underwater flight for veritechs?

[glitterboy2098]

found this
on the deep angel site (warning, its a quicktime movie, slow browsers beware.), and it got me thinking of the rules in the second RT game book about the underwater use of veritechs.

are those rule plausable? do they need revising?

you input please.


edit: fixed the link. it's now to the movie.

original link posted.

[Jefffar]

The rules for VF's underwater are bad. IMHO The speeds are way too high.

[Colonel Wolfe]

In my opinion, the first meaningful thing that comes to mind about this is that a veritech needs to be able to operate within gas giants and on worlds where atmospheres are thick enough to behave as heavy fluids. If supercavitation can be adapted to this purpose, then maybe you should work on adapting space veritechs for this purpose. Atmospheric oriented veritechs meant to defend the Earth (and only the Earth) could of course be made into supercav fighters, deployed from modified Daedelus and Prometheus ships while the vessels are still submerged.

Otherwise... this looks like a good way to kill a lot of fish with shockwaves.

It also depends on if the Gases on Gas Giants act like water and Perform Capivation.... it would suck if you hit the Wrong gass pocket.... and it Explodes frying you and your Squad.

[glitterboy2098]

Ah, super cavitation.... never heard of it before.

(for more information on Super-cav, check out the Ticonderoga thread over in the rifts section. i kind rip apart the guy's sci fi vision to show what kind of improvements we need to make to see it in reality)

In my opinion, the first meaningful thing that comes to mind about this is that a veritech needs to be able to operate within gas giants and on worlds where atmospheres are thick enough to behave as heavy fluids. If supercavitation can be adapted to this purpose, then maybe you should work on adapting space veritechs for this purpose.

point. i hadn't thought of gas giant operations.

Atmospheric oriented veritechs meant to defend the Earth (and only the Earth) could of course be made into supercav fighters, deployed from modified Daedelus and Prometheus ships while the vessels are still submerged.

for robotech there isn't much need, unfortunately. though if you use Super cav principles in connection with gas giants, i don't why you couldn't deploy some on earth. (hmm... super cav fighters as "stealth" strike fighters, 'sneaking' up on enemy positions before bursting out of the water for an airborn assualt........)

Otherwise... this looks like a good way to kill a lot of fish with shockwaves.

[glitterboy2098]

In the end, you might get speeds approaching 50 MPH with decent control - maybe as much as three times that if you throw caution to the wind (I'd make a roll every round to see if anything swimming/floating gets it its way, and the pilot has to figure it out actively to avoid a collision).

anything over 110 mph cavitates in an aquatic enviroment, and if built right that can reduce the drag by creating a bubble of air around the craft.
thats the whole point of Super Cavitation.
less drag means higher pontential speeds.

The big danger, of course, is collisions with floating debris, sharks, delphinids, etc. (one would assume you'd notice a whale in time to not hit it). The next big danger is losing track of your depth, and dropping below your safe pressure limit.

depth can be done with a gyroscopic system (if you know the depth you started and the speed your travelling a computer can keep track of course changes and determain distance and depth)

Radar won't work underwater (not well enough), and for super-cavitation Sonar is out.

perhaps LiDAR using wide beam lasers? find the right wavelength and waters light absorbing properties will have reduced effect.

[Colonel Wolfe]

Did you forget the Giant Tuna????

Giant Tuna are Quite real. sure 9ft is the extream... but even a 5ft tuna is Giant compared to the 35lb Catfish We've caught in the Swamp.

Name: Yellowfin Tuna (Thunnus albacares)
Primary Classification: Acanthopterygii (Spiny-Rayed Fishes)
Location: Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans.
Habitat: Tropical and subtropical waters near the surface.
Diet: Fish, such as anchovies and mackerel, cephalopods, such as squid and octopus, and crustaceans, such as crabs and shrimp.
Size: Up to 9.2 ft in length and 880 lbs in weight.

http://animal.discovery.com/news/afp/20040823/tuna.html

[Zer0 Kay]

I meant the one we see in the series - but yes, those giant tuna. Someone said we didn't see fish in the series (and were they bass fishing or trout fishing in TNG, when they almost got stepped on by an Invid fording a creek).

Aircraft have gyroscopes, etc., but that doesn't stop someone disoriented from ignoring the instruments and climbing into air too thin to breathe, or diving straight into the ocean/ground. It's probably the most common form of pilot error crashes. You'd have the potential for the exact same problem when underwater, especially at night and low-light depths.

And supercavitation won't push something as large as an Orca or Pilot Whale out of the way.

And the Lidar idea is probably the best answer for sensors, anyway (It would be much more stealthy to boot)

No someone said there were no fish in the video...for Deep Angel. The quicktime movie has NO fish.

[Zer0 Kay]

The shockwaves are going to kill all the fish. You won't have to worry about collisions after that.

There would still be fish they'd be as plentiful as birds in the air. I realize this means depopulation of the sea would have to happen to reach the numbers.