Lit Fleet Junkie Flagship- The technical discussions of the GFFA (Capital Ships thread Mk. II)

It is just one of those long, fan debated arguments...and they could have easily have answered the question. That's all I'm saying.

 

Would it really have answered the question? If they put a hangar on the Nebulon-B in Rebels, I could just fly around in Rogue Leader and then counter with "Ah-ha! No hangar!". Unless you get Leland Chee (or whoever's in charge of this now) to say definitively that one of them is canon and the other isn't...

 

It's funny they didn't emend this in the new Canon. Where did the Nebulon-B's starfighter carrying capacity first appear? X-Wing Alliance?

 

According to Wookieepedia, it was The Rebel Alliance Sourcebook:

https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/EF76_Nebulon-B_escort_frigate/Legends


Behind the scenes
...
There is some dispute among fans on the claimed fighter capacity of the Nebulon-B. Computer games and the deck-plans in The Far Orbit Project show a hangar in the forward hull, with a launch aperture in the starboard flank, but there seems to be no such opening on the model used in the movies. Other depictions in the computer games show starfighters docking and launching via an opening in the thin connection between the superstructure and drive bay.

However, the The Rebel Alliance Sourcebook, seemingly the source which first introduced the Nebulon-B's starfighter capability, makes no mention of internal hangars. The text simply says that: "The escort frigate has the capacity to carry up to two squadrons of starfighters into battle. In addition, the ship has docking fixtures to accommodate ships of up to medium freighter size" (p. 60). Since The Empire Strikes Back shows the "docking fixtures" to be external hardpoints on the spar between the prow superstructure and engines, it is possible that the fighters could also be carried on a rack along the spar, in the manner of Carrack-class cruisers, assault frigates, and FarStar.

 

I do wonder if the bold text could be interpreted as the frigate having the capacity to support two squadrons of starfighters on extended operations. As in carrying munitions, supplies, and fuel to keep the starfighters operational, and providing mess, rest, and medical facilities to the starfighter pilots who can dock a few at a time.

 

The modders over at the 'X-Wing Alliance Upgrade Project' came up with their own Hangar design.
https://www.xwaupgrade.com/screenshots.php?id=55
Strike Carrier variant (the bottom hangar also has another entrance on the front which can be barely scene)



And a full carrier variant with a third hangar on top. There's also a third variant with only the top underside hangar.

 

Small query though: what scale do the XWA upgrade project use for the ship? Still around 300 m, or nearer 400?

 

I actually don’t know. I’ll have to check the concourse, but I think it’s whatever XWA already used.

 

Oh I love EC Henry and this X-Wing Alliance mods solving of the Nebulon into a perfect best version.

What other ships need solving?

 

Well, according to the Rebels artbook the 90 meters long Dornean gunship "can carry several starfighters in its hangar"..
EDIT: apparently that was written by David Wallace, who previously gave it a (more reasonable) capacity of 2 fighters in Rebel Files; for now I'll just assume the artbook description as a mistake.

 

As for smaller ships that carry more than they seem to be able to, even with a Hangar somewhere, I think that not all ships might be piloted and some are just droid starfighters which can exist as miniaturized fighters after all! Heck have entire squadronds of micro-fighters piloted by General Gascon and his species or likewise in smaller vessels!

Or one uses sleek fighters like A-Wings, T-Wings and others that are less spacey than B-Wings, Torrent- Fighters or ARC-170s.

 

Oh yeah, I think I'd like to see more droid starfighters. Not to the ridiculous extent of the PT, where the Separatists magically have entire fleets and armies comprised entirely of droids, and where droids seem to be able to do anything sentient organics can. But having some drones to back up your organic pilots would definitely be useful and plausible.

 

Worth remembering that the Nebulon-B in the closing scene of TESB was a hospital ship, so it makes sense that the fighter hangar would have been deleted in favor of medical bays. In Legends, the RASB also mentioned other specialty variants of the Nebulon-B, which likewise might account for hangarless ships seen at Endor.

 

I like those top ones..that is what they should have done in Rebels and shown fighters launching from there.

 

It could well still be 400 metres, in XWA upgrade terms, I suppose. A potential big problem is also vertical height, for the hangars, besides width. As for prior descriptions, pretty much EVERY game put the hangar on the starboard side, though in varying sizes or shapes. I don't remember any being specifically in the neck itself. The X-Wing cutscenes showed a side hangar, though with a VERY scaled down Lambda often departing it.
Unlikely a Delta-T3c would fit, of course, being even taller (having just got the Black Series model, that thing is stacked)

 

It could be that the hangars strictly carry fighters with a couple TIE Shuttles....anything bigger would dock externally like the Falcon did.

 

Was the Nebulon-B itself a limited-run vessel?

 

It always bugged me in Legends. No matter how you look at it, you can't cram 24 starfighters anywhere in that hull. Even worse, some EU authors took it to mean that the Nebulon-B could carry any type of starfighter, so even Allston had them carrying a full squadron of Y-wings in addition to another squadron made up of other types.

I would have hoped they'd finally give up the idea that Nebulon-Bs could carry starfighters. Apparently not...

 

If you look at the cross section you can see all he medical facilities up in the top, front of the ship...and the nu-canon number is 1 squadron/12 ships IIRC...

With the above pictures I could see 12 TIES in the upper hanger...2 rows of 6 in racks and 2-3 TIE Shuttles in the lower.

As well...you should be able to get a dozen of different types of fighters in some other arrangement.

 

Why in general are ships like Fighters, Shuttles, even deployeable Walkers stored inside ships instead of outside on the Hull?

The Confederacy had Hangars but also stored way more Droid Fighters outside on their hulls as ROTS showed. And Imperial Pilots wear spacesuits basically anyway unlike Rebel ones. So athmospheric boarding conditions are not an issue for them. It would save lots of space for storage and moving gear around to just magnetically or physically lock them into place on the Hull somewhere docked. Plus it'd be another physical layer of protection if they are covering critical areas of the ships hull. As well as even if docked add more firepower to the mothership if firing without detaching to aid in fights.

The First Orders Stardestroyers especially seem perfect fits for out of hangar storage solutions given their open double-deck on top "used for flight training exercises" as per VDs is open enough to store fightercraft and shuttles as well as protected enough above and below from direct enemy hits.

And while we saw smaller vessels like Gozanti, CR90 and Nebulon B may use outer docking for craft, I have yet to see a ship design that uses this hull docking to maximum effect. Not just a few docking ports but imagine Ties next to each other all around the Nebulon-Bs central spine. It could carry 4-8 Squadrons like that! If docked with their backs to the spine, it'd add 4-8 double lasters in all directions to the Nebulon-Bs firepower if using docked Ties like shipboard guns. Perfect anti-starfighter screening vessels as well as assault vessel able to go toe to toe with much bigger vessels!

Or imagine a Stardestroyer hull cramped full with these: https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Self-Propelled_Heavy_Artillery Walkers! You wouldn't even need spacey dropships that never fit into Stardestroyer Hangars or interiors to launch ground forces but a Stardestroyer descending into atmosphere like over Jedha could easily simply drop the Walkers off its hull to the ground with them slowing their descent via repulsors added to their Walkerbased propulsion systems. You'd only need barges to carry them back up to the mothership.

A Walker with added minor repulsor tech would maybe not be able to longterm operate as repulsor craft but at least via repulsors be able to balance out any leg issues or a lost leg maybe?



Got a question on Battle Pods that can be modded to various ships:

Rogue One has the Hammerheads modded with "double gunturret pods" on either side of their docking hatches. Rebels has CR90s fitted with either "gunturret hubcaps" or A-Wings docked to the hatches. Concept Art for Solo and TROS has various CEC vessels including the Falcon with various types of gunturret mods attacheable to the docking hatches. Or the Falcon with attachments to the top and bottom gunturret slot to connect it to other ships or huge battle turrets. Some of those even ended up in the Galaxy Fleet of TROS (the YT-2400 variant with the symmetrically mirrored other side).

Seems alot can be modden on to ships with attacheable pods or switcheable gear sections. Why is this not used more often? Even Thrawn used Cargovessels as empty hangars for hidden Tie swarms surprising the New Republic.

Obviously one constraint is any add on requires power and if the power core is not putting out enough you need a secondary reactor addon as well to supply the other pods unless moddeable pods come with their own power generator, given their size it is likely.