I had this thought late last night, we have ships with bridge at bow of ship, and bridge mid-body on dorsal surface, but none with a mid-body ventral bridge.
As in the title, such a config is used on airships today. It would offer superior look-down ability, as you would need in surveying a planetary surface as you flew over it, so I imagine a ship would benefit from such an arrangement if it were an explorer or SAR ship.
It'd be kind of useless in a pitching battle, as any pilot LoS to target would be obscured during natural pitching maneuvers.
I imagine a new, dedicated explorer, as big as will fit on a large landing pad.
"Built as a collaboration between Gutamaya and Saud-Kruger (or AAAI) it would have a gently curved body, with slightly upswept wings punctuated by engine nacelles extending aft of the wingroot. Its body sweeps down into a subtle keel-like shape on it's ventral side, punctuated by a sweeping gondola canopy for it's bridge, with fighter hanger just aft, and cargo scoop just forward of bridge.
It is designed to be at home in the upper atmosphere as it is in space. It's range caps out at 35/40 ly on a spartan outfitting, but with the right modification this can be exceeded.
As a sensors platform it has no equal, boasting sensor arrays that can reach out to 10km when optimally fitted and tuned, and comes prefitted with discovery and surface scanners. In fact the Imperial Navy have considered it's use as a military AEW/C platform.
However, it's agility is low, and it has a meager defensive armament for it's size, 3 C3 weapons, one centreline dorsal, one under each engine nacelle in the wingroot, and 2 C2 paired up under the nose.
Internally it brings enough internal space to store a defensive fighter, ground craft for the crew, cargo space for anything found whilst on expedition, shields strong enough to brave the wildest corners of space, a repair suite, a large fuel scoop and exploration sensors."
As in the title, such a config is used on airships today. It would offer superior look-down ability, as you would need in surveying a planetary surface as you flew over it, so I imagine a ship would benefit from such an arrangement if it were an explorer or SAR ship.
It'd be kind of useless in a pitching battle, as any pilot LoS to target would be obscured during natural pitching maneuvers.
I imagine a new, dedicated explorer, as big as will fit on a large landing pad.
"Built as a collaboration between Gutamaya and Saud-Kruger (or AAAI) it would have a gently curved body, with slightly upswept wings punctuated by engine nacelles extending aft of the wingroot. Its body sweeps down into a subtle keel-like shape on it's ventral side, punctuated by a sweeping gondola canopy for it's bridge, with fighter hanger just aft, and cargo scoop just forward of bridge.
It is designed to be at home in the upper atmosphere as it is in space. It's range caps out at 35/40 ly on a spartan outfitting, but with the right modification this can be exceeded.
As a sensors platform it has no equal, boasting sensor arrays that can reach out to 10km when optimally fitted and tuned, and comes prefitted with discovery and surface scanners. In fact the Imperial Navy have considered it's use as a military AEW/C platform.
However, it's agility is low, and it has a meager defensive armament for it's size, 3 C3 weapons, one centreline dorsal, one under each engine nacelle in the wingroot, and 2 C2 paired up under the nose.
Internally it brings enough internal space to store a defensive fighter, ground craft for the crew, cargo space for anything found whilst on expedition, shields strong enough to brave the wildest corners of space, a repair suite, a large fuel scoop and exploration sensors."
