Water Landings

[Scarecrow]

It does sound to me like you want a boat-plane with interstellar travel capabilities - which is a neat idea. I would imagine in a pre-anti-grav era, all landing pads would be capable of withstanding the blast effects of the vehicles they are designed to recieve. So nomatter how simple the landing pad (class X) it would be useable. The problem really occurs when there is no landing pad or even a bare patch of solid, stable ground to land on. I guess in that situation, you would need a craft that can drop out of Jump, enter the atmosphere, fly to a point and land like a conventional aircraft. I've allready mentioned a starship based on a powerboat or aquaplane. However the craft might have swivelable VTOL thrusters that could lower it into the water and lift it from the water again, moving into a horizontal thrust position when in the air. The vessel would still need a boat-like surface to assist bouyancy (and movement if it lands conventionally) and the thrusters should be positioned well above the water line to avoid flooding or water damage.

Scarecrow

 

[mad13142000]

Naaa...Not a boat/plane. I admit this idea is not mine - It belongs to David Drake from With the Lightnings/Lt. Leary Commanding...The ships are not the monster million ton ships from Weber's universe, more in line with Traveller. They are cigar shaped, and use plasma drive. I think the idea makes ECONOMIC sense in a universe for those who haven't yet developed gravitics. As I map out farther and farther into and past the Vargr Extents, I'm thinking the tech level is falling off, and this would be a neat thing to throw into the mix...Those who adventure far away from the nice Imperium should see new things...

-MADDog

 

[Hecateus]

Another item are ground effect craft, they are like normal aircraft, but the wings slope to the rear; this pushes incoming air down, pushing the craft up. I would not expect something like this on a starship, but it might be doable...some craft in sci-fi milieus kind of look like these already. Klingon d-9s and Romulan BoPs etc.