Pilot Archive

The intent of this post is to disseminate knowledge gained from spaceflight tests carried out over Tatooine in the Corbantis Galaxy with three of the Freelance faction starfighters. Further, I am attempting to determine what the various ratings mean and how they have an impact on space combat. The fighters used for the tests are the Kihraxz, Ixiyen, and Rihkxyrk. The performance data for each is listed below:

Kihraxz Pitch 400 Yaw 400 Roll 200 Spdx 1.0
Ixiyen Pitch 200 Yaw 200 Roll 100 Spdx 0.95
Rihkxyrk Pitch 100 Yaw 100 Roll 50 Spdx 0.89
* Date taken from http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=pilot&message.id=45279#M45279

For these tests I used a CH FighterStick USB and a CH Pro Throttle USB for pitch, yaw, throttle, and booster control. I used the small stick on the Pro Throttle for roll control. Each ship was tested with a Freitek PowerMaster II Reactor, SoroSuub L-337 Engine, and a MandalMotors Q Series Booster. The performance data for each follows below:

FrieTek PowerMaster II Reactor Energy Generation 14193
SoroSuub L-337 Engine Pitch 59.2 Yaw 55.2 Roll 58.0 Speed 60.1
MandalMotors Q Series Booster Acceleration 43.9 Maximum Speed 30.8

No other components were used in the tests. All weapons, shields ,armor, etc were removed prior to launch. Each test was conducted using a stopwatch controlled by me as I performed the listed maneuvers. All yawing turns were made to the left, all pitching turns were made pitching upwards, all rolls were made to the left, and all acceleration tests were made from a stop except booster acceleration from full engine speed tests. Tests include pitch, yaw, and roll rates at zero velocity (V0) and maximum velocity (VMax), top speed with engines only, top speed with booster, acceleration to maximum engine only speed from a stop, acceleration to maximum boosted speed from a stop, and acceleration to maximum boosted speed from maximum engine only speed. For tests involving pitch, yaw, and roll rates the first number is the total time in seconds required to complete a 360 degree turn and the second is the turn rate in degrees per second. For tests involving acceleration only the times are listed. The performance data for each starfighter is listed below:

Starfighter P(V0) Y(V0) R(V0) P(VMax) Y(VMax) R(VMax) VMaxEng VMaxBoost Acc(0-VMaxEng) Acc(0-VMaxBoost) Acc(VMaxEng-VMaxBoost)
Kihraxz 30.9/11.7 32.8/11.0 6.4/56.3 7.9/45.6 8.3/43.4 6.4/56.3 600 908 1.7 1.0
Ixiyen 30.9/11.7 32.8/11.0 6.5/55.4 13.2/27.3 12.4/29.0 6.4/56.3 570 863 2.5 1.1
Rihkxyrk 30.9/11.7 32.8/11.0 6.6/54.5 16.6/21.7 15.6/23.1 6.4/56.3 534 808 1.9 0.8

Findings
The data indicates that Spdx modifiers for the fighters are applicable to both engines and boosters (e.g. Rihkxyrk 0.89*60.1*10 for the engine and 0.89*30.8*10 for the booster). Further, roll rates seem to be the same regardless of starfighter, engine, and velocity combinations. In other words the starfighters all rolled at the same rate regardless of what the pilot did. The small differences are likely due to inaccuracies in measuring times. Acceleration times indicate that there is really very little difference between the tested starfighters. In any case a starfighter can achieve maximum boosted speed in less than three seconds from a full stop. This means that acceleration rates are largely negligible in space combat as there are very few times when one would be at a full stop. For combat spaceflight profiles the differences in acceleration are not significant unless one starfighter has a significant advantage in maximum velocity and can therefore catch a fleeing opponent. The differences in the data and the fact that the heavier starfighter seems to accelerate faster than the others is likely due to errors in measuring times. Pitch, yaw, and roll rates are the same for each starfighter at V0. There is no difference between them if one is not moving. However, the data show that a pitching turn is always faster than a yawing turn. Hence starfighter pilots should increasingly rely on out of plane manuevers to bring their weapons to bear on swiftly manuevering opponents.

Further Efforts
I intend to conduct more tests with different engines and boosters. I have also acquired a Heavy Scyk starfighter so I can now test that starfighter with the heavier engines and boosters. If you have any ideas for spaceflight testing you would like to see please post them here.

If you have any questions about this post please e-mail them to [email protected]