My take on the Streamlining problem:
The presence of CG Lifters improves a starship's streamlining by
one class for the purposes of landing and skimming.
WITHOUT CG Lifters:
Airframes may land/take-off in atmospheres.
Streamlined hulls may skim from upper atmospheres, but may land only
on worlds with minimal or no atmosphere.
Unstreamlined hulls may not operate in atmospheres, or rather, may not
attempt any operations across the "re-entry barrier".
WITH CG Lifters:
Airframes may land/take-off in atmospheres, joy-ride in gas giants, etc.
Streamlined hulls may land/take-off in atmospheres, but may not
perform in excess of Mach 1 (depending on atmospheric pressure).
Unstreamlined hulls may skim from upper atmospheres, and may land on
worlds with little or no atmosphere, assuming they have landing gear.
Note that CG Lifters do not allow the higher class of operation to be
done at the same SPEED that the actual hull could do. A Streamlined CG
landing will be a much more careful operation than an Airframe landing
(even without CG), and Unstreamlined skimming is not for the
faint-hearted at any time.
This "fix" is really the only reason CG is in the rules, IMO. There
is little reason for its inclusion otherwise. Such a system invented
solely for the ability to get a 1G ship off the ground is silly and
wasteful.
James Kundert [email removed]
There was a young lady named Bright,
Whose speed was much faster, much faster than Light.
She departed one day in a relative way,
And returned on the previous Night.
--Albert & the Heart of Gold