100's of hours in ED and didnt realize something so obvious till now

To me the Vulture looks a bit like the front of my Honda NM4 Vultus motorbike :)
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Yes the ships are named after animals on purpose (Eagle is obviously not a snake) ... but many of you may not know that the Cobra MkIII is shaped like it is, not to resemble a snake, but if you take a sphere, slice the top off of it, and cut that in half, you get the Cobra MkIII shape in wire frame form. The Sidewinder, Anaconda, Boa and Viper were simple triangle shapes in the original Elite.

As for whether the current designs were purposefully done to resemble snakes, I don't know, but I am sure the original designs in 1984, weren't done to resemble snakes, but more because they were simple shapes that could fit in the 22kb David & Ian had to work with.
 
I will admit im not a snake expert and couldnt tell one from another in real life, unless maybe if it was rattle snake, but after looking at a few pics, it just dawned on me that all the ships named after a snake look like the actual snakes head. I love you FD..

Ok its time to point and laugh at me XD

+1 ....... I've got over 500 hours and didn't notice until you pointed it out :D
 
Looking over the nose of the Anaconda, it looks like the nostrils of a crocodile, not a snake, to me. HAHAHAHA
 
I think Alien's is the most likely explanation ... any resemblance to snake heads is coincidental .... unless form follows function ..... i.e. snakes are hunter killers, after all.

- - - - - Additional Content Posted / Auto Merge - - - - -

Yes the ships are named after animals on purpose (Eagle is obviously not a snake) ... but many of you may not know that the Cobra MkIII is shaped like it is, not to resemble a snake, but if you take a sphere, slice the top off of it, and cut that in half, you get the Cobra MkIII shape in wire frame form. The Sidewinder, Anaconda, Boa and Viper were simple triangle shapes in the original Elite.

As for whether the current designs were purposefully done to resemble snakes, I don't know, but I am sure the original designs in 1984, weren't done to resemble snakes, but more because they were simple shapes that could fit in the 22kb David & Ian had to work with.

and here's the quote !
 
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To the people who don't agree the cobra resembles the snake;

Have you seen the ship from the top/front? It has teeth on the canopy for DB's sake and glowing radiators for eyes. Also its sensor panel is shaped like an open cobra mouth with the throttle and heat meters making up the flaring hood. I'd say the entire sensor display holographics were designed around the cobra cockpit.

Asp is commonly used to refer to the Egyptian Asp or Cobra, famous suicide device of choice of Cleopatra. The Lakon Asp models clearly resemble an African cobra head with its hood flared out. Perhaps because the game already had cobra class ships and it would be weird to call the other class 'Lakon Cobra' or 'Lakon Egyptian Asp' they went with Lakon Asp.

There are more than one type of snake called diamondback. The most common type has a really wide head with pointy brows over it's eyes. While not immediately resembling a snake head as the other ships do, it you describe the shape of a diamondback model ship from the front, you'll see it will be similar to how you would describe the snake's head from the front also.

Almost everyone agrees on the shapes of python, anaconda and fdl resembling their respective snake counterparts but I would say the Adder resembles a space shuttle and even more (to me) a panel van while retaining vaguely the general contours of a generic snake head.

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To the people who don't agree the cobra resembles the snake;

Have you seen the ship from the top/front? It has teeth on the canopy for DB's sake and glowing radiators for eyes. Also its sensor panel is shaped like an open cobra mouth with the throttle and heat meters making up the flaring hood. I'd say the entire sensor display holographics were designed around the cobra cockpit.

Asp is commonly used to refer to the Egyptian Asp or Cobra, famous suicide device of choice of Cleopatra. The Lakon Asp models clearly resemble an African cobra head with its hood flared out. Perhaps because the game already had cobra class ships and it would be weird to call the other class 'Lakon Cobra' or 'Lakon Egyptian Asp' they went with Lakon Asp.

There are more than one type of snake called diamondback. The most common type has a really wide head with pointy brows over it's eyes. While not immediately resembling a snake head as the other ships do, it you describe the shape of a diamondback model ship from the front, you'll see it will be similar to how you would describe the snake's head from the front also.

Almost everyone agrees on the shapes of python, anaconda and fdl resembling their respective snake counterparts but I would say the Adder resembles a space shuttle and even more (to me) a panel van while retaining vaguely the general contours of a generic snake head.


I'm actually fairly certain you're wrong.
 

Deleted member 110222

D
I can certainly see the Python in the... Erm... Python.

I had a pet Royal once, too!
 
Actually, this question was asked a while back in the forums, if I remember rightly Mr Brookes asked Mr Braben and he said that he named them after Snakes because he liked the idea, nothing about the looks.

How about that for a partystopper!? :p
 
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I will admit im not a snake expert and couldnt tell one from another in real life, unless maybe if it was rattle snake, but after looking at a few pics, it just dawned on me that all the ships named after a snake look like the actual snakes head. I love you FD..

Ok its time to point and laugh at me XD

Well that did occur to me quite a while back, but consider that although I too am not an 'expert' on snakes, I do know that an adder and viper are the same snake... Do the ships look the same?

There is not a lot of difference in the Elite ships in general. A lot of them are wedges.
 
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