From: Evan Powles <epowles@p...>
Date: Tue, 11 Mar 1997 02:17:57 -0500
Subject: B5 Parasite Fighters (first season!)
The Raider carrier seen in Signs and Portents, back in season 1, carried all its fighters externally. The ship had a central docking bay but apparently no means of getting ships from this bay to the hardpoints. Since these hardpoints were on the rotating section of the ships I hate to think about how they re-attach; maybe they have to take spin off the carrier first.
From: Sprayform <sprayform.dev@n...>
Date: Wed, 12 Mar 1997 04:18:03 -0500
Subject: Re: B5 Parasite Fighters (first season!)
> At 17:17 11/03/97 +1000, you wrote: Jon (T.C.) SDL
From: Evan Powles <epowles@p...>
Date: Fri, 14 Mar 1997 02:50:27 -0500
Subject: Re: B5 Parasite Fighters (first season!)
---------- > From: Sprayform <sprayform.dev@netwales.co.uk> Yup, I'm sure. I checked the tape last night and it's clear that the rings rotate (at least in one shot, with the carrier framed against B5; in some other scenes it isn't so obvious what, if anything, is rotating). I don't know if there is anything official going around on this ship, but I'd guess that pirates would be converting an existing ship to a carrier and their carrier may well be an old liner or troop transport with fighters (fifteen of them?) hung off the only available space. Although it would be a pain to maintain fighters on the outside, you could bring one or two into the hanger in the core for maintenance. And if your fighters are on the spun bit at least you guarantee good separation when the grapples let go.
From: Robin Paul <Robin.Paul@t...>
Date: Fri, 14 Mar 1997 06:11:00 -0500
Subject: Re: B5 Parasite Fighters (first season!)
> From: Sprayform <sprayform.dev@netwales.co.uk> > >Are you sure that it wasnt the habitation core rotating and the snip As I recall (I haven't seen it for a while, and some little bastard has stolen my video recorder) the Raider's carrier was a new departure for them - something about "a ship of this size" being a major investment and one that they were divided about. That means they must have had other, smaller vessels acting as fighter tenders, and they must also have a base of operations. Evan's idea of their carrier being somewhat improvised makes good sense to me- perhaps it had little or no fighter maintenance capacity, and they do all that stuff in a base? After all, their carrier is presumably going to spend a lot of time hiding, interspersed with short forays. Cheers,