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Sat, 10/25/14:

[SNIP]

PHIL;

>
 I looked at HG 2ed (I didn't see the 1st ed for quite
 some years as I came
 > into Trav right
 after the 2nd ed came out & the 1st ed was superseded

 > after > only one year) as similar
 to the mil-spec requirements of the US
 >
 DoD, so I felt that those rules should be followed
 slavishly.
 > (I still wonder how the
 original 'Plankwell' BB design. with that wimpy
 > meson screen, was danced past the
 Procurement folks. Maybe someone
 >
 connected to it had high-level contacts/influence? "Hey
 we'll just use
 > them against foes
 with only low-level meson guns, or none at all! Right?)

TOM;

 Lucky you I got a good look at
 HG 1st edition and did not get past
 determining the weapon rating codes. Of course
 there are some things that HG
 2nd
 Edition omitted, fighter squadrons and medical
 section are the biggest.
 Based on the
 number of real world warships that where built my take was
 the
 builder orally promised that the
 Plankwell class would have the meson
 screens upgrade at a later time and the later
 time or funding never arrived
 to do
 the job.

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PHIL (new);

Yeah, that'd work.

Or it could've been analogous to various attempts to hold down US defense expenditures, like the way the early Spruance class DD's were initially criticized for having only anti-sub capability & little else but had lot's of spare room for future upgrades. Only, in the end, as in yours, the upgrades never happened.
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PHIL;

 >
 With LBB2, & esp after the 'Annic Nova'
 adventure indicated that
 >
 'non-standard' designs *could* get an Imperial
 Registry, I tended to allow
 > a
 > reasonable amount of 'fudging'
 (post-commision non-standard refits?), esp
 > since I became aware of the diffs tween
 the LBB2's when I bought that
 >
 hardbound Traveller Book, started using it, & noticed
 right away some
 > diffs w/ the original
 LBB's 1-3. (and even some minor diffs w/ the 2nd ed
 > LBB's
 > 1-3)

TOM;

 I have two copies, pamphlet
 and in the FFE reprint, of JTAS 1 that as far as
 I know is the first place the Annic Nova
 appeared, unfortunately I only
 skimmed
 through the details and never did anything else with the
 design.

PHIL;

 > Still, one
 thing that remains 'hard & fast' is the large
 volume of fuel
 > required for jumping.
 (60% for J6!)
 > But, there is also the
 'Annic Nova' example where large solar
 'sails' were
 > used to charge
 the jump capacitors.
 > (Still can't
 see how that could actually work though, It's such a
 large
 > energy requirement)
 > Now there's a thought, maybe the Scout
 Ship could have a J4 engine but
 > carry
 only enough fuel for J3.
 > If J4 was
 wanted then drop tanks could be used if  avail (note:
 I've
 > always thought that the IN
 Tank-Rons also performed the function of
 > 'drop-tank'
 >
 tenders) or a 'sail' like the 'Annic Nova'
 used could be deployed.

 > [Note: As I recall the 'Nova had
 enough storage capacity to allow for TWO
 > jumps. (one J3 & one J2, I think)]

TOM;

 During my efforts to go
 through and verify the original Traveller designs
 I've been thinking about the jump fuel
 requirement. Since the time in jump
 space is
 approximately 168 hours I think that half the fuel opens
 jump space
 at the outbound jump point and
 the remaining half reverses the
 process at
 the inbound jump point. Per JTAS 1 page 30 the energy
 collector
 canopy takes between 1 and 6
 weeks to charge the accumulators to make
 a
 jump. The accumulators, I guessing here, change the
 collected energy into
 right type of
 electrical and begins charging the jump capacitors and
 power
 for the internal systems.

 Per the design and
 construction rules jump fuel tankage is calculated based
 on the maximum jump rating, of course if one is
 using the concept that the
 if the rules do
 specifically forbid not having a full jump fuel load then

 the fuel load can be less than that needed
 to make a jump four.

 I'm not sure what IN Tank-Rons means, but
 I'll take a swing at answering. My
 guess is that an IN Tank-Ron is a squadron of
 tankers used as mobile gas
 stations similar
 to the KC-135 inflight refueling tanker. In the case of a

 drop tank tender I think that the ship
 collects the jettisoned tanks
 beginning
 the refurbishing process while heading to the
 port where they can be placed
 in storage
 until needed for the next run.

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PHIL(New);

I first encountered 'tankers' in the original 'Imperium' board game from GDW that covered the period of the 'Interstellar Wars' 'tween the Vilani & Terrans that culminated in the end of the First Imp followed shortly after by the est. of the 2nd.
'Tankers' were needed to be able to follow jump routes thru 'bachelor' star systems.

There are actual tanker squadrons in the 'Fifth Frontier War' board game. They can accompany a fleet & allow it to jump again in situations where the fleet would otherwise have to pause to refuel

I envisioned them staying behind when the rest of the fleet jumped, collecting the d'tanks, & then either following along or going elsewhere, depending on their orders.

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TOM;

The Consolidated CT Errata

 mentions that to fill and I think refine
 the soup in the fuel tanks takes
 about 8
 hours when skimming a gas giant and then the time needed to
 travel
 to the jump point.  The Annic Nova
 takes between 1 and 6 weeks to have
 enough
 power to charge the jump capacitors and then travel to the
 outbound
 jump point.

 Several of my characters where Scouts and form
 my point of view I would not
 want to be in
 a possibly unfriendly system for one to six weeks waiting
 to charge the jump drive.

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PHIL(new);

It seems to me that the A'Nova or a similarly equipped vessel, could deploy it's 'sail' while it's inbound, thus it would already have some 'juice' in the j'capacitors before it, or any other vessel, could otherwise begin refueling.

Thus a scout ship equipped w/ something similar could actually be prepared to jump sooner than one w/o a 'sail'.

And then there's also the very real possibility, if there are no gas giants present in the system,  that the vessel may actually have to make planetfall in order to refuel .  In that situation, having a 'sail' could make a critical difference.
(note; I do believe that there are systems, though very,very few, w/o either GG's or 'water', where the only refuelling option is at a facility. 'A 'sail' could be very handy in such a system)

Also, consumption of fuel for jumping also depends on what version of the rules you are using.
The original rpg rules & the 5thFW boardgame used the original rules that required vessels to use *all* their jump fuel to 'energize' the jump drives, no matter how long the actual jump was. Hence, any  time a vessel jumped, it used up all it's jump fuel, no matter what.

CT LBB5 HGv1 introduced the 'jump governor' which allowed a vessel to calculate it's fuel usage as if it's J-drive were the same 'number' as the jump distance. Hence, a vessel w/ a J4 drive could make, w/o refuelling, four J1's, two J2's or any combo that added up to exactly four.
Now that really introduced a whole lot more flexibility into the rpg as well as, if used (I don't believe it was ever actually put into the rules), the above board game.

Personally, I would've preferred to have Trav stick w/ the original rule but by the time I got into it, the jump governor had already been introduced, leaving me to conclude for quite some time that the fuel usage rules in the 5FW boardgame were  introduced by the game designer to simplify the game, rather than actually mirroring the earlier rules set.

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