Yes, gravitics change a lot. But you still need streamlining to
operate in an atmosphere -- both per the rules, and per reasonable
extrapolation. A streamlined shape will move through the air more
easily, with less turbulence. This is going to be especially true for
a fighter, which presumably will be zipping around at high Mach
numbers. All those smooth curves and fairings are dead mass for a
vacuum fighter.

On Tue, Oct 7, 2014 at 11:22 AM, Jeffrey Schwartz
<schwartz.jeffrey@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Tue, Oct 7, 2014 at 2:06 PM, Greg Nokes <greg@nokes.name> wrote:
>> On Oct 7, 2014, at 12:53 PM, Craig Berry <cdberry@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> The idea of a dual-mode vacuum and atmospheric fighter has never made
>> sense to me. The optimizations for each of them are so different that
>> in combining them you end up with the worst of both worlds
>>
>>
>> I don’t really see that.
>>
>> TTL-13/14/15 fighters are probably just armored wedges with gravatic
>> controls. No need for an airframe. If you get hit hard enough to damage your
>> gravitics, you likely are not going to need to be concerned about any sort
>> of glide path, much likely anything else.
>>
>> Both atmospheric and space are optimizing for low surface area (lighter
>> armor) given enough to mount weapons and sensors. Wedge and flattened
>> sphere’s seem a great tradeoff.
>>
>> Also, Space optimized fighters are likely to be as armored as tanks, and as
>> well armed. Well, at least CT/MT types. And if you want your pilots to be
>> able to have somewhat normal kids, having them well armored and/or shielded
>> is essential.
>>
>
> I agree that gravitics is the game-changer (no pun intended)
>
> Your comment about 'armored as tanks' also made me think...
> I vaguely remember stories about during WWII/Europe, there were
> sorties of aircraft (Mustangs?) that would fly in ground-effect over
> France, stretching their fuel. They were used as a sort of raiding
> cavalry force, cruising around looking for things to shoot up and
> being on call to deliver lots of bullets if the infantry yelled for
> them.
>
> I can picture fighters being in that role - sort of "heavy-heavy-battle-dress"
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--
Craig Berry (http://google.com/+CraigBerry)
"Eternity is in love with the productions of time." - William Blake