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Packing the Air/Raft

kilemall

SOC-14 5K
The classic air/raft is open topped.


Given it's usual dimensions, couldn't you store it tail-down vertically or bottom/grav modules up against the cargo/vehicle bay wall and fit it into 2 tons?
 
So how many displacement tons of cargo can the air/raft carry, and can you carry a fully loaded air/raft in the air/raft bay...
 
A as I recall that is the position it is stored in on the CT Broadsword mercenary cruiser. You still need room to get in to the thing, though.
 
I'm thinking less larger vessels like the Type C and more like the Type S. Those things have just 3 tons of cargo for equipment and supply, might be worth it for them to pack in a couple more tons at the expense of fast deployment.


The usual air/raft shows to be wider then the average car, 3 full adults back two in bucket seats front and a openish jeep-like trunk out back.


So something like a typical ground car sedan, no wheel clearance but more underneath presumably for the grav modules.












Now if we take below pics for accurate in the OTU at least, this at once scotches the idea for Type S as scouts might very well fine a fully pressurized sensor/meson comm air/raft to be much more useful then any 2 extra tons, but also illustrates my point that the open top should be at least 'stackable' volume-wise one way or another.





 
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All I can think is with the open top ones you must feel like the passengers on this Top Gear travesty (as usual for them).

heh, most of our games are Top Gear/Grand Tour travesties... Hammond, May and Clarkson are Traveller characters, at least by how we play the game.
 
What is a "fairing field" like mentioned in that image of air/rafts on Page 1? Some sort of low-powered force field?
 
So many Traveller illustrations have the scale messed up. 4 dT is huge. Hmmm, apparently I don't have access to my old photobucket account. Well, I'll have to use words.

When you look at the detail of the 4-man enclosed raft, notice that the seats are a full meter wide, and the seat depth is about 60 cm. That's approximately 50% larger than the seats in my cars. You'd look like a little kid pretending to drive Mom's car when sitting in those seats.

The overall width is a full 3 m. You could fit two tour bus seats beside the driver and two rows of two and two behind. It's actually a good 30 cm or so wider than a tour bus, so with side access you could get rid of the center aisle and have two rows of five, and maybe even squeeze a third seat to the right of the driver.

It's a full meter shorter than the 3.5 m height assumed for the two 1.5 m squares per dT. If actually made that tall it would be about the height of the typical double-deck commuter bus seen around silicon valley. You'd lose too much space for access to the upper deck in a vehicle of that length, but just sayin' ya could. At the least you could have a cargo deck underneath the seating, as in many commercial buses.
 
I think those seats aren't too roomy. They are just right. Your riders might be wearing...

A vacc suit
Combat armor
Etc,

At least that tends to happen IMTU
 
I think those seats aren't too roomy. They are just right. Your riders might be wearing...

A vacc suit
Combat armor
Etc,

At least that tends to happen IMTU
Yep.

Quite a large portion of worlds don't have breathable atmospheres, or hospitable climate even when you can breathe the air.

It gets cold at altitude, and the atmosphere gets thinner as well (if it wasn't already thin at ground level to start with...)

And of course these vehicles are rated to reach orbit. A TL15 Vacc Suit isn't going to be much bulkier than coveralls, but down at TL9 or 10? Yeah, you're going to need large seats, ones that can reconfigure to accommodate life support backpacks. And they'll need receptacles so the suits can tie into the vehicle's extended life support system (if installed).

On temperate climate worlds with breathable atmospheres, you ought to be able to have 4-across seating. Gets crowded if everyone's wearing parkas though (might impose a skill difficulty), and it's not going to work in vacc suits or armor.
 
More to the question in the original topic though...

The canon Air/Raft is probably built to be shipped in a minimal-volume configuration, with the windshield and perhaps seats folding down to reduce overall height when stowed. However, few of the deck plans I've seen really exploit this, so one can assume that they're usually carried in operational, not stowed, configuration (and reasonably so).

You could probably gain a ton or so of volume by folding the windshield and seats, and piling boxes on top of the Air/Raft in its bay. This would risk breaking things if you didn't pack carefully, and would be a chore to load and unload -- and where would you put the stuff if you needed to take the Air/Raft out before the things you'd piled onto it?
 
also, if you pack more into/onto the air raft than it is rated to carry, you are going affect it's performance. if you overload what the air raft is rated to carry, it will go slower and be less maneuverable.
 
also, if you pack more into/onto the air raft than it is rated to carry, you are going affect it's performance. if you overload what the air raft is rated to carry, it will go slower and be less maneuverable.


The question was more about packing in more on a Type S that typically carries an air/raft. I'm figuring the Scout ethos of 'get er done frontier style' would involve creative ways to get everything onboard they might need for the next mission or two, and a couple extra dtons looms large.
 
then you would have to compare it's length to the height of the cargo space if you are going to put it against the wall. more likely, on it's side with it's top/bottom against the wall. but then how do you store it/take it out without damaging either the air raft or ship going either way. maybe it is on an arm that lowers it from the wall safely before you start it up, or on an arm rail that slides it out of the ship through a slot in the hull.
 
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