited. I prefer a bridge design with a 180 degree left to right and a minimum of 90 degree forward to straight viewing area for the pilot.. Sometimes tech breaks or is inaccurate.

 

[AnotherDilbert]

With virtual reality and 3D imagery this may be moot, but I think your pilot's physical viewing angle is very limited.

I agree the view is limited and a better view would be better, but I wanted the central iris valve bow and stern, to give access to the craft in a long tube hangar, or to dock limited space.

In case we store three Dinghies in the hangar for a Ship's Boat, we probably need to access some of the craft from another craft, hence the bow iris valve.

 

[Spinward Flow]

I wanted the central iris valve bow and stern, to give access to the craft in a long tube hangar, or to dock limited space.

A daisy chain of these things (nose/stern, nose/stern, nose/stern) like some kind of parallel parking along the side of a street is sounds remarkably impractical.

Having a port/starboard lateral access and doing a side by side daisy chain sounds much more reasonable.
Docking a pair of them stern to stern also sounds reasonable ... but a repeating sequence of nose to stern does not.

 

[kilemall]

Stern access, or top/bottom iris valves leading to an airlock located behind the bridge and to cargo/passenger compartment.

That way, accessible whether in a launch tube or slung in external berth above or below.

 

[Grav_Moped]

I like the concept -- pretty well thought out.
Still not sold on the nose hatch though, as a matter of styling, but that's ok.

 

[AnotherDilbert]

I see you all hate the bow iris valve, but it's a necessary fail-safe for the concept to work.

Let me illustrate the example I gave above, we have a hangar for a Ship's Boat:


The boat bay matches the forward side iris valve and the side cargo hatch for easy access.

Now stuff three Dinghies (or two Skiffs, or a Launch and a Dinghy, or...) in there:


How do we access the third (bottom) Dinghy, the one we have to back out first?
The first Dinghy's airlock matches up nicely the ship's personnel iris valve, the second Dinghy is accessible by the ship's cargo hatch, but the third Dinghy is not accessible, except through the second Dinghy.
The bow iris valve is necessary.

It's perhaps not something we plan to use, or design ships to use, but when we need it, we need it.

 

[AnotherDilbert]

Stern access, or top/bottom iris valves leading to an airlock located behind the bridge and to cargo/passenger compartment.

They have hatches up and down, in addition to iris valves left and right, from the airlock.
I wanted some hatches to facilitate emergency access when power is out.

There are no cargo hatches up or down.

 

[Spinward Flow]

What an unnecessarily disorderly arrangement.
Try this instead.

Oh look ... suddenly all those bow access points become quite superfluous!

 

[AnotherDilbert]

What an unnecessarily disorderly arrangement.
Try this instead.

Now do the same with a Pinnace and a pair of Gigs?

 

[GypsyComet]

"I'm having a ship built with a bay configured for the Horsepill subcraft line. What do I need to pass to the Architect?"

"We have models with bow, tail, and front flank access in any combination, and most also have options for dorsal and ventral access. Local sourcing is good, so your architect can plan on any of the standard access arrangements. If you plan on stacking the smaller models, there are constraints on access spacing, so you'll probably want the bow-and-tail package instead of having a bay wall loaded with hatches."