Pick holes in popular ship designs

New thread, since the old one I found is to big to continue.

It has what appears to be a turret mounted right behind the cockpit, but a structure behind the turret prevents the turret from firing directly aft.

OTOH, I'll just assume all the wings and fins and what not serve some purpose I haven't identified.

What series is that from?

Ship of Lights from oBSG.

Technically that's a bridge. The ship is a destroyer. It's main function is as a torpedo boat, so not being able to fire aft might not be considered a huge deal. (especially given the survival rate of Star Force ships against the Gamilons, you'll probably already be dead if Gamilon ships are pursuing you from the rear.

A more pressing structural flaw is how the Torpedo tubes lead directly infront of/just under the bridge. I'm not sure there's much room for loading or spare torpedos.

Space Battleship Yamato.

Looking at the engines on that ship they appear to be mounted in a trianguar arrangement.

This means you have 2 engines below the ships linier center of mass and one above it.

Asymmetry of thrust will be a problem.

IT MUST BE DONE

Cargo bay does not extend to the nose. The entire "neck" is canted up and a slight angle for no discernable reason while having space wasting bottleneck that artificially limits internal space for no conceivable benefit.

Also, you need to use a ladder to access the individual crew quarters despite there being stairs everywhere else, which is far more inconvenient that simply walking right out into a hallway, especially if there's an emergency.

On the plus side, the design is extremely low maintenance such that the minimal crew is two: a pilot and an engineer that can be self taught. And arguably both jobs could be done by one person if they were sufficiently talented.

next

We haven't seen how the upgraded ME 3 Normandy performs yet so we can't properly judge it.

It's an nBSG style basestar (five major arms projecting out from a central hub and I assume there's a matching sixth projection hidden from view) as buily by sufficiently advanced aliens/previous-Cycle-cylons. Aside from carrying Beings of Light, we have no clue as to its functions and physical principles or even what it was designed for. In short, we know next to nothing about this ship other than who owns it rides around in them and what it looks like.

That makes it rather difficult to analyze.

IIRC, the Normany's engines are mounted on the wings and the wings form a shallow upside down V shape when viewed from the front and rear. So it has the same "engines not being balanced behind" that Wetapunga cited for the Terran Battlecruiser.

Although in the Battlecruiser's case, it's wings don't mount the engines but IIRC ARE canted slightly downward, so the BC's centermounted engines may not be as off the center of mass as Wetapunga thinks they are.

I do question the utility of the Terran BC's hammerhead though.

On the first ship in the thread:

Wings and fins, wtf? Is it atmospheric?

How about this?

We see battlecruisers from the back all the time. They have four engines. Thrust asymmetry is not a problem for them.

This, on the other hand, has no excuse.

All versions of the Normandy have four thrusters.

Yeah, but they're not aligned with its center of mass. The SR-1 could kinda get away with it because it could move its thrusters up and down a whole lot. SR-2 looks like a damn boat.

It's... a ship designed to operate in a digital world where the entire laws of physics work differently. That makes it rather difficult to evaluate, especially given that I don't ever recall seeing it in action.

Why is it pretending to be aerodynamic?

I'm assuming it's required for stealth. Sharp angles and small profile means most of the radar (and other possible active sensors) energy that hits it will bounce away at odd angles and not return to the sender.

When your ship's stealth systems are enhanced by sharp edges and sharply inclined plates presented to the potential observer, your stealth ship will inevitably start looking aerodynamic, at least from the front.

Thus the "" - also I was curious if anyone would come up with anything.

Well, we see the Normandy fly around in atmosphere pretty often, so I'd expect aerodynamics to be at least somewhat relevant.

On the flipside, mass effect kinetic barriers.

Trilateral symmetry, dude. By your logic, a three legged table should fall over.

The BC's engines look off-center, but not because of that.

Because ME frigates are expected to enter atmosphere.