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Old 11-13-2021, 04:55 PM   #7
malloyd
 
Join Date: Jun 2006
Default Re: Vectored thrust vs Straight Thrust

Quote:
Originally Posted by Fred Brackin View Post
That function is belly-landing rather than tail-sitting. If a ship can land like an airplane it'll be much easier to load and unload than if it's a streamlined shape sitting on it's rear end.
Though in a setting like Traveller, with contragravity and thrusters that can generate or kill orbital velocities in a couple minutes, the "streamlined" bit can be pretty optional. Maybe ships thrusters are routinely dorsally mounted in the center of their bellies, and ships lift in a pancake orientation. If you are willing to take 15 minutes to clear the dense part of the atmosphere you don't need to go so fast that generates particularly bad aerodynamic stresses, certainly not compared to those generated by multi-G drives.
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