Some thoughts on Search and Rescue

Smallworld · November 16th, 2006, 04:58 PM

This is a subject that has interested me for a while. How do they rescue pilots who have ejected in combat? The Raptor in TNS is an excellent idea for a general purpose support craft, suitable for this vital task. How was it done in the world or TOS? I have made a few assumptions that have culminated in the design below.

Reaction time is vital for a successful rescue, so operations near to ongoing combat is a probability.
Standard shuttles are big, easy to see and vulnerable.
Some self defense capability a good idea.
Decent range.
Able to carry two or three rescuees, plus crew and a medic.

I started out with the rear section from the Stellar probe model. This is based on an offical 70s' toy so has a bit of a link to the real thing. It is designed for long patrols, so should suit this role. It is also a modular ship, so bolting on a new front end seemed appropriate.
The new forward section has a tandem cockpit for pilot and navigator. The cheek intakes will feed forward lift motors for vertical hovers in atmospheric ops. The flat nose will have sensors and lights.
The mid section has an increased volume and will hold seats for six at a pinch. I have a sliding door on one side at the moment, although I'm planning two doors eventually.
The small turret is for keeping heads down, not a powerful enough weapon for ship to ship use, although the probes normal lasers are retained in the tip pods.
All up it is about the same size as a Viper, although lower. It would be a tight squeeze inside, but I think it would do the job.

Havn't got a name yet, apart from "Hump" as it reminded me of a whale when I started on the body. I may do a new back end at some stage, I'll see how it works out, although I'm really liking it as is.

Any comments or thoughts welcome,

Cheers,

Brian.

ernie90125 · November 16th, 2006, 06:11 PM

hmmmm....very interesting.

I always presumed there was a modified shuttle for anything and everything. They seemed to be modified for everything else like transporting a Landram.

You've developed an all new idea, which is very interesting to see. However, it presumes that a pilot has not been injured, can climb into the ship, and has not died from vacuum exposure due to the lack of a flight suit in TOS.

Perhaps this should be a special operations probe, rather than rescue vehicle ?

Its a great model, and a step forward rather than just designing another Viper, and it will be interesting to see how it develops.....

Viper 1 · November 16th, 2006, 07:21 PM

[QUOTE]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ernie90125

hmmmm....very interesting.

I always presumed there was a modified shuttle for anything and everything. They seemed to be modified for everything else like transporting a Landram.

You've developed an all new idea, which is very interesting to see. However, it presumes that a pilot has not been injured, can climb into the ship, and has not died from vacuum exposure due to the lack of a flight suit in TOS.

First off, (and this is all just to clarify) the original TOS shuttle was designed to be able to carry the LandRam. That's why there was such a large section designed into the back end of the ship.
It was always meant to carry the LandRam. Now the shuttle that they used in "Living Legend" with the drop tubes for the sky divers, that was more of a modification to the standard shuttle.

Now on to the flight suit. They had flight suits. It was just that, in those days of the late seventies, hollywood had you presume alot of stuff. The idea behind the flight suits was this......

You saw the undersuit that they wore in "Saga of a Star World" and also "Lost Planet of the Gods" (and man didn't those girls look great in nothin but.....)
That undersuit was supossed to do two things..... 1) protect the pilot from the G forces..... and 2) act as an atmospheric suit incase of decompression.

Also the original idea behind the helmets was that the light bands that came on were actually suppossed to be a force field that kept atmosphere inside.
Now I know....there was no seal on the bottom of the helmet...... you always saw them putting thier hands thru the front of the helmet to push thier hair out of thier eyes..... they didn't wear gloves or anything to protect thier hands..... well that is where hollywood was hoping that the audiance would take things for granted. And also...the technology then did not support what they really wanted to do on the show.
The force field in the helmet was always meant to have a heads up display projected infront of the eyes of the pilot.
If Tom and Brian had had thier chance on the continuation...you would have seen this for the first time.
Any way...
just had to thow that out there and set some stuff straight.

gmd3d · November 17th, 2006, 01:34 AM

Smallworld great work again .... but damn your good at this stuff and have it down to a fine art by the looks of it ....

I make a better comment later one I get back from work ...

SilentBob · November 17th, 2006, 11:20 AM

I think I should point something out that might have been forgotten, and I think it's an important point. The episode "The Return Of Starbuck" showed us a viper escape pod, which demonstrated that the entire viper cockpit section can be ejected before a crash or explosion.

Smallworld · November 17th, 2006, 12:39 PM

Cheers guys.
I always thought that the helmets were crying out for a face plate, and I think some form of vacum protection would be a must.
Viper, thats a lot of interesting background info. Kinda makes me feel I'm in the right ball park.

Ernie:

Quote:

Perhaps this should be a special operations probe, rather than rescue vehicle ?

Funny enough, I had it mind that it could be used for special forces, with extra door guns for fire suppression! In these two pics you can see these fitted. I have the sliding doors detailed now The second pic has the top skin partially removed to show the layout inside. Each seat can fold if required.

The colors are just for clarity of the inner and outer skins at this point.

gmd3d · November 17th, 2006, 02:16 PM

Those look cool

and I like the Idea of Special Ops

SilentBob · November 18th, 2006, 07:17 AM

That ship would look cool in my landing bay. hehe!!

Smallworld · November 20th, 2006, 08:04 AM

I have had a major rethink on the back end. I have modelled it again from scratch, with very different wings. Basically I am making the engine pods swivel through 90 degrees so that it can hover. This looks really cool, and more beleivable than just "levitating". I have the landing gear worked out too, and I think I will can the small thrusters at the back, too many motors. . I'll post some updates later on.

gmd3d · November 20th, 2006, 08:51 AM

Look forward to seen your redesign

Smallworld · November 20th, 2006, 09:12 AM

Here is the update. I still have to work on the back end, plus a few greebles, but nearly there now.

gmd3d · November 20th, 2006, 09:19 AM

Now thats the coolest orignal design I have seen in a long while

Smallworld · November 20th, 2006, 10:03 AM

Thanks Taranis, here are some more views hot off the press. I very glad I redid the back end, I think it really works now. In the underside view you can see the forward lift engines, fed by the air intakes that would allow it to hover.

Smallworld · November 20th, 2006, 10:05 AM

Here she is all buttoned up on the way to a pick up.

ernie90125 · November 20th, 2006, 10:30 AM

Excellent images, really impressive.

I hope you didn't think any more my comments before were discouraging, space rescue in BSG is something I don't think could work, but this as a high speed armed Special Ops ship, certainly would be a great addition to a fleet.

Smallworld · November 20th, 2006, 10:58 AM

No worries Ernie, I didn't mind a bit. I', pretty OK with a high speed spec.ops shuttle

When ever I'm modelling something like this I always wonder what sort of scenes it might be used in, and I reckon this could feature in some crackers. As its modular, I am wondering about making an armed shorter centre section to make a gunship type support craft. All the vertical takeoff stuff would still work.....hmmmm

Last one for now, in flight.

gmd3d · November 20th, 2006, 11:06 AM

I also Like the landing gear ... Something I wanted to bring to my Britannia mesh from the lensman film/cartoon of the 80s .
but never get to grips with wants on screen and what the model would allow

Smallworld · November 20th, 2006, 01:26 PM

Landing gears are always a tough nut. I was happy with how this worked out, although there is a bit of fluke involved. the shock struts can extend quite a lot, so I could set it up so the pads "hang" when in the air. The legs are modified from something I did for an airplane last year (always handy to raid old models).
I just did a search for the Britannia, I see what you mean about putting landing gear on...

gmd3d · November 20th, 2006, 01:30 PM

Well its version one

I go back to the Britannia and redo it.... I have just released it over at http://www.lwg3d.org/v3/index.htm
perhaps someone will get some fun from it.....

Smallworld · November 20th, 2006, 01:36 PM

Nice job, handsome ship. Your celestra is really cool, looks fab. Never looked at lightwave, must investigate some day.

gmd3d · November 20th, 2006, 01:44 PM

Thank you

Lightwave is the only program I got the hang off . Started with truespace .. but to be honest I never gave it the chance I should have.. Lightwave also runs better on my PC ..... BTY lightwave is one of the program that's used in the Firefly tv show and movie and other beside that .. ....