From: wag5@quads.uchicago.edu (john peter wagner)
Subject: Re: x-wings??????   why?????
Reply-To: wag5@midway.uchicago.edu
Organization: University of Chicago Computing Organizations
Date: Tue, 22 Dec 1992 21:18:49 GMT

In article <1992Dec22.191403.16970@ll.mit.edu> shoham@ll.mit.edu (Daniel Shoham) writes:
>In article <1992Dec22.055229.23026@midway.uchicago.edu> wag5@midway.uchicago.edu writes:
>>In article <1992Dec21.233318.1@nickel.laurentian.ca> s1400070@nickel.laurentian.ca writes:
>>>     Okay, forgive me if this has already been discussed but --- What the hell
>>>is the advantage of spreading the wings in an X-wing fighter in deep space?  
>>>The engines are close to the pivot point and do not have a new position that
>>>is substantially more efficient than they do when the wings are closed.  
>>>Perhaps the only advantage is the higher degree of laser spread that can be
>>>achieved????.  
>>   
>>   I thought the wings were spread when entering combat. This would
>>possibly be because of the greater maneuverability possible(?) if
>>the wings generated forces in some direction not parallel to the
>>central thrust of the main engine.  
>>	Also, the x-wing forces could be parallel to the central thrust
>>but if they were of different amounts 'turning' would result. This
>>might also be helped by spreading of the X-wings. I think that otherwise
>>spread X-wings would actually be easier to hit in combat, and since the
>>spread of fire is actuality pretty irrelevent..
>>
>Another speculation (that also answers the question of why TIE fighters have
>those funny plates that make them soooo easy to hit), is that combat requires
>the generation of considerably more heat than just flying. Anyone familiar
>with space-vehicle design knows that getting rid of heat is a very difficult
>problem in a vacuum. Space vehicles are specifically designed with heat
>radiating surfaces to rid themselves of thermal energy. As such, the extended
>wings X fighter (and the TIE fighters) provide efficient radiators.
>
>Note that the makers of SW are clearly aware of the relevance of thermal
>exhaust to space vehicles. The spherically shaped (and hence a most inefficient
>radiator) Death Star, had one  (known) volunerability - a thermal exhaust
>shaft - that led all the way to the reactor core. 
>
>The tall poles with pointy edges on the DS have all the hallmarks of thermal
>exhaust radiators! I think that the DS thermal design was to conduct heat
>from the various internal sources (including the reactor) via shafts to the
>surface, duct the surface heat to as even a distribution as possible with the
>trenches (like the one our heros have flown through), and then radiate it to
>space with the pointy-edges poles.
>(If you don't like this explanation, perhaps you have a better rationale for
>the trenches, pointy-edges-poles, and exhaust shaft)
>- This is a very sensible design, I was amazed at the level of technical
>expertise that must have gone into this movie (Lucas must have had one hell
>of a science advisor!)
>
>- What do you guys think?
>Dan Shoham               shoham@ll.mit.edu

	I think that's pretty ingenius.
				John
				wag5@midway.uchicago.edu


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