From: [email removed] (Stephen D Smith)
Organization: personal mailbox at The Next Challenge
Here's more from Scott:
Stephen D Smith USENET: [email removed]
BIX: sdsmith
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I have no access to e-mail so you will not be able to
reach me very easily and there will be long gaps between
my having access to any comments to any designs or ideas
you might have but I would appreciate it
Scott Kellogg [phone removed]
[address removed]
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The Viper: put some fangs in your Air/Raft bay...
"Pirates? Corsairs? The Viper class escort fighter is ready.
You say you can't afford an escort? Here's the one to fit the bill.
For about what you pay for two triple turrets, here is a six G
capable,
multi-role fighter that fits in... Your Air/Raft bay!
A three ton fighter, the Viper is capable of taking on all
comers. She's light, fast and carries six tons of ordinance. Since
its procurement in 1108, The Viper has found its place in all branches
of the Imperial military. To the Navy, it serves as an escort
fighter.
To the Army and COACC, it's a ground attack and air superiority
fighter. To the Scouts it is a light penetration probe. To the
Marines it's a multi-role fighter vital to drop troop operations.
The Viper has served the Imperium well since the Fifth Frontier War."
-From the advertising brochure
Development
The Imperium is made up of thousands of worlds. Few of these
have ship yards, and only the cream of these are capable of producing
tech fifteen ships. For example, in the Spinward Marches, there are
only three planets capable of producing tech level fifteen ships for
the Imperium, three capable of producing tech fourteen ships, and
seven
which produce tech thirteen ships out of the ninety one Imperial
planets which build ships in the sector.
But there is little market for a tech level nine ship. But how
can they improve their facilities if they don't sell what they can
build?
Normally, the Imperium subsidizes these facilities out of the
Navy budget with nearly no return. So in the tighter budgets of the
Fifth Frontier War, the Navy issued an ultimatum: no more subsidies
until they build something we can use!
The Scout service however, does use the lesser starports to a
large extent.
Without the Navy subsidy, the Scout service would suffer. A
specification was issued for a craft that could easily be built that
could find a good market.
The specification was almost totally forgotten. No one had any
clear ideas on what to design, and the plan was nearly abandoned.
However, a young designer named Hloch finally pieced together what was
to become the now famous Viper escort fighter.
Most merchant ships are unarmed, allowing the commerce raiding
of the Zhodani to badly maul the Imperial commercial fleets. But
arming a ship is an expensive proposition, and then it still comes
down
to the merchant ship coming under fire. The idea was put forward to
build a fighter that could easily be carried on a merchantman, carry
the fight away from the ship and allow it to get through undamaged.
Thus the tiny fighter was born. Designed to fit inside an Air/Raft
bay, the Viper could be carried by almost all ships.
Yet, Hloch did more than just come up with the Viper concept, he
made it work. He turned a vague specification into one of the best
fighters of its class the Imperium has had for centuries. Before he
even touched the draft computer he went out and interviewed combat
veteran pilots and ground crews asking, `What do you want in a
fighter?' and, `How can you improve maintenance?'
Pilot's have said, `The guy who designed the Viper had wings!'
and it is true. Hloch is an Ael Yael from Jayelya, an avian race of
far better flying ability than the Droyne. Millions of years have
evolved the avionics in his head, and as a designer of space craft, it
shows.
Cockpit Design
Advanced fighter are by their very nature extremely complex
machines. The complexity of their systems place a heavy load on the
pilot, limiting the amount of time the pilot has to concentrate on
situational awareness. Thus, a key problem in designing a fighter is
the Pilot/Machine interface. The pilot must have critical information
available without getting swamped in data. The less time the pilot
has
to scan panels, the more time he can devote to tactical operations.
Often times, cockpit designs swamp the pilot: the Rampart
(Rebellion Source book), the Iramda, the Magnum, the Sourz, and the
FS-15 all have vast arrays of holodynamic link panels. The ratio of
panels per pilot is as low as ten to one in the FS-15 to as much as
eighty three to one in the Sourz.
The Viper cockpit is streamlined in this regard by using two
Heads Up Displays (HUD). One is devoted to sensors, weaponry and
navigation: the Attack HUD, while the other displays system status:
the System HUD. The System HUD is mounted to the right of the
centrally mounted Attack HUD.
The flight controls are designed around the Hands On Throttle
And
Stick (HOTAS) philosophy. This enables the pilot to control the
combat
and attack phases of flight without taking his hands off the controls.
The HOTAS system is extremely necessary in the tech level nine Viper,
where the pilot is without inertial compensators and would has
difficulty in moving about the cockpit during manuevers.
Also included in the software of the computers is a voice
command
and response system. Great pains were gone through so that the
computer could understand both the meaning and urgency of spoken
commands, including the use of sudden vague expletives. It is also
able to synthesize correct responses.
Another consideration that has been added to the cockpit is its
comfort so as to minimize pilot fatigue. Twenty four hours in a
cockpit will erode the performance of any pilot. Therefore,
provisions
have been made in seating and flight control positions for a wide
variety of pilot sizes and anatomies. With minor adjustments, the
seat
and instrument panels can be configured for pilots ranging in size
from
Droyne to Aslan. As the chief designer is of a minor race he insisted
that the cockpit be suitable to as many races as possible. This was
achieved with some degree of success in that the HOTAS system is built
to be operable by a minimum of a three fingered hand. It feels
slightly less comfortable to the human hand than a specially designed
human grip but it is adjustable and can conform to the shape of the
operators hand. (The design was actually optimized for the hands of
Humaniti and those of Ael Yael.)
Of course there are limits to the design: Hivers have found the
controls nearly unmanageable while Vegans have difficulty handling the
controls without complete inertial compensation. Virushi cannot fit
inside the cockpit. Racially customized designs are not unknown.
However, no allowance for K'Kree anatomy was made because it was
decided there would be no market for anything as small as a Viper in
the Two Thousand Worlds.
It is interesting to note that the Viper has earned a healthy
respect along the borders of the Two Thousand Worlds being the "Natter
G'naak" or "Winged Carnivore". The nickname has caused some amusement
to the carnivorous avian chief designer.
The HUDs use color graphics to display information. The colors
used can be adjusted to the optimum wavelength response curve of the
pilot's eyes depending upon what the pilot's race considers to be the
visible spectrum.
The Viper also makes use of one item not used by any other space
craft. It carries a rocket ejection pod. The cockpit is not only the
most comfortable and easy to use, it is the safest of any fighter
craft
used by the Imperium.
*****End Part 11*****
- - --Name = STEPHEN SMITH Mailbox # = 68