> >My guess is that Droyne vehicles will be likely to have a geodesic framework.
Correction: geodetic
> >Humans have tried this, and it works rather well - one example was the
> >Vickers Wellington bomber of WW2. For some reason, though, the rib-like
> >framework is still used.
>
> Cool! Sounds rather more complicated to mass produce tho. I take it this
> was a stronger design?
Yes. It could certainly survive damage which would bring down a more
conventional aircraft, although it was not invulnerable. My guess is
that the geodetic framework has no key elements, whereas a normal frame
does - its spine, and on aircraft the main wing spars. If one of those
key elements is broken, e.g. by a lucky hit from an 88mm gun, then the
aircraft comes apart. You can't break the spine of a Wellington if it
doesn't have one, so a hit which would snap the tail off any other aircraft
just puts a big hole in the Wellington.
As for mass production, I expect that it could be done. Humans were using
spine-and-rib frames long before they heard of mass production, and I'd
expect that old Droyne water craft would have geodetic frames. When they
invented mass production, they may have considered spine-and-rib frames,
and may have rejected them because they were too weak. It's a matter of
mass producing what you're used to.
It might be worth incorporating the use of geodetic frames by the Droyne
into the game, by making their craft a bit more expensive than human ones,
but capable of surviving more damage.
> > And I have no idea what a Hiver spaceship will look like. :-)
>
> I rather doubt that it would look like a burrow in the ground... :-)
Before or after landing? :-)
- --
"Keyboard? How quaint!" - M. Scott
Adrian Hurt | JANET: [email removed]
UUCP: ..!uknet!cee.hw.ac.uk!adrian | ARPA: [email removed]