Examples from S/F of rocket engines on pylons?

[exoscientist]

I'm thinking of a real world application of this concept. It's analogous to how the rocket engines swiveled for landing on the shuttles in Avatar.
Anyone else know of examples in S/F where engines were on pylons that allowed them to be swiveled?


Bob Clark

 

[docm]

HK's in Terminator: Salvation for starters, but in the real world there is the V-22 Osprey tiltrotor used by the US military. Bell is also working on a civilian variant.

The Avatar Scorpion must have taken inspiration from the V-22; both are tiltrotors - but Scorpion has the ducting, counter-rotating blades and weaponry.

T:S HK bottom

 

[yevaud]

The Serenity:

 

[nimbus]

Didn't The Matrix universe have something like this too? You might look through Project Rho's Rocket compendium too.

 

[yevaud]

Hmm. Come to think of it, yes, there was something similar in the Matrix.

 

[nimbus]

I can't recall if there were some, or if I'm confusing those with the non-actuated magnet-like "thrusters".

 

[yevaud]

I know of those, but aren't certain.

Here's a reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sh ... rix_series

 

[StarRider1701]

I'm thinking of a real world application of this concept. It's analogous to how the rocket engines swiveled for landing on the shuttles in Avatar.
Anyone else know of examples in S/F where engines were on pylons that allowed them to be swiveled?

The shuttles in the TV series "V" have swivelling engine ducts. So does the shuttle of the Destiny in Stargate Universe. Didn't some of the ships in Babylon 5 have them too? Flying Hunter/Killers in Terminator. The troop landing craft in Space, Above and Beyond. I know there are other examples, but just can't think of them right this minute.
I think the Harrier Jump Jet just might have started something!

PS. The Osprey is an overpriced piece of junk.

 

[exoscientist]

Thanks everyone for the great examples.


Bob Clark

 

[exoscientist]

Found this great book after looking up some examples:

The Spaceship Handbook.
Rocket and Spacecraft Designs of the 20th Century: Fictional, Factual and Fantasy.
by Jack Hagerty; Jon C. Rogers
http://www.amazon.com/dp/097076040X


Bob Clark

 

[exoscientist]

There is also of course the planned Skylon reusable spaceplane.

Bob Clark

 

[nimbus]

Those don't swivel.

 

[nimbus]

Just glanced through all three films. There's no ship seen with pylon mounted swiveling engines..

 

[yevaud]

StarFuries from B5 did swivel, though you'd generally see the opposite effect the few times they did this trick - swiveling the body of the ship 180 degrees around when in a battle (thereby continuing on your original trajectory, but now able to fire directly behind you). It rather follows that if the ship did this, the engines do.

 

[StarRider1701]

StarFuries from B5 did swivel, though you'd generally see the opposite effect the few times they did this trick - swiveling the body of the ship 180 degrees around when in a battle (thereby continuing on your original trajectory, but now able to fire directly behind you). It rather follows that if the ship did this, the engines do.

No, the main engines did not swivel, they had small maneuvering thrusters that they used for that. I liked it because it was really how a spacecraft maneuvered rather than the swooping turns of an aircraft in flight the way so many spaceships do. Sometimes the Vipers on Battlestar Galactica did this also, but not always and only if such maneuvering gave them an advantage over the Cylons.

 

[yevaud]

Interesting. I just watched several B5 battles on Youtube, and the closeup shots of a Starfury show a fixed/rigid body and engines. Yet, in one of the very first B5 episodes involving Starfurys in combat, the ship clearly was a central cabin/weapons portion which rotated around a outer section with the engines. If you recollect the episode, the cabin/weapons portion rotated 180 degrees, fired on the ship pursuing it and destroyed it - then counter-rotated back to "forward." The engines and outer part didn't move, they remained in the same orientation.

Well, that's how I recollect it.

 

[nimbus]

There might have been such an episode, because that's how I first remembered it. And then I "corrected" myself thinking that it was like StarRider describes.

 

[yevaud]

No, it's not just us, as this very episode has been discussed here in the past as to how accurate the creators of B5 were.

Possibly they eliminated this version of the Starfury in later episodes?

(Edited for Grammar)

 

[Mee_n_Mac]

No, it's not just us, as this very episode has been discussed here in the past as to how accurately the creators of B5 were.

Possibly they eliminated this version of the Starfury in later episodes?

I might just have the 1'st year of B5 on DVD. I'll see if I do and let y'all know.

 

[a_lost_packet_]

Interesting. I just watched several B5 battles on Youtube, and the closeup shots of a Starfury show a fixed/rigid body and engines. Yet, in one of the very first B5 episodes involving Starfurys in combat, the ship clearly was a central cabin/weapons portion which rotated around a outer section with the engines. If you recollect the episode, the cabin/weapons portion rotated 180 degrees, fired on the ship pursuing it and destroyed it - then counter-rotated back to "forward." The engines and outer part didn't move, they remained in the same orientation.

Well, that's how I recollect it.

In B5, they tried hard to simulate "real" spaceflight, especially with the Starfuries. The entire ship rotated using maneuvering jets in order to stay on target. So, there were plenty of shots in battle scenes of the Starfury turning on a dime, spinning all over the place, etc.. It may have been easy to confuse that with some sort of rotating pod early in the series because nobody had really approached depicting spaceflight like that in a television show. Everyone else had spaceships flying around like planes.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p04J5N_SEjA[/youtube]

Just a quick illustration clip that has the starfury executing a spinning manuever, common in many starfury segments.

 

[nimbus]

That could just be the later configuration. Gonna have to wait for a B5 diehard fan, or find a B5 forum to ask at.

 

[StarRider1701]

In B5, they tried hard to simulate "real" spaceflight, especially with the Starfuries. The entire ship rotated using maneuvering jets in order to stay on target.

Right. And the clip that lost posted is exactly the way I remembered it too. Starfuries were small and very maneuverable. A skilled pilot could rotate, shoot and spin back without loosing any momentum or changing direction. I thought that was one of the things B5 did best, Human ships that functioned in space correctly. One of the many reasons I loved B5. But their engines didn't swivel.

 

[yevaud]

Btw, ran into this in my travels...

http://www.b5tech.com/oldb5tech/links.htm