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Highly respected audience,
this edition of the „Space Pilot's Magazine“ features the highly anticipated comparison of the four basic fighter crafts, the reasonably priced SIDEWINDER, the nimble EAGLE, the powerful VIPER and the versatile COBRA MK III.
It is a well known fact among experienced pilots that the light EAGLE is the most mobile fighter while the fast VIPER outruns any other spaceship. However, authoritative data was not available so far and every claim was merely subjective.
We decided to change this situation and therefore assigned our test pilots to examine the four fighters in detail.
The results were quite surprising in some cases. Prepare for interesting insights...
That's how we tested:
- All tests were absolved with unmodified, factory new spaceships.
- Each maneuver was started from absolute standstill.
- The timer was started with the first movement and stopped when the maneuver was finished.
- At least three data points were gathered to calculate an arithmetic average.
- The tests have been varied in the amount of pips (0/2/4) dedicated to the engines as well as the ship's relative speed, if indicated (zero speed / optimal speed in the blue center / maximum speed, depended to power distribution).
The results:
1. Rolling is NOT affected by power distribution.
Rolling was tested in detail with the SIDEWINDER. Regardless of how many pips were distributed to the engines, the duration of a 360° roll was always 4,7 seconds.
Due to this result, all following tests were made with balanced power distribution.
Supplement 19.11.3314: This seems to be true only for zero and optimal speed rolling. As new investigations have proven, the rolling speed is dependent on the forward velocity just as any other maneuver. At maximal speed, however, slightly faster rolling was observed with higher powered engines. Stay tuned, we will report in one of our future releases.
2.Acceleration is NOT affected by power distribution neither.
We didn't find convincing evidence that power distribution has a strong effect on acceleration, if at all.
The COBRA and the VIPER were totally unimpressed by switching from 2 to 4 pips.
The EAGLE showed slightly different values (5,9 vs. 5,7), but this could merely be a measuring inaccuracy.
3. Striving UP/DOWN during a looping does NOT affect the maneuver speed significantly in comparison staying at a pure “blue optimum”.
Our pilots tested various combinations of using the upward/downward strive thrusters while flying a looping, including the switching of strive direction in the first and second half of the looping.
There was not a single combination that was faster than the straight forward “stay in middle of the blue” doctrine.
4. As expected, the optimal speed for loopings is the center of the blue marking.
However, there were a few interesting variations visible in respect to speed and pips for some ships.
But before we discuss this, let us present all data in a nutshell:
While all data can be accessed in the tabulation, the outliers are more visible in the graph.
4a) The EAGLE: Positive effect of max. pips at non-optimum speed.
While all other fighter-crafts showed a significant increase in turn-times at maximum speed when more pips were dedicated to the engines (which is quite surprising!), the EAGLE showed the opposite effect! This was true for loopings in standstill as well, however not as obvious as with maximum speed.
(The COBRA's characteristics at zero speed are a bit unclear and might need a second test-run.)
Conclusion:
The EAGLE wants to be handled like a motor-bike from the 21th century. It benefits way more from overcharging the engines than any other space-fighter, especially if the speed is less than optimum (in any direction), which happens quite often in combat situations.
4b) The VIPER: Faster turning at high-speed than in standstill.
While pitching was generally way slower with all tested vehicles when running at maximum speed in comparison with the looping at standstill, the VIPER is the exception of this rule. Especially with low and medium pips in engines, the VIPER turned actually faster when moving with max speed than when not moving at all.
Conclusion:
The VIPER is made for speed! Not really surprising, this common knowledge is now backed by facts! Unlike all other spacecrafts, this powerhouse is more forgiving if the actual speed excesses the optimal turning speed, allowing the VIPER-pilot to play off the superior cruise of his vessel.
We hope, our audience will be able to capitalize these information to the best.
We would love to continue our research with more expensive spacecrafts. Unfortunately, our magazine is quite new to the marked and sales numbers do not allow us to purchase the more expensive vessels so far.
We would be grateful, however, if one of our more solvent readers might be inspired by our testings and continue the research on his own behalf.
As for future editions, an examination of the effect of thruster upgrades on flight characteristics might be an interesting enterprise as well.
Until then:
Fly safe and with profit!
this edition of the „Space Pilot's Magazine“ features the highly anticipated comparison of the four basic fighter crafts, the reasonably priced SIDEWINDER, the nimble EAGLE, the powerful VIPER and the versatile COBRA MK III.
It is a well known fact among experienced pilots that the light EAGLE is the most mobile fighter while the fast VIPER outruns any other spaceship. However, authoritative data was not available so far and every claim was merely subjective.
We decided to change this situation and therefore assigned our test pilots to examine the four fighters in detail.
The results were quite surprising in some cases. Prepare for interesting insights...
That's how we tested:
- All tests were absolved with unmodified, factory new spaceships.
- Each maneuver was started from absolute standstill.
- The timer was started with the first movement and stopped when the maneuver was finished.
- At least three data points were gathered to calculate an arithmetic average.
- The tests have been varied in the amount of pips (0/2/4) dedicated to the engines as well as the ship's relative speed, if indicated (zero speed / optimal speed in the blue center / maximum speed, depended to power distribution).
The results:
1. Rolling is NOT affected by power distribution.
Rolling was tested in detail with the SIDEWINDER. Regardless of how many pips were distributed to the engines, the duration of a 360° roll was always 4,7 seconds.
Due to this result, all following tests were made with balanced power distribution.
Supplement 19.11.3314: This seems to be true only for zero and optimal speed rolling. As new investigations have proven, the rolling speed is dependent on the forward velocity just as any other maneuver. At maximal speed, however, slightly faster rolling was observed with higher powered engines. Stay tuned, we will report in one of our future releases.
2.Acceleration is NOT affected by power distribution neither.
We didn't find convincing evidence that power distribution has a strong effect on acceleration, if at all.
The COBRA and the VIPER were totally unimpressed by switching from 2 to 4 pips.
The EAGLE showed slightly different values (5,9 vs. 5,7), but this could merely be a measuring inaccuracy.
3. Striving UP/DOWN during a looping does NOT affect the maneuver speed significantly in comparison staying at a pure “blue optimum”.
Our pilots tested various combinations of using the upward/downward strive thrusters while flying a looping, including the switching of strive direction in the first and second half of the looping.
There was not a single combination that was faster than the straight forward “stay in middle of the blue” doctrine.
4. As expected, the optimal speed for loopings is the center of the blue marking.
However, there were a few interesting variations visible in respect to speed and pips for some ships.
But before we discuss this, let us present all data in a nutshell:
While all data can be accessed in the tabulation, the outliers are more visible in the graph.
4a) The EAGLE: Positive effect of max. pips at non-optimum speed.
While all other fighter-crafts showed a significant increase in turn-times at maximum speed when more pips were dedicated to the engines (which is quite surprising!), the EAGLE showed the opposite effect! This was true for loopings in standstill as well, however not as obvious as with maximum speed.
(The COBRA's characteristics at zero speed are a bit unclear and might need a second test-run.)
Conclusion:
The EAGLE wants to be handled like a motor-bike from the 21th century. It benefits way more from overcharging the engines than any other space-fighter, especially if the speed is less than optimum (in any direction), which happens quite often in combat situations.
4b) The VIPER: Faster turning at high-speed than in standstill.
While pitching was generally way slower with all tested vehicles when running at maximum speed in comparison with the looping at standstill, the VIPER is the exception of this rule. Especially with low and medium pips in engines, the VIPER turned actually faster when moving with max speed than when not moving at all.
Conclusion:
The VIPER is made for speed! Not really surprising, this common knowledge is now backed by facts! Unlike all other spacecrafts, this powerhouse is more forgiving if the actual speed excesses the optimal turning speed, allowing the VIPER-pilot to play off the superior cruise of his vessel.
We hope, our audience will be able to capitalize these information to the best.
We would love to continue our research with more expensive spacecrafts. Unfortunately, our magazine is quite new to the marked and sales numbers do not allow us to purchase the more expensive vessels so far.
We would be grateful, however, if one of our more solvent readers might be inspired by our testings and continue the research on his own behalf.
As for future editions, an examination of the effect of thruster upgrades on flight characteristics might be an interesting enterprise as well.
Until then:
Fly safe and with profit!
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