[SUGGESTION] weapon bay
- Thread starter govny
- Start date
Rex_Black
R
They do slide into the Hull, those two 'trapdoors' are not for the weapons.
Rex_Black
R
maybe on some of the larger ships but looking at the hull of the sidewinder it doesnt seem as if there would be enough space to retract the panels within the hull. maybe something like a folding set of doors would be more suitable, here's a pic to give you an idea of what i'm on about:
If you look at the various images of different ships, most of the hatches are different. If you don't like the sidewinder ones you'll just have to buy a different ship.
Besides it looks to me like they fold downwards not upwards.
Besides it looks to me like they fold downwards not upwards.
aesthetic
Damn, this thread is a disappointment, I thought Weapon Bay was going to be like Ebay, but with rocket launchers and machine pistols and stuff. 
On a more serious note, whilst not pretty, it might make more sense to have the doors to the weapon bays open outwards, for a few reasons: It would effectively provide some protection for the weapon from ballistic damage from incoming fire, since they do appear to be rather exposed, and one imagines a couple of hits on a gatling gun would be enough to jam it up. Outward-opening bay doors might also provide some shielding against IR tracking too, since one assumes the weapons would get hot and be easily detected, exposed bay doors might also help to scatter radar returns, although as far as the panel designs go, one would think the panel shut lines should have saw-toothed edges, to assist with breaking up radar echoes.
I can see why a designer might think it was worth the effort to have panels retract for something which was mostly flying in an atmosphere, since it would improve fuel economy and speed, but it hardly seems worth doing for something which does not need to be aerodynamic at all for most of its time. And even then it might conceivably be useful to use such panels as impromptu airbrakes. It was quite common on old Boeing 737 and 727 airliners to drop the landing gear to slow them down on a descent long before they should actually have been lowered, because they were so slick in a dive.
Where military aircraft are concerned, nobody wants to go out of their way to design an ugly one, but functionality is always going to win out over aesthetics. Besides, ugly aeroplanes tend to look meaner; compare for example the Spitfire and the Stuka; yes the Spitfire is undeniably pretty, but it doesn't look mean, whereas the Ju-87 Stuka is in no way pretty, but it looks like it wants to kick your grandma to death, which is a good thing when you are trying to strike fear into people.
On a more serious note, whilst not pretty, it might make more sense to have the doors to the weapon bays open outwards, for a few reasons: It would effectively provide some protection for the weapon from ballistic damage from incoming fire, since they do appear to be rather exposed, and one imagines a couple of hits on a gatling gun would be enough to jam it up. Outward-opening bay doors might also provide some shielding against IR tracking too, since one assumes the weapons would get hot and be easily detected, exposed bay doors might also help to scatter radar returns, although as far as the panel designs go, one would think the panel shut lines should have saw-toothed edges, to assist with breaking up radar echoes.
I can see why a designer might think it was worth the effort to have panels retract for something which was mostly flying in an atmosphere, since it would improve fuel economy and speed, but it hardly seems worth doing for something which does not need to be aerodynamic at all for most of its time. And even then it might conceivably be useful to use such panels as impromptu airbrakes. It was quite common on old Boeing 737 and 727 airliners to drop the landing gear to slow them down on a descent long before they should actually have been lowered, because they were so slick in a dive.
Where military aircraft are concerned, nobody wants to go out of their way to design an ugly one, but functionality is always going to win out over aesthetics. Besides, ugly aeroplanes tend to look meaner; compare for example the Spitfire and the Stuka; yes the Spitfire is undeniably pretty, but it doesn't look mean, whereas the Ju-87 Stuka is in no way pretty, but it looks like it wants to kick your grandma to death, which is a good thing when you are trying to strike fear into people.
Novel mechanism.
Novel mechanism.
want.
Novel mechanism.
Looks cool, but has weak attachment points compared to a hinge, not very secure, also I'd fear for kids fingers. :S
If the doors jam and you need to deploy weapons the jack on the weapon mount will just push them open and hay presto life saver.
Looks quite lightweight. Probably less dangerous to fingers that standard door jambs, they really are bad!