Landing bay pod FRONT ends?

I agree with everything Damocles has stated, but truthfully I have always considered the "outriggers" a bit of a design compromise given how vulnerable they are to attack. The internal launch/recoverey system of say a Stardestroyer(or a BASESTAR for that matter) is far more preferable and less vulnerable but also far less feasible or realistic.

[Damocles]

Originally Posted by Wildcard

I agree with everything Damocles has stated, but truthfully I have always considered the "outriggers" a bit of a design compromise given how vulnerable they are to attack. The internal launch/recoverey system of say a Stardestroyer(or a BASESTAR for that matter) is far more preferable and less vulnerable but also far less feasible or realistic.

Quite a defendable observation. I just look at the star destroyer and imagine myself as a TIE pilot trying to merge with my baseship. I have to aim myself at a hole in her belly. My angle of approach is well in excess of thirty degrees off of its, the star destroyer's, baseline vector and my relative merge rate can't be much greater than a couple of hundred meters per second absolute on account of that approach angle, otherwise my potential energy that I carry as inertial momentum in My TIE is going to smear me across that baseship hanger deck resulting in a very beautiful brief explosion that should, considering how well the Imperials build things send that star destroyer promptly straight to the next hereafter, as she chains off; hanger to fuel tanks to engines a>b>c; BOOM.

That physical limitation on merge rates paradoxically restricts my baseship to a velocity that cannot exceed more than a couple of hundred meters per second so I can thread the needle of that hole from a crossing approach as well(human reflex limitation), or it will result in the same sort of noiseless KABOOM.

Now imagine the poor Double Decker Sanddollar with six simultaneous opportunities to get it wrong in fifty repetitions, with three hundred total Raiders; especially with Cylons as pilots!

As always,

between the lack of shielding on the TIE's and the landing procedure the Empire surely goes through a fair number of TIE's and TIE pilots, and cleaning supplies as well! I assume in order to make that system work they must use some form of tractor beam control to guide the TIE's in, though that seems both very time and energy intensive.

At least the Cylons have the advantage of centralised computer control to aid them in thier landing procedures, though how Apollo and Starbuck managed to land a Raider on a Basestar in the "Hand of God" ep is somewhat beyond me!