Hangars

I've been reading the thread about storing fighters externally and hangars
would work. 1st the hangars. I think that a hangar would be in 2 sections.
These sections would be connected by an airlock or several airlocks in
parrallel. The inner section would be preasurized. this would allow fighters
to receive mainenance and repair in a shirt sleve envirement. When the fighter
was ready to be returned to service, it would be moved through the airlock to
the outer section. The air in the lock would be pumped into containers for
reuse rather than being discarded. The outer section would be a vacuum
although it would still be entirely enclosed. This would protect fighters from
the elements (hard radiation, dust, rapid heat changes etc.) which could
degrade the performance of its systems while it waited for use. Fueling and
arming would be doing by robotic systems. The technology to do this kind of
thing exists today, it's just cheaper and easier to use people. Pilots could
board their craft by one of several systems that don't involve them walking
through a vacuum. The old show "Space, Above and Beyond" showed a good method.
Another way would use a movable corridor like the airlines use to board
passengers. It would have to make an airtight seal around the hatch though.
Depending on how bulky the launching gear is, the fighters would be launched
from individual launchers like B5 or would be staged for launch like modern
aircraft carriers. If the later, fighters would be moved around on tracks
rather than taxiing.

As for storing fighters externally without any hangars, it would not be
unreasonable to allow them to be fueled armed and launched that way but
amintenance and repair would be nearly impossible. It is difficult to do on
deck of modern carriers. Having crews and sensitive diagnostic equipment
hanging on the outside of the ship as it hurtles through space would (IMHO)
not be practicle. Therefore, you would need a maintenance ship somewhere
nearby where such maintainence and repair could be carried out. Ships storing
fighters externally would have a short endurance caused by the need to make
frequent stops there.