buck rogers Thunder Fighter

buck rogers in the 25th century Thunder Fighter

Description

This fighter is a medium starfighter used by the Earth Defense Directorate to protect the Earth and all starships in service in with the Earth government. The fighter is very maneuverable and heavily armed. The fighter can launch and land under its own power but often uses electromagnetic launch systems to reach a greater initial velocity than would be otherwise possible.

The fighter is built around two needle like structures and could be described as being built in a twin boom construction. The body of the fighter could be described as a futuristic version of the old World War Two Lighting twin engine fighter. Both booms have two sharp noses and the fighter's twin engines are mounted with one on the rear of each of these boom structures. Between the two structures is the fighter's cockpit which contains a position for the pilot forward and behind the pilot is a second compartment for a passenger. The passenger compartment faces aft. The cockpit is rather blocky and has few rounded surfaces. The cockpit is mounted on an almost flat surface with stretched between the two boom structures. The fighter has delta style wings and two control surfaces facing downwards near the rear of the fighter. An early version has additional vertical control surfaces above the engines, and horizontal equalatrial winglets outside the weapon booms, adjacent to the front edge of the cockpit section.

The fighter is armed with eight laser cannons mounted near the front of the fighter and near where the booms extend from the rest of the body of the fighter. While the laser cannons are not that powerful individually, all eight firing together can inflict surprising damage. When the fighter is being used against starships, it can carry two anti-ship missiles mounted on the underbelly.

These fighters were originally fitted with a combat program designed to fight better than the pilots themselves. This program was found to be predictable and a large number of pilots were lost as a result. The program is no longer used by pilots and loss rates have decreased significantly.

This fighter does have some disadvantages when compared to starfighters from other universes. The ship uses ion engines which have a lower duration than the gravity based engines used in most Starships within the Three Galaxies. The Earth Directorate fighter also do not use missiles regularly and would likely suffer against any opponent who regularly uses missiles. [3]
References

↑ Fighter uses hydrogen for fuel for a fusion reactor. The fighter can operate with engines on standby to increase fighter's range. The fighter has supplies for pilot for 3 weeks.
↑ There are two separate descriptions of these missiles. They are mounted on the underbelly of the fighter when they are used and are used against large targets. Missiles have penalties to hit small targets but are all considered smart missiles. Phase World Version: Effectively very similar to Phase World cruise missiles. Missiles has a top speed of Mach 25 in an atmosphere and in space has an acceleration of 10% of light per turn (far faster than any starship). When drive goes dead, the missile will still cruise unless preset to self destruct or receives a destruct code but has very low odds of hitting star ships (Great for hitting bases and planets because target does not move and torpedoes when dead at -25% to detect.) See Modified starship rules for more details Moderate Version: The description of these are close to that used for conventional cruise missiles Missile are assumed to accelerate at 2 times normal mach speed in Gs greater than the starships speed when used in space. Missiles can be launched at non moving targets beyond the powered range of the missiles to hit targets without the chance of the launching ship being hit by missiles itself but penalties exist when launching missiles beyond normal missile range.

Description

Role Starfighter
Crew 1
Passengers 2 in emergencies
First flight
Entered service
Manufacturer Earth Directorate
Produced At least 4,332
Cost 25 million credits to build.
Dimensions
Length 30.3 feet (9.2 meters)
Width 17.8 feet (5.4 meters)
Height 10.7 feet (3.3 meters)
Wing area
Cargo Small Storage Space, 4 ft x 4.5 ft x 4 ft. Used for emergency equipment and weapons but a passenger can be crammed in emergency.
Weights
Empty 14.5 tons (13.1 metric tons)
Loaded
Maximum takeoff
Powerplant
Engine Fusion
Power (each)
Internal Fuel
External Fuel
Performance in atmosphere
Maximum speed Escape velocity (Mach 32.6 / 25053 mph / 40320 kph)
Cruising speed Mach 8 (6160.7 mph / 9907.2 kph) or less.
Performance in Space - Sublight
Maximum speed 0.4c
Range Enough fuel for 15 days of standard performance. If fighter is operating at maximum performance, reduce range by half. [1]
Performance in Space - FTL
Maximum speed None, uses special Stargates to travel Interstellar distances.
Armament
Guns
Type 8 Laser cannons mounted on either side of the booms on the fighter and are mounted near the front of the fighter. While individually not extremely powerful, all eight weapons firing together are about equal to those mounted on those on C.A.F. Starfighters as well. All eight cannons fire combined and cannons individually if all of the other cannons are destroyed.
Maximum Effective Range (Phase World Version) 800 miles (1,290 km) in space, 8 miles (12.3 km) in an atmosphere. (Moderate Version) 32,000 feet (9,600 m) in space, 4,000 feet (1,200 m) in an atmosphere
Damage 4D6x10 for all eight cannons. If one cannon is destroyed, damage is reduced by 5D6 per cannon destroyed.
Rate of fire Equal to pilots hand to hand
Payload Effectively Unlimited.
Bombs/Rockets
Type 2 Anti-Ship. [2]
Maximum Effective Range (Phase World Version) Powered torpedo range is 8000 miles (12,875 km) in an atmosphere and 4,000,000 miles (6,437,376 km/ 21.5 light seconds) in space. (Moderate Version) Varies with missile types, assume powered range is 8 x normal in space
Damage Varies with cruise missile types. Anti-Matter warheads are NOT available.
Rate of fire One at a time or in volleys of 2
Payload 2 Missiles (Effectively Cruise)
loved this fighter design i based my talon fighter off layout