Which do you think would work better: housing fighters and shuttles in bays, and launching them under their own power(Star Wars), or utilizing a catapult or accelerator system(Battlestar). Consider how many can be carried, and how fast you can launch and recover them.

Also, what's with using skids for landing gear?

Skids in Battlestar Galactica were used because they had artificial gravity in their ships. Maybe they could have used wheels, but the Viper ships were designed to land on various surfaces.

Personally I prefer the idea of having a large number of vessels packed into a small area, such as in the MW-1 dispenser, which you can view here:
http://www.vectorsite.net/twbomb2.html#m4
http://www.warmachines.50g.com/planes/ids/ids_info.htm

So we're going to build our carriers like cluster bombs?

The problem with skids is how to move the craft. If you have a malfunction and have to remove it from the flight deck, how do you do it with skids? With wheels, you attach a tow bar and truck and drive away. With skids you'd have to pick it up, and move it. skids would be more practical in a zero G environment. and wheels don't nessacarily mean landing areas are limited.

No one else has anything to say?

I think housing fighters/shuttles/bombers in bays and launching them is the best way imho. Launching like a catapult maybe difficult in some scenarios.

And the Tornado is one sweet aircraft, I love hearing them roar over my house every few weeks *drools*

I think housing fighters/shuttles/bombers in bays and launching them is the best way imho. Launching like a catapult maybe difficult in some scenarios. What about the other stuff: You think skids are better, do you depressurize the flight deck to facilitate operations without having to close doors or use airlocks, or what? What would you arm them with? One or two man? Perhaps they travel indepentantly of a tender? There are enough universes out there with carriers and starfighters, I was trying to start a discussion, perhaps it would work better to ask for a comparison of the various systems used in the various universes. This would include book as well as movies.

Right okay then, detail you want detail I shall give...I guess.

Skids = No
I do like the idea of having a forcefield around the bay so that oxygen doesn't excape and you don't have to depressurise.
Another idea may be having like a link between the cockpit and the actual carrier so that the bay doesn't need oxygen in the first place.

Armament - I would say rapid firing lasers (like the guns on modern aircraft) and torpedoes/missiles. I prefer missiles. And you would need some chaff to confuse incoming missiles.

Carriers and Starfighters are commonly used as it is very similar to what our current military is like and therefore it is the most propable route we will take when designing starships.

I like the idea of having different classes of small ships, examples:
Light Fighter - Single Seating fighter with basic armament and armour. Very manouverable and fast.
Heavy Fighter - Single Seater fighter with advanced armament and heavy armour. Manouerable but speed is reduced.
Medium Bomber - Double Seater craft armed with heavy anti-ship weapons (like torpedoes). Manouvarable but slow
Missile Corvette - Three crew (Pilot and two gunners (one for missiles and other for small guns like WW2 aircraft)). Heavy armour and quite fast.

The best thing to do in my opinion is to follow a basic outline of todays Navy and Airforce. If it is a human craft then it will most probably remain unchanged therefore more realistic. But if it is of another species then you can go nuts.

Well I'm rambling and not making too much sense so I'll stop here

Thanks. No one else seems interested. I do like the idea of having a forcefield around the bay so that oxygen doesn't excape and you don't have to depressurise. My thought was that during combat all compartments touching the hull would be depressurized, you wouldn't have problems like in the battle scene in ST Nemisis where people get sucked out, and obviously a bay would be included. Another thought was to use a pylon extending like a wing from a ship, aside from carrying conventional systems, this could also have a flight deck possibly with a catapult, to service small craft. This would not be used on a carrier though(be used like the chopper pads on destroyers). I like your class idea. Something else to thnk about is that you need extra power in your craft with the bay system to get them up to speed. Returns would also be tricky. Catapults take up mass and volume, and would probably only be used with purpose built carriers, and with attack craft. Larger craft would be housed in bays.

The great thing about space is that you really don't need to launch fighters, just let them drift out and then they put on their engines and away they go!! What are they gonna do, fall out of the sky into the sea?? They're just gonna drift or 'hover' until the get some prepulsion

Magnetic Wave accelerators.

Magnetic Wave accelerators. Could you expand on that, please?

I'm picturing it as being a railgun for ships. It launches accelerates metal objects using electro-magnets.

http://www.railgun.org/

So launching ships like bullets, interesting approach

I realized, since my last post, that it depends on th emethods of propulsion your using in your carriers and small craft. Some might require a significant distance from the mother ship to operate safely. In this case, fighters and other combat craft would be best launched from a catapult to let them start the engines ASAP. With other methods you could probably get away with starting them in the bay or close to the ship.

Electromagnetic accelerators would be the best way, I think, to make/power a catapult.

I'm picturing it as being a railgun for ships. It launches accelerates metal objects using electro-magnets.


X-actly!!

I'm going to stretch into the construction of carriers themselves.

The first is the standard, which carries sufficient fighters and heavy attack craft(your med. bomber, Thor) for ship to ship combat. Almost always part of a group, its onboard weaponry is mainly self-defense, its role being to hang at the back of a formation, sending its smallcraft forward into the fray, maintaining only enough to defend itself against the rare vessel that manages to penetrate to it.

An assault carrier is built to support ground attacks, carrying space marines and thier shuttles, with a greatly reduced fighter/bomber compliment. It carries heavier weapons than a standard carrier, to provide orbital bombardment and fire support. An assault group would have a multitude of these ships, as well as supply and medical ships.

An escort carrier also has a reduced compliment of fighters and bombers, but this is because there are fewer other ships with it, so it must carry more of its own weight, so it has more armament, shields, and armor.

Fighters and bombers are launched by a catapult, because the extra initail speed makes them less vulnrable. Shuttles and pinnaces are housed in bays, because they are not usually launched during space combat(therefore not requiring the protection of that extra burst of speed), and because some of the bigger ones are heavy enough it's not practical to house the mon a hanger deck(these would be the only ones that would use a cradle or skids), and so they are housed, maintained, and launched from the bays.

Okay, my thread on carriers didn't work out that well. I was expecting many more responses. Perhaps I didn't phrase it right, or not many people here think about these things like I do. Perhaps that's because I'm trying t ocreate several worlds in which to base my stories, and sci-fi is involved in some of them.

Anyway, I figured I'd try everything else. Not just carriers, but ships, fighters, battle stations, what have you. And I(and hopefuly everyone else) don't really care if it's a bit farfetched or outrageous or off the wall. After all, I'm already outside the box, and trying to find a way to get farther away faster than light.

Things to look at/consider:

Propulsion, in system and interstellar

Shields, armor, other passive defenses

Energy weapons, all sizes

Guided weapons, torpedoes, missiles, etc.

Close-in weapons systems(i.e., point defense), all types

Communications and sensors

Methods and prodedures, what happens on the ship or wherever during battle, normal threat levels, etc.

Equipment carried by people, wherever, whatever