What's up with the snaky ship names?

[Rickenbacker]

Sidewinder is a nick name the Americans use for the rattle sake due to the way it can move fast going sideways

It's also an actual snake, called Sidewinder .

 

[jabokai]

I'm curious as to who's going to buy a Yellowbelly! Perhaps it would make a good escape pod.

 

[KevinMillican]

Interestingly the original elite did feature some additional ships that were animals but not snakes:
Gecko - a lizard
Moray Star Boat - from Moray Eel perhaps ?
Worm Class Landing Craft

Plus there were a couple of others with just utility names and the thargoid ships.

 

[Philip Coutts]

Interestingly the original elite did feature some additional ships that were animals but not snakes:
Gecko - a lizard
Moray Star Boat - from Moray Eel perhaps ?
Worm Class Landing Craft

Plus there were a couple of others with just utility names and the thargoid ships.

Well the Moray was originally a submarine that was converted for space flight so it is probably well named.

 

[Tacheel]

There's also the hawk/raptor based names from the sequels.

The eagle is the only one thats transferred to E: D so far though.

 

[Riedquat]

if you look a the cobra dead on, it looks like a snakes head.

not the best picture, but you can see it

Real cobra -

Spoiler

 

[arkemiffo]

Ok, a bit off topic here, but connected anyway.

I would love to have paintjobs for the ships in more of a snake pattern. Possibly some stylized snakescales. Possibly just snake head or something over the main viewport on the cobra and such.
At least for the "main" ships that are called snakenames.

 

[Sir.Tj]

The games have always predominately had animal names used for the ships from the very beginning including reptiles, mammals and birds etc.

Reptiles.

Krait
Sidewinder
Viper Defence Craft
Asp Explorer
Cobra Mk. III
Adder
Constrictor
Gecko
Anaconda
Boa
Python
Fer-de-Lance
Mamba
Bushmaster
Caiman

Mammals.

Lion
Tiger
Panther
Puma
Lynx

Birds.

Falcon
Hawk
Kestrel
Osprey
Eagle

Fishy type thing

Moray
Orca


To name a few. A more comprehensive list http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Classic_Elite_ships


I get the feeling that David and Ian must have watched a lot of survival as kids.

 

[Zireael]

Ok, a bit off topic here, but connected anyway.

I would love to have paintjobs for the ships in more of a snake pattern. Possibly some stylized snakescales. Possibly just snake head or something over the main viewport on the cobra and such.
At least for the "main" ships that are called snakenames.

That's a cool idea.

 

[[VR] Mad Mike]

Sidewinder, Viper, Asp, Anaconda...
What's up with that, actually?

nothing... may be this is just not the...................

oops sorry wrong thread

its just a throwback to the original game. The new ships have actually gone away from this naming so if you are ever curious as to whether the ship is a "classic" or a new one, this is a decent yardstick.

 

[Sargon]

I'm just wondering why it is so. At some point they must've thought to themselves: "Let's name our ships after different kinds of snakes!" Why?

Consider the shape of the ships. They all look like snake heads in a way.

 

[Yaffle]

In the now non-canon Dark Wheel book Alex Ryder muses on this topic while practising ship ID. The book just states that nobody knows why snakes were chosen:

No-one knew how or when the designation of space-going vessels had been linked to the names of snakes.

I am sure there are at least two people in the world who do know though!

 

[Seonid]

"Cobra", "Python" and "Sidewinder" sounds a lot better than the original "Ship 1", "Ship 2" and "Ship 3". As to why, I guess that's one for David and Ian as has been said.

 

[Andromalius]

There's a sidewinder snake ?

 

[insanephoton]

There's a sidewinder snake ?

Yes indeed

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JyXNBAHu32o

 

[Monk]

There's a sidewinder snake ?

It is a kind of rattle snake (crotalus) called crotalus cerastes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crotalus_cerastes

You'll find those nasties in southern California and Mexico.

'round 'ere we got the Timber Rattlesnake. Had some situations with these fellas out in the woods

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crotalus_horridus

All rattlesnakes are a kind of pit viper.

-thanks wikipedia

 

[Dirk Braben]

And all thanks to a simple post, look at this, the Sidewinder missile was named like that because:


1. Its a heat seeker like all rattlesnakes and
2. because of the rotating mirror guidance system it strikes in a spiral pattern somewhat like the sidewinder snake.
You can clearly see the spiral path from the firing aircraft.
It was actually named by an engineer in Indianapolis at Naval Avionics.
We developed most of the early guidance optics and sensors in Indy.
Later, Naval Avionics developed the nitrogen cooled IR sensors.
It's a brilliant simple weapon.

Now I'm educating others

When a Sidewinder is fired pilots says FOX 2, so you all know what to say when undocking yours in E|D

And now I learned something!

Would You Like to Know More?

 

[Michael Brookes]

Speaking to David it was because they were exciting sounding and there was a good variety of them.

Michael

 

[alexios]

Sidewinder, Viper, Asp, Anaconda...
What's up with that, actually?

Eagle, Kestrel, Osprey, Panther.

Clearly a case of eco-guilt on the part of ship designers, probably brought about after wiping out all of those species by the time of the original Elite.

 

[Andromalius]

Yes indeed

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JyXNBAHu32o

Well I learned something today, thanks !