I decided to break this out into its own thread away from the Splicer Corps fighters. This thread will follow the ASF Corps and its heavy ships, bombers, dropships, and transports.
I am starting off with the on the Ferine Heavy Dropship. In standard practice the Ferine carries troops in the central hull, and the outrigger pods carry vehicles, though all three can carry troops or vehicles. The central fuselage can and does rise up to allow the troops off.
I am looking at going one of two directions:
The original WIP had two wings on each that folded down connecting the main fuselage to outrigger pods, with a narrow 2ft x 2ft tunnel allowing access between the three hulls. The biggest problem I see with this is the size of the tunnel, it is small and with the exception of children or smaller races everyone would have to crawl in the tunnel(s). This would be even harder if geared up.
The new idea is a single wing that split into three pieces, the central piece would have the access tunnel, 4ft in diameter, and the two other pieces would have lift engines should the de-grav generators fail. The larger tunnel should allow even a fully geared up 6' tall individual to make a crouch run between hulls, if the angle doesn't require use of the ladder.
The engine configuration is still up for debate, if I go with the second design version I will likely drop the main fuselage engines in favor of wing engines, to be added, then I will also add a rear ramp to the main fuselage. I may also completely revamp the whole main fuselage depending in which wing configuration I end up going with. The Dropship will be heavily armed.
So which version do you folks this is the better way to go?
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I will work on fixing up the outriggers, and folding outer wings next, and adding armament.
1) I am going with the segmented wing concept. Lift engines are embedded in each segment, with smaller ones in the middle segment. The middle segment also has the transfer tunnel that allows personnel to transfer between the central hull and the outrigger pods. This system is far stronger than the other version which would have a harder time carrying the load in either position. Also the transfer tunnel, as explained before, would be prohibitively small.
2) This is a trimaranish design, all three hulls are capable, and do carry troops, cargo or vehicles as the mission dictates. Those "flaps," are the cargo doors/embarcation ramps, though the design will change. Another ramp/lift platform will go on the cental fuselage too, as well as smaller crew doors up front. I will be adding more engines to the outrigger pods, which will act as the main engines for forward flight.
3) Yes those balls are the landing gear, good catch, each one is independantly steerable, allowing pretty nice manuverability on the ground. The central fuselage will also sport a smaller set for "normal" landings.
Thanks, ASF ships have a great deal of redundancy, so even though they have anti-grav lifters the lift engines are there to supplement or supplant them.
Small update on the engines.
And a quick cockpit view:
Will work on the landing gear next and carving out the main bay.
My current build plan is as follows:
New landing gear pods, keeping the ball landing gear.
Hollow out the central bay and add in the door/lift platform.
Add Weapons: thinking 3x dorsal medium turrets, and 6x ventral anti-personnal turrets at the doors.
Detail in additional hatches, crew and drop hatches.
Detail up the interior and exterior.
Updated landing gear and pods
Cockpit upper windows
Quick cockpit interior
Main Bay cutout and rear doors
Dorsal Turrets in place
Outrigger anti-personnel turrets mounted above ramp
Main Bay anti-personnel turret, may mount more