Digital Biscuit
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Hello.
For the past few days, I have really been wondering what makes the ARWING tick, and so I have decided to write this technical manual describing the fighter's internal components. Whenever I watch a film, or play a video game, I feel a compulsive urge to want figure out how the fantastic devices I see function. Unfortunately, no one has any information about these sorts of things, so I just make it up. I'm the kind of guy that owns STAR WARS art books that feature all the vehicles' cross sections, and complain about how I could design a better ship with my eyes closed.
I come up with the stuff you will read in my post just for my sheer enjoyment. Sorry if you find this pointless, or whatever, but I think it is interesting. After great thought of the ARWINGs components, I thought that I would share my thoughts with you people of the SOL community. I thought that perhaps you might find it interesting, too. STAR FOX is not any where near hard science fiction. It is purely an arcade-shooter, but I will do my best with what I have observed through the years to offer some explanations for these beautiful craft. The way things are described may or may not lead to the ARWINGs behaving exactly like they do in the games, because I am intending to describe how they might realistically work.
By the way, for readers who want to skip boring physics lessons, just avoid the text highlighted in this colour and continue reading where the normal colour resumes. The post as been drafted in a way that it will still make sense if you skip these sections. The reason I included them in the first place was because I thought it would be a nice touch for those interested, and could help illustrate where I am coming from with my ideas. It also served as an fantastic 'sketchbook' for me to organize my thoughts while writing this.
VIDEO CLIPS I HAVE BEEN VIEWING FOR REFERENCE WILL BE LINKED TO THE BOTTOM OF THIS POST, SO YOU CAN LOOK AT THEM, TOO.
INCLUDED TOPICS
power-plant
arwings' flight characteristics
life support systems and operations
weapon systems
shields and defense
energy and power supply
other notes
problems with my theories
reference video links
In this post, I will be discussing the ARWING from the game STAR FOX 64. I refer to this model as the SF-64.
I also cover the STAR FOX: ASSAULT ship, and I will be referring to it as the SFA-128 model.
-POWER-PLANT-
In the video games, we have seen that the Arwings seem to fly equally well in the high atmospheric pressures and gravity I expect near the 'solar-planet' and Venom, as well as the airless vacuum and micro-gravity environment of space. To explain this unsurpassed agility and resourceful preformance, I have chosen an array of main engines and engine subsystems to accommodate for the Arwings' flight behaviour.
The SF-64 ARWING's main engine is a powerful, yet compact, hydrogen fueled, multi-mode reaction drive located in the far aft portion of the chassis. It features a micro sized-jet engine that sucks in air and oxygen from the environment. Originally, I wanted to place the air intake where the single-laser cannon is mounted in STAR FOX 64, but instead decided on the two vent like thingies located next to the cockpit. In the upper atmosphere and in space, the engine would switch to rocket mode. The hydrogen fuel would be combined with oxygen stored onboard the ship, ignited, and expelled through a radial aerospike engine nozzle. The radial aerospike is highly efficient in space and at varying altitudes, and would produce an engine exhaust pattern similar to what we see in the N64 game (see aerospike video at bottom of post). The engine runs by burning the liquid hydrogen (LH2) and liquid oxygen (LOX) stored in super-cooled refrigeration tanks located in the fuselage.
The fighter also is equipped with two gravity diffusion engines. What exactly do these things do, anyway? I have a few theories. Gravity is a natural force that acts on everything made of matter or energy (so...everything in existence...like, duh). Albert Einstein has shown us that gravity is actually space and time itself physically being bent and warped in response to matter/energy. This is illustrated perfectly by the "bed sheet" example. Imagine a bowling ball placed on a bed. We can physically see how the sheets are bent down in response to the ball's weight, and the highest concentration of that warping is right under the ball's center of mass. Now, if one shoots a marble within the bowling ball's SHPERE of INFLUENCE, it will be deflected by the curvature of the bed fabric. This is pretty much how gravity works. Planet Earth is not 'pulling' you towards its center of gravity, SPACE and TIME (two seemingly intangible things) are actually 'pushing' you in accordance to the earth's warping. Everything that has mass generates a gravity. Human, insect, electron, Arwing, and black hole alike, we all have our own gravitational field.
Diffusion is the act of something of a higher concentration moving to a lower concentration over time. Many new particle theories suggest that gravity must exhibit the wave/particle duality that is common with everything else in the universe. Superstring theory calls for gravity to have a particle called a graviton, much like the electromagnetic force's photon. An area of a highly concentrated set of gravitons might generate a high amount of gravitational force, and vise versa. M-theory states that unbound strings (gravitons) slip easily into other membranes within the 11th dimensional hyper-structure of the universe. If an object's gravitons could be diffused to other dimensions, or perhaps the surrounding areas on this current plane, it may allow for the manifestation of a gravity-drive system. See where I am going with this?
In the SF-64, the g-diffusers reduce the mass of craft by diffusing some of its gravitons into higher dimensional space. This increases the ship's main engine thrust output so it is faster and more maneuverable. My g-diffuser design is also capable of displacing the Arwing's center of gravity. This allows the g-diffuser to not only reduce the mass of the ship when needed, but act as a whole new form of propulsion all together. If the Arwing's center of gravity could be placed a few metres in front of the ship, the star fighter would theoretically 'fall into itself', resulting in a net acceleration. This is known as a disjunction drive. Because the ship is still within its own SPHERE of INFLUENCE, it will experience gravitational acceleration. This drive system would require no fuel (thus, it is reaction-less) and only requires electricity to run. The disjunction drive would be labeled as a sub system in this case, since the Arwing's main engine would provide most of its acceleration.
Finally, in space and at low airspeeds where there would not be sufficient pressure for the control surfaces to function (a stall), the SF-64 makes use of a set of many tiny control trusters located throughout the airframe. This is called the reaction control system (RCS). The RCS allows the craft to make minute, translational adjustments that are much more precise than the other engine systems are capable of. It also allows the fighter to change its attitude (orientation, not the emotion) when the craft's control surfaces are stalled, and serves as its primary attitude control in outer space. These thrusters would be fueled by compressed air from the jet engine, a bottled supply tank filled with practically any type of gas, and perhaps even exhaled CO2 from the pilot.
The SFA-128 ARWING works in a slightly different matter. It has a hydrogen fueled jet engine (intakes located within the vents on the underside) and a similar LH2+LOX rocket motor. However, This Arwing is equipped with four gravity diffusion drives, and they work around same principal as the SF-64's, but there are significant differences in how they propel the ship. The greater power and more advanced nature of these new g-diffusers allows them to not only reduce mass and displace the ship's center of gravity, but they can create a negative spacetime geometry behind the ship along with the positive curvatures the SF-64 can produce. The Arwing basically forms an anti-gravitational bubble behind the ship that 'pushes' it forward. This can also help diminish the planet's gravitational influence to some degree. My evidence comes from the fact that since this bubble is a spacetime curvature and light must follow these curves, it sometimes distorts the airframe's appearance via gravitational lensing. This can be seen in the REFERENCE VIDEO between 0:16-0:18.
The SFA-128 also has a RCS that works just like its predecessor. However, there is one mentionable difference. Attitude changes might instead be made by momentum wheels within the ship. These are flywheels that spin at very high speeds and use very little power. By changing the speed or angle of rotation of the gyros, the ship's roll, yaw, and pitch can be changed. The evidence for this came from a 'mechanical whirling sound' that can be heard resonating from within the SFA-128 in STAR FOX: ASSAULT when performing loops and immelman turns.
STRANGE COLOURS...
The glow and colour of the SF-64's main engine's exhaust has been known to change from a red hue in the atmosphere, and a blueish indigo in space. Initially, I suspected that perhaps this change in hue was the result of various fuel types being used for respective purposes. The red could be the result of a kerosene type mixture that fuels the jet engine, while the blue could be from burning the hydrogen/oxygen mix for the rocket motor. However, I realized that keeping the Arwing more streamlined and energy efficient takes precedence over the simple colour of a flame decided by a concept artist. I would settle on a hydrogen only fuel, and make the call that the colour change we see is simply aesthetic.
The green glow seen around the four g-diffusers of the SFA-128 may have a more grand explanation. As photons race away from a gravitational field produced by a star or pulsar, they must expend energy to overcome the pull of gravity generated by the object. This causes the lightwave to have a longer frequency after exiting the gravity-well, thus a different "colour". This is called gravitational red-shift. Conversely, gravitational blue-shift is the result of a light ray falling into a gravitating object.
The green glow of the g-diffusers may be the result of some of the the indigo colour bled from the engine's exhaust being gravitationally red-shifted down to the wavelength our eyes perceive as green.
Although, if there is really an anti-gravitational spacial geometry behind the ship, I suspect that the light should technically be gravitationally blue-shifted, as it is being pushed away from the g-diffuser system. This would potentially turn the indigo bleed emitted from the engines to a violet colour or even an invisible ultra-violet.
However, the amount of distortion my g-diffuser design produces would not nearly be sufficient enough to effect the the frequency of the light rays to the point where the unaided human eye could detect such a change, meaning that this, like the SF-64's engine glow, is simply an artistic effect. This is, of course, unless the light is directly emitted from the g-differs themselves during high stress situations and high demanding operations (braking and hovering, respectively, as seen in STAR FOX: ASSAULT). We don't see this glow trend in the SF-64, but maybe the advancements made to the SFA-128's engines cause it to function in a different nature than the outdated SF-64.
The green glow may also be the result of four magnetoplasmadynamic thruster units attached to the back of the g-diffusers. These four electric ion drive based engines would aid in acceleration in space, as well as in maneuverability (since these g-diffusers are mounted to electronic gimbals and could alter the ship's thrust vector).
On a final note, the Arwings' will need to feature retro-rockets to slow the craft down in outer space. Perhaps these rockets simply fire out of the air intakes by use of some advanced mechanism. Retros would ensure that the crafts' nose (and pilot's eyes) are always facing its direction of motion.
-THE ARWINGS' FLIGHT CHARACTERISTICS-
ATMOSPHERIC FLIGHT
The SF-64 and the SFA-128 have a system of split-elevon control surfaces located on their wings. These surfaces combine the function of elevators, ailerons, and rudders. Additionally, the surfaces can fully extend to be used as air brakes to decelerate the aircraft. The fighters also feature variable-geometry. At slow speeds, the wings extend forward to offer more lift and a lower stall speed, while at fast speeds they are swept back to create less drag. The wing-gloves that cover the wings' pivot points help maintain lift over the sweep-mechanics. Furthermore, the Arwings' fuselages appears to be of a lifting body design. This means that the body itself helps generate lift in accordance with the wings. The SFA-128 takes these form changing techniques a step further. It is capable of greatly altering the anhedral (downward angle) of its wings, which affects the aircraft's maneuverability under varying conditions and angles of attack (AOA). Even this Arwing's g-diffusers are used as control surfaces. They are able to gimbal and produce drag on certain parts of the ship, as seen again in the REFERENCE VIDEO (0:21-0:25). Additionally, because of the fact that the SFA-128's elevons are so small, I assume it suffers from much higher stall speeds than its predecessor, and must resort to its RCS to a greater degree. Finally, the Arwings' could be purposely designed to be aerodynamically unstable, to increase maneuverability, such as the USAF's F-16.
I like to suppose that there is more going on than meets the eye when it comes to advanced, alien flight-craft, but hey, thats just me. This next feature serves two purposes. It acts as a shielding system against attacks and adverse weather (lightning), and as another control 'surface'. The Arwing produces a thin, microwave plasma that surrounds its entire airframe. This plasma breaks up the air in front of the ship, particularly at higher speeds, so that there is less resistance on the craft's forward motion. As the Arwing breaks the sound barrier, the plasma would help reduce the shock waves produced along the airframe, and could take the place of lifting flaps at slow speeds. This plasma envelope could also reduce the noise from the Arwing, making it more stealthy. I believe the best evidence for this 'microwave plasma envelope' comes from the Nintendo 64 game on planet Zoness, as the plasma would act on all fluids (air and water alike. (Yes, air is a fluid medium)), explaining the ship's apparent buoyancy when accidently submerged. And to conclude, the g-diffuser could make use its displacement abilities to allow for tighter turns and a higher AOA than the control surfaces and plasma envelope could ever be capable of. ("Somethin's wrong with the g-diffuser!" We see Falco unable to preform adequate evasive maneuvers due to a diffusion malfunction.) More on how this displacement vectoring works in the next section.
SPACE FLIGHT
Flying in space is nothing like flying in an atmosphere. An aircraft is able to loop and turn because the air physically pushes against the craft as it banks left and right. In space, there is nothing to aid in the ship's changes in velocity, so, in short, an X-wing would NEVER be able to fly the way movie magic says it should. It is just that; simply magic. I doubt that a "gravity diffusion and displacement system " could ever be physically built, as anti-gravitational geometries have only been proven mathematically and there is absolutely no physical evidence for such negative spacetime curvatures. However, in the world of science fiction, I can pretend to apply real physics in order to build a magic anti-gravity device by using technobabble to somewhat add justification to my theoretical devices, in order to satisfy myself and my peers (you people). It's what I do.
Anyway, the Arwings' would not be able to use their elevons. Changing the main engine's gimbal or thrust vector would be useless too, as it would indeed change the crafts' attitude and velocity, but could not possibly be responsible for the loop da' loops and turns we see it make. Instead, I propose that the g-diffusers help. If the ships' displacement field where placed above the vessel rather than in front of it, it would be pulled 'up'. Combining this with gradual attitude control, the ship will preform a loop. (Those of you with ORBITER Space Flight Simulator: try using the Delta Glider's hover thrusters in place of g-diffuser using the ISS for rederence to see what I am talking about.) This can also change the ships' heading by displacing the center of mass to the side and applying yaw.
The Arwing would need to have sufficient forward velocity relative to its target before attempting this, otherwise it would appear to just trip about in an awkward hobble. On the other hand, if it were going too fast, the g-diffuser would not be able to produce adequate thrust to preform a loop or turn easily. I guesstimate an optimum relative velocity between 40 and 300 metres per second. Below 40 m/s, the RCS would easily supply enough thrust to aid in turns, and above 300 m/s the main engine's thrust would instead have to be used by pointing the nose of the ship 90˚ relative to the direction of movement prior to the turn.
On a final note, in space there is no resistance to motion. The main engines and gravity displacement drives would only be fired in short bursts to get the ship up to combat speed, and then switched off while the craft glides along. They would not need to remain burning as seen in the games and sci-fi movies. The engines will only ever fire again to increase speed, decrease speed, or aid in a turn as described above.
-LIFE SUPPORT SYSTEMS and OPERATIONS-
Assuming anthropomorphic foxes breath oxygen like regular foxes, I can formulate a handful of ways the life support system may function.
Firstly, oxygen may simply be kept in storage tanks, and cycled into the cockpit via the air conditioning. Using advanced storage methods I'm sure the Lylatians would be are aware of, there can potentially be enough oxygen in the tanks to last for several weeks or months (although days may be better not only because it would reduce weight, but what is the point of having that much air if there is nothing to eat onboard?).
A more entertaining idea is that the Arwings may feature a closed-loop type life support system. This type of system would 'never' need to be re-stocked, and potentially last for many years.
Perhaps, somewhere in the Lylat system, there lives a special type of plant life that will offer assistance to the Cornarian Army (or Star-Force,or whatever). Maybe that 'somewhere' is in the laboratories of Cornarian scientists that employ advanced bioengineering. A natural or bioengineered algae with a high CO2 to O2 output ratio could very well be the answer. The Algae would absorb pilot's exhaled CO2 and release a great deal of oxygen in return. As long as the algae is kept alive, the amount of oxygen available to the pilot is near limitless. The algae would receive solar energy by special lamps onboard the ship, and water through combining the hydrogen and oxygen from the Arwings' reserve fuel tanks, or by making use of the moisture the pilot exhales during respiration. This would not only reduce weight, but it would save power.
A similar effect could also supply the pilot with oxygen and water in case of an emergency, such as being stranded in space because of an engine failure. Some of you may note that breathing pure oxygen is not very healthy for prolonged periods, let alone that it is a fire hazard. During respiration, almost 80% of the air we breath is nitrogen. Luckily, nitrogen is nearly completely recycled, meaning there will be no need for nitrogen re-generation onboard the Arwing. The pilot will only require the nitrogen bottled in the Arwing from takeoff, thus ending all worries of nitrogen narcosis and accidental fire.
The last system I will discuss is how the pilot deals with g-forces. As the Arwings' preform high speed maneuvers, the pilot will experience g-forces. In level flight, the pilots undergo 1g because of the planet's gravity and 0g in space (if they were flying over a neutron star, the pilots could experience up to 2x10^11 g's). You yourself may have experienced g-forces up to 3.5g on roller coasters at theme parks, or more commonly, a similar feeling to 3g when you sneeze. Pilots on Earth can experience up to 9g, and as low as -3g during combat and intense aerobatics. When under high positive g's, blood is sucked out of the pilots brain and down into his boots. If these high g-forces are sustained for too long, the pilot will black out, and lose consciousness (G-LOC). Under high negative g's, blood is forced into the pilots brain and can cause the blood vessels in the eyes to swell and burst. This is commonly called a red out. To counter these effects, pilots wear special g-suits that constrict their mid sections and necks to slow blood flow. Furthermore, fighter jets sometimes feature highly inclined seats, so that more blood is forced into the back instead of the brain or boots.
In the Arwing, the g-diffusers aid in canceling the g-forces on the pilot. Inertia and gravity are closely related. Einstein pointed out that if you where standing in a box with no windows, it would be impossible to tell the difference between being in a box on Earth, or one in space undergoing an acceleration of 1g (9.8 m/s^2). Since the g-diffusers mess with the curvature of the spacetime continuum, I suspect they could be carefully tuned to counteract g-forces and act as inertial-compensators. I am sure they couldn't cancel the effects of inertia completely, but a good pilot would not be keen on this anyway. Feeling the ships inertia helps give the pilot a greater sense of the ship's actions.
This inertial-compensation helps immensely in the Arwings', as the spacial displacements might produce inverted inertial effects. In other words, the pilot would be pulled forward while accelerating instead of back into the seat, and would fall to the right during a right turn instead of the left. This would make for a very unnatural experience. When all this is said and done, the pilots can probably withstand the very high 20g turns the Arwings' may be capable of by making use of inertial compensation and special techniques taught in fighter-pilot-schools.
-WEAPON SYSTEMS-
I will begin with the Arwings' standard weapon; the laser. First of all, a laser is a highly concentrated beam of photons. A 'laser gun' would emit an invisible beam of high frequency electromagnetic radiation that soars between the gun and target at the speed of light to inflict burn or radioactive damage. It is the perfect energy weapon. It features an invisible, powerful, high ranged, and nearly instantaneous destructive effect after pulling the trigger that doesn't require compensation for the wind, or distance of the target while aiming. The Arwing doesn't appear to be using a 'laser gun' to me. Instead, I will use another directed energy weapon that resembles the Arwings' cannon fire. A plasma cannon.
A plasma gun would quickly take a material like hydrogen, ionize it by striping its electrons away, contain it in a small, gel-like pellet woven in real time around the plasma, and then accelerate it to great speeds like a normal gun. Upon contacting an enemy, the pellet would burst, and the plasma inside would cause serious caustic damage. I believe this would produce the effect we see in the games. The pilot would have to compensate for the enemy's movement just like a normal gun, and the plasma bolt would have a maximum effective range of only a few 100 metres. After traveling this distance, the plasma would destroy its containment capsule and quickly disperse into the surrounding environment. Personally, I don't see what is wrong with just using regular bullets. The plasma gun would have much greater ammunition storage and destructive power, sure, but a normal bullet would have an infinite range in space, and require less energy to fire. A normal gun would also be much more lightweight and compact.
The Arwings' ammunition supplies would be limited to how much material is carried for the plasma and gel-capsule spinnerets. I assume the munitions are stored in the pods below the g-diffusers that that drop down and slightly outward upon acquiring a 'double-laser' pickup in the Nintendo 64 game. Lastly, I assume that blue plasma bolts are more powerful than green because of the type of gas used.
The Nova Bomb or Smart Bomb, or whatever you want to call it Is a tad tricky. I would just go ahead and call it a normal bomb, but this cannot be the case because the Arwing that fires it (and its wingmen) are left unscathed. The only thing I can come up with right this instant off the top of my head, is that when the bomb explodes, it releases millions of little particles. These particles phase right through enemy's shields and armour, and enter the fuel tanks. They then cause a high energy reaction that blows up enemies from the inside. The Arwings are not effected by this because of a special material that is mixed into their fuel supplies that dissipates the reaction.
-SHIELDS and DEFENSE-
Above, I have mentioned the microwave plasma envelope around the craft acts as its primary shield system. This is basically an energy shield that can fry small projectiles to bits and disperse plasma blots alike. If the shield takes too much damage, the field will thin and eventually be disrupted, resulting in a sudden loss of control if within an atmosphere. If the shield is not recharged before an additional bombardment strikes the Arwing, the ship's hull will directly come in contact with the blow, and be penetrated within very few hits (one or two). This of course causes damage to the internal components of the Arwing (perhaps igniting its fuel tanks), and the ship is quickly destroyed. You have all see it countless times, I'm sure.
Now......The INFAMOUS BARREL ROLL! Let me first say, I have never actually seen any Arwing EVER complete a successful barrel roll. By tapping Z or R twice, the Arwing really performs what is called an AILERON ROLL. Peppy Hare is obviously a senile old veteran that has had his share of glory days, but those are now long past. He has absolutely no idea what he is talking about and should not ever be placed in high stress situations or be permitted to fly a highly experimental space craft. He should be punished for teaching a generation of young people incorrect flight vocabulary. However, I suppose an accomplished veteran would be better than some fur dyeing, cloth wearing, hippie fox-woman that has less space flight experience than a prepubescent toad. So, I will humour the rabbit. He was able to survive where James failed, after all.
The only explanation I have for the spinning-aileron-roll-shielding-technique , is that the g-diffuser systems momentarily undergo a power boost, and while the plane rolls quickly, a frame dragging effect occurs. Frame dragging is something that happens when a massive body 'twists' space and time in a spiral pattern due to its rotation. The spacetime distortion could possibly deflect enemies' weapons by causing them to veer off course. Although the Arwing compensates for the mass requirements by spinning rapidly, I highly doubt a significant frame-dragging effect would occur, meaning that this is simply another video game artifact.
Finally, during atmospheric reentry, the wing surfaces, along with power from the g-diffsuer and a high angle of attack, will decelerate the craft from orbital speeds while the plasma envelope absorbs friction and heat.
-ENERGY and POWER SUPPLY-
Now, the energy requirements for warping the fabric of space and displacing the ship's center of gravity would be obscenely high. If that isn't power demanding enough for you, the Awings' other systems, including climate control, fuel refrigeration/containment, weapon systems, avionics, and the microwave plasma envelope, just add to these power demands. I have no idea how the g-diffuser actually works mechanically, but I do understand fusion better than the average person.
Fusion reactors create power by converting the heat and light emitted from combining two atoms into electrical energy. This process is how stars produce their heat and light, and the sun could be thought of as a natural fusion reactor. Nuclear fusion reactors can be fueled by deuterium, tritium, lithium, helium 3, helium 4, boron, and even the modest proton. (As a side note, I read somewhere that there might be enough deuterium in the oceans of earth and helium in the soil of the moon to support our current power consumption for 100 BILLION YEARS. To put this into perspective, the age of the entire universe is only 13.7 BILLION YEARS.)
The point is, if a race of super intelligent furries are able to not only conceive, but physically construct a relatively small device that can influence inertial mass and bend the very fabric of the spacetime continuum, then my guess is that by that stage of technological development, they would be able to construct a compact and relatively lightweight, portable fusion reactor.
Another, much better idea I have had to answer the Arwings' power needs is carbon nanotubes. Basically, carbon nanotubes can be grown and printed in the form of a paper-thin battery that can hold an extremely high amount of electricity. This also helps shed light onto the greater purpose of the Great Fox itself. If the entire interior of the Arwing were lined with layers of nano-cells, it could dock with the Great Fox and charge it's batteries by feeding off of the carrier's massive fusion reactors.
This would again reduce weight, because the Arwing would not need to carry a potentially heavy power generator, nor would it have to carry any more fuel (for the reactor system). The Arwings' surface could also be coated with full-spectrum carbon nano-solar cells, that would absorb solar energy from the microwave, infrared, visible, and ultra-violet frequencies. As a backup system, the hydrogen and oxygen from the fuel tanks could once again again be used by combining them in a fuel-cell like fashion, providing emergency power.
-OTHER NOTES-
The Nintendo 64 ARWING has god-awful cockpit visibility. There, I said it.
Oh, and it is almost 6:00 am on day two of writing this stupid thing, and I have yet to sleep today.
Oh, and sorry if I offended anyone with that "fox-woman" crack. I am not sexist at all! In fact, I am more of a male feminist.
Uhm, I also like how in the reference video, it looks like the SFA's joysticks feature Gamecube buttons. (0:27-0:31) Sorry for that voice acting......
-PROBLEMS WITH MY THEORIES-
Heat
Standard operating requirements of the Arwings' create MASSIVE amounts of heat. I have not discussed how they will deal with said thermal energies. Perhaps they use a system of radiator devices that deploy between combat situations. These radiators would need to store the ships' heat in liquid lithium, and then expose the lithium droplets to the frigid environment of outer space to release the heat. The lithium would compensate for the small size of the radiators, as they would need to be compact, and be able to quickly fold up into compartments in the fuselage.
Less Reaction Mass Force
If the Arwings' are creating an area of lessened mass around them, everything entering the field must also lose mass. That means the reaction of the Arwings' engines would be greatly diminished because the particles that make up the exhaust have been made lighter by the diffusion device. Also, the air pressure necessary for the craft's control surfaces would produce minimal resistance upon contacting the ships' elevons.
Loophole Physics
I am not a physicist. I just play one on internet message boards. Although I have tried my best to design a coherent, working star ship, the explanations I have offered to explain the fictional Arwings' are unreliable, and purely imaginative at best.
Thank you all so much for the time spent reading this.
If you have any questions or comments, please go ahead and post them.
Also, I would love to hear your own theories as well, so don't be afraid to post! =)
REFERENCE VIDEO (better in HQ)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-bfhq7hZEQ
AEROSPIKE VIDEO
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRvYA2dTi7g&feature=related
Other reference data obtained through:
Wikipedia
Nintendo's Star Fox game series
SOL's Star Fox image board
Brain green's Elegant Universe
Michio Kaku's Parallel Words, Physics of the Impossible, and various TV broadcasts by the good doctor.
Stephan Hawking's The Universe in a Nutshell/A Brief History of Time
I'm a pilot.
For the past few days, I have really been wondering what makes the ARWING tick, and so I have decided to write this technical manual describing the fighter's internal components. Whenever I watch a film, or play a video game, I feel a compulsive urge to want figure out how the fantastic devices I see function. Unfortunately, no one has any information about these sorts of things, so I just make it up. I'm the kind of guy that owns STAR WARS art books that feature all the vehicles' cross sections, and complain about how I could design a better ship with my eyes closed.
I come up with the stuff you will read in my post just for my sheer enjoyment. Sorry if you find this pointless, or whatever, but I think it is interesting. After great thought of the ARWINGs components, I thought that I would share my thoughts with you people of the SOL community. I thought that perhaps you might find it interesting, too. STAR FOX is not any where near hard science fiction. It is purely an arcade-shooter, but I will do my best with what I have observed through the years to offer some explanations for these beautiful craft. The way things are described may or may not lead to the ARWINGs behaving exactly like they do in the games, because I am intending to describe how they might realistically work.
By the way, for readers who want to skip boring physics lessons, just avoid the text highlighted in this colour and continue reading where the normal colour resumes. The post as been drafted in a way that it will still make sense if you skip these sections. The reason I included them in the first place was because I thought it would be a nice touch for those interested, and could help illustrate where I am coming from with my ideas. It also served as an fantastic 'sketchbook' for me to organize my thoughts while writing this.
VIDEO CLIPS I HAVE BEEN VIEWING FOR REFERENCE WILL BE LINKED TO THE BOTTOM OF THIS POST, SO YOU CAN LOOK AT THEM, TOO.
INCLUDED TOPICS
power-plant
arwings' flight characteristics
life support systems and operations
weapon systems
shields and defense
energy and power supply
other notes
problems with my theories
reference video links
In this post, I will be discussing the ARWING from the game STAR FOX 64. I refer to this model as the SF-64.
I also cover the STAR FOX: ASSAULT ship, and I will be referring to it as the SFA-128 model.
-POWER-PLANT-
In the video games, we have seen that the Arwings seem to fly equally well in the high atmospheric pressures and gravity I expect near the 'solar-planet' and Venom, as well as the airless vacuum and micro-gravity environment of space. To explain this unsurpassed agility and resourceful preformance, I have chosen an array of main engines and engine subsystems to accommodate for the Arwings' flight behaviour.
The SF-64 ARWING's main engine is a powerful, yet compact, hydrogen fueled, multi-mode reaction drive located in the far aft portion of the chassis. It features a micro sized-jet engine that sucks in air and oxygen from the environment. Originally, I wanted to place the air intake where the single-laser cannon is mounted in STAR FOX 64, but instead decided on the two vent like thingies located next to the cockpit. In the upper atmosphere and in space, the engine would switch to rocket mode. The hydrogen fuel would be combined with oxygen stored onboard the ship, ignited, and expelled through a radial aerospike engine nozzle. The radial aerospike is highly efficient in space and at varying altitudes, and would produce an engine exhaust pattern similar to what we see in the N64 game (see aerospike video at bottom of post). The engine runs by burning the liquid hydrogen (LH2) and liquid oxygen (LOX) stored in super-cooled refrigeration tanks located in the fuselage.
The fighter also is equipped with two gravity diffusion engines. What exactly do these things do, anyway? I have a few theories. Gravity is a natural force that acts on everything made of matter or energy (so...everything in existence...like, duh). Albert Einstein has shown us that gravity is actually space and time itself physically being bent and warped in response to matter/energy. This is illustrated perfectly by the "bed sheet" example. Imagine a bowling ball placed on a bed. We can physically see how the sheets are bent down in response to the ball's weight, and the highest concentration of that warping is right under the ball's center of mass. Now, if one shoots a marble within the bowling ball's SHPERE of INFLUENCE, it will be deflected by the curvature of the bed fabric. This is pretty much how gravity works. Planet Earth is not 'pulling' you towards its center of gravity, SPACE and TIME (two seemingly intangible things) are actually 'pushing' you in accordance to the earth's warping. Everything that has mass generates a gravity. Human, insect, electron, Arwing, and black hole alike, we all have our own gravitational field.
Diffusion is the act of something of a higher concentration moving to a lower concentration over time. Many new particle theories suggest that gravity must exhibit the wave/particle duality that is common with everything else in the universe. Superstring theory calls for gravity to have a particle called a graviton, much like the electromagnetic force's photon. An area of a highly concentrated set of gravitons might generate a high amount of gravitational force, and vise versa. M-theory states that unbound strings (gravitons) slip easily into other membranes within the 11th dimensional hyper-structure of the universe. If an object's gravitons could be diffused to other dimensions, or perhaps the surrounding areas on this current plane, it may allow for the manifestation of a gravity-drive system. See where I am going with this?
In the SF-64, the g-diffusers reduce the mass of craft by diffusing some of its gravitons into higher dimensional space. This increases the ship's main engine thrust output so it is faster and more maneuverable. My g-diffuser design is also capable of displacing the Arwing's center of gravity. This allows the g-diffuser to not only reduce the mass of the ship when needed, but act as a whole new form of propulsion all together. If the Arwing's center of gravity could be placed a few metres in front of the ship, the star fighter would theoretically 'fall into itself', resulting in a net acceleration. This is known as a disjunction drive. Because the ship is still within its own SPHERE of INFLUENCE, it will experience gravitational acceleration. This drive system would require no fuel (thus, it is reaction-less) and only requires electricity to run. The disjunction drive would be labeled as a sub system in this case, since the Arwing's main engine would provide most of its acceleration.
Finally, in space and at low airspeeds where there would not be sufficient pressure for the control surfaces to function (a stall), the SF-64 makes use of a set of many tiny control trusters located throughout the airframe. This is called the reaction control system (RCS). The RCS allows the craft to make minute, translational adjustments that are much more precise than the other engine systems are capable of. It also allows the fighter to change its attitude (orientation, not the emotion) when the craft's control surfaces are stalled, and serves as its primary attitude control in outer space. These thrusters would be fueled by compressed air from the jet engine, a bottled supply tank filled with practically any type of gas, and perhaps even exhaled CO2 from the pilot.
The SFA-128 ARWING works in a slightly different matter. It has a hydrogen fueled jet engine (intakes located within the vents on the underside) and a similar LH2+LOX rocket motor. However, This Arwing is equipped with four gravity diffusion drives, and they work around same principal as the SF-64's, but there are significant differences in how they propel the ship. The greater power and more advanced nature of these new g-diffusers allows them to not only reduce mass and displace the ship's center of gravity, but they can create a negative spacetime geometry behind the ship along with the positive curvatures the SF-64 can produce. The Arwing basically forms an anti-gravitational bubble behind the ship that 'pushes' it forward. This can also help diminish the planet's gravitational influence to some degree. My evidence comes from the fact that since this bubble is a spacetime curvature and light must follow these curves, it sometimes distorts the airframe's appearance via gravitational lensing. This can be seen in the REFERENCE VIDEO between 0:16-0:18.
The SFA-128 also has a RCS that works just like its predecessor. However, there is one mentionable difference. Attitude changes might instead be made by momentum wheels within the ship. These are flywheels that spin at very high speeds and use very little power. By changing the speed or angle of rotation of the gyros, the ship's roll, yaw, and pitch can be changed. The evidence for this came from a 'mechanical whirling sound' that can be heard resonating from within the SFA-128 in STAR FOX: ASSAULT when performing loops and immelman turns.
STRANGE COLOURS...
The glow and colour of the SF-64's main engine's exhaust has been known to change from a red hue in the atmosphere, and a blueish indigo in space. Initially, I suspected that perhaps this change in hue was the result of various fuel types being used for respective purposes. The red could be the result of a kerosene type mixture that fuels the jet engine, while the blue could be from burning the hydrogen/oxygen mix for the rocket motor. However, I realized that keeping the Arwing more streamlined and energy efficient takes precedence over the simple colour of a flame decided by a concept artist. I would settle on a hydrogen only fuel, and make the call that the colour change we see is simply aesthetic.
The green glow seen around the four g-diffusers of the SFA-128 may have a more grand explanation. As photons race away from a gravitational field produced by a star or pulsar, they must expend energy to overcome the pull of gravity generated by the object. This causes the lightwave to have a longer frequency after exiting the gravity-well, thus a different "colour". This is called gravitational red-shift. Conversely, gravitational blue-shift is the result of a light ray falling into a gravitating object.
The green glow of the g-diffusers may be the result of some of the the indigo colour bled from the engine's exhaust being gravitationally red-shifted down to the wavelength our eyes perceive as green.
Although, if there is really an anti-gravitational spacial geometry behind the ship, I suspect that the light should technically be gravitationally blue-shifted, as it is being pushed away from the g-diffuser system. This would potentially turn the indigo bleed emitted from the engines to a violet colour or even an invisible ultra-violet.
However, the amount of distortion my g-diffuser design produces would not nearly be sufficient enough to effect the the frequency of the light rays to the point where the unaided human eye could detect such a change, meaning that this, like the SF-64's engine glow, is simply an artistic effect. This is, of course, unless the light is directly emitted from the g-differs themselves during high stress situations and high demanding operations (braking and hovering, respectively, as seen in STAR FOX: ASSAULT). We don't see this glow trend in the SF-64, but maybe the advancements made to the SFA-128's engines cause it to function in a different nature than the outdated SF-64.
The green glow may also be the result of four magnetoplasmadynamic thruster units attached to the back of the g-diffusers. These four electric ion drive based engines would aid in acceleration in space, as well as in maneuverability (since these g-diffusers are mounted to electronic gimbals and could alter the ship's thrust vector).
On a final note, the Arwings' will need to feature retro-rockets to slow the craft down in outer space. Perhaps these rockets simply fire out of the air intakes by use of some advanced mechanism. Retros would ensure that the crafts' nose (and pilot's eyes) are always facing its direction of motion.
-THE ARWINGS' FLIGHT CHARACTERISTICS-
ATMOSPHERIC FLIGHT
The SF-64 and the SFA-128 have a system of split-elevon control surfaces located on their wings. These surfaces combine the function of elevators, ailerons, and rudders. Additionally, the surfaces can fully extend to be used as air brakes to decelerate the aircraft. The fighters also feature variable-geometry. At slow speeds, the wings extend forward to offer more lift and a lower stall speed, while at fast speeds they are swept back to create less drag. The wing-gloves that cover the wings' pivot points help maintain lift over the sweep-mechanics. Furthermore, the Arwings' fuselages appears to be of a lifting body design. This means that the body itself helps generate lift in accordance with the wings. The SFA-128 takes these form changing techniques a step further. It is capable of greatly altering the anhedral (downward angle) of its wings, which affects the aircraft's maneuverability under varying conditions and angles of attack (AOA). Even this Arwing's g-diffusers are used as control surfaces. They are able to gimbal and produce drag on certain parts of the ship, as seen again in the REFERENCE VIDEO (0:21-0:25). Additionally, because of the fact that the SFA-128's elevons are so small, I assume it suffers from much higher stall speeds than its predecessor, and must resort to its RCS to a greater degree. Finally, the Arwings' could be purposely designed to be aerodynamically unstable, to increase maneuverability, such as the USAF's F-16.
I like to suppose that there is more going on than meets the eye when it comes to advanced, alien flight-craft, but hey, thats just me. This next feature serves two purposes. It acts as a shielding system against attacks and adverse weather (lightning), and as another control 'surface'. The Arwing produces a thin, microwave plasma that surrounds its entire airframe. This plasma breaks up the air in front of the ship, particularly at higher speeds, so that there is less resistance on the craft's forward motion. As the Arwing breaks the sound barrier, the plasma would help reduce the shock waves produced along the airframe, and could take the place of lifting flaps at slow speeds. This plasma envelope could also reduce the noise from the Arwing, making it more stealthy. I believe the best evidence for this 'microwave plasma envelope' comes from the Nintendo 64 game on planet Zoness, as the plasma would act on all fluids (air and water alike. (Yes, air is a fluid medium)), explaining the ship's apparent buoyancy when accidently submerged. And to conclude, the g-diffuser could make use its displacement abilities to allow for tighter turns and a higher AOA than the control surfaces and plasma envelope could ever be capable of. ("Somethin's wrong with the g-diffuser!" We see Falco unable to preform adequate evasive maneuvers due to a diffusion malfunction.) More on how this displacement vectoring works in the next section.
SPACE FLIGHT
Flying in space is nothing like flying in an atmosphere. An aircraft is able to loop and turn because the air physically pushes against the craft as it banks left and right. In space, there is nothing to aid in the ship's changes in velocity, so, in short, an X-wing would NEVER be able to fly the way movie magic says it should. It is just that; simply magic. I doubt that a "gravity diffusion and displacement system " could ever be physically built, as anti-gravitational geometries have only been proven mathematically and there is absolutely no physical evidence for such negative spacetime curvatures. However, in the world of science fiction, I can pretend to apply real physics in order to build a magic anti-gravity device by using technobabble to somewhat add justification to my theoretical devices, in order to satisfy myself and my peers (you people). It's what I do.
Anyway, the Arwings' would not be able to use their elevons. Changing the main engine's gimbal or thrust vector would be useless too, as it would indeed change the crafts' attitude and velocity, but could not possibly be responsible for the loop da' loops and turns we see it make. Instead, I propose that the g-diffusers help. If the ships' displacement field where placed above the vessel rather than in front of it, it would be pulled 'up'. Combining this with gradual attitude control, the ship will preform a loop. (Those of you with ORBITER Space Flight Simulator: try using the Delta Glider's hover thrusters in place of g-diffuser using the ISS for rederence to see what I am talking about.) This can also change the ships' heading by displacing the center of mass to the side and applying yaw.
The Arwing would need to have sufficient forward velocity relative to its target before attempting this, otherwise it would appear to just trip about in an awkward hobble. On the other hand, if it were going too fast, the g-diffuser would not be able to produce adequate thrust to preform a loop or turn easily. I guesstimate an optimum relative velocity between 40 and 300 metres per second. Below 40 m/s, the RCS would easily supply enough thrust to aid in turns, and above 300 m/s the main engine's thrust would instead have to be used by pointing the nose of the ship 90˚ relative to the direction of movement prior to the turn.
On a final note, in space there is no resistance to motion. The main engines and gravity displacement drives would only be fired in short bursts to get the ship up to combat speed, and then switched off while the craft glides along. They would not need to remain burning as seen in the games and sci-fi movies. The engines will only ever fire again to increase speed, decrease speed, or aid in a turn as described above.
-LIFE SUPPORT SYSTEMS and OPERATIONS-
Assuming anthropomorphic foxes breath oxygen like regular foxes, I can formulate a handful of ways the life support system may function.
Firstly, oxygen may simply be kept in storage tanks, and cycled into the cockpit via the air conditioning. Using advanced storage methods I'm sure the Lylatians would be are aware of, there can potentially be enough oxygen in the tanks to last for several weeks or months (although days may be better not only because it would reduce weight, but what is the point of having that much air if there is nothing to eat onboard?).
A more entertaining idea is that the Arwings may feature a closed-loop type life support system. This type of system would 'never' need to be re-stocked, and potentially last for many years.
Perhaps, somewhere in the Lylat system, there lives a special type of plant life that will offer assistance to the Cornarian Army (or Star-Force,or whatever). Maybe that 'somewhere' is in the laboratories of Cornarian scientists that employ advanced bioengineering. A natural or bioengineered algae with a high CO2 to O2 output ratio could very well be the answer. The Algae would absorb pilot's exhaled CO2 and release a great deal of oxygen in return. As long as the algae is kept alive, the amount of oxygen available to the pilot is near limitless. The algae would receive solar energy by special lamps onboard the ship, and water through combining the hydrogen and oxygen from the Arwings' reserve fuel tanks, or by making use of the moisture the pilot exhales during respiration. This would not only reduce weight, but it would save power.
A similar effect could also supply the pilot with oxygen and water in case of an emergency, such as being stranded in space because of an engine failure. Some of you may note that breathing pure oxygen is not very healthy for prolonged periods, let alone that it is a fire hazard. During respiration, almost 80% of the air we breath is nitrogen. Luckily, nitrogen is nearly completely recycled, meaning there will be no need for nitrogen re-generation onboard the Arwing. The pilot will only require the nitrogen bottled in the Arwing from takeoff, thus ending all worries of nitrogen narcosis and accidental fire.
The last system I will discuss is how the pilot deals with g-forces. As the Arwings' preform high speed maneuvers, the pilot will experience g-forces. In level flight, the pilots undergo 1g because of the planet's gravity and 0g in space (if they were flying over a neutron star, the pilots could experience up to 2x10^11 g's). You yourself may have experienced g-forces up to 3.5g on roller coasters at theme parks, or more commonly, a similar feeling to 3g when you sneeze. Pilots on Earth can experience up to 9g, and as low as -3g during combat and intense aerobatics. When under high positive g's, blood is sucked out of the pilots brain and down into his boots. If these high g-forces are sustained for too long, the pilot will black out, and lose consciousness (G-LOC). Under high negative g's, blood is forced into the pilots brain and can cause the blood vessels in the eyes to swell and burst. This is commonly called a red out. To counter these effects, pilots wear special g-suits that constrict their mid sections and necks to slow blood flow. Furthermore, fighter jets sometimes feature highly inclined seats, so that more blood is forced into the back instead of the brain or boots.
In the Arwing, the g-diffusers aid in canceling the g-forces on the pilot. Inertia and gravity are closely related. Einstein pointed out that if you where standing in a box with no windows, it would be impossible to tell the difference between being in a box on Earth, or one in space undergoing an acceleration of 1g (9.8 m/s^2). Since the g-diffusers mess with the curvature of the spacetime continuum, I suspect they could be carefully tuned to counteract g-forces and act as inertial-compensators. I am sure they couldn't cancel the effects of inertia completely, but a good pilot would not be keen on this anyway. Feeling the ships inertia helps give the pilot a greater sense of the ship's actions.
This inertial-compensation helps immensely in the Arwings', as the spacial displacements might produce inverted inertial effects. In other words, the pilot would be pulled forward while accelerating instead of back into the seat, and would fall to the right during a right turn instead of the left. This would make for a very unnatural experience. When all this is said and done, the pilots can probably withstand the very high 20g turns the Arwings' may be capable of by making use of inertial compensation and special techniques taught in fighter-pilot-schools.
-WEAPON SYSTEMS-
I will begin with the Arwings' standard weapon; the laser. First of all, a laser is a highly concentrated beam of photons. A 'laser gun' would emit an invisible beam of high frequency electromagnetic radiation that soars between the gun and target at the speed of light to inflict burn or radioactive damage. It is the perfect energy weapon. It features an invisible, powerful, high ranged, and nearly instantaneous destructive effect after pulling the trigger that doesn't require compensation for the wind, or distance of the target while aiming. The Arwing doesn't appear to be using a 'laser gun' to me. Instead, I will use another directed energy weapon that resembles the Arwings' cannon fire. A plasma cannon.
A plasma gun would quickly take a material like hydrogen, ionize it by striping its electrons away, contain it in a small, gel-like pellet woven in real time around the plasma, and then accelerate it to great speeds like a normal gun. Upon contacting an enemy, the pellet would burst, and the plasma inside would cause serious caustic damage. I believe this would produce the effect we see in the games. The pilot would have to compensate for the enemy's movement just like a normal gun, and the plasma bolt would have a maximum effective range of only a few 100 metres. After traveling this distance, the plasma would destroy its containment capsule and quickly disperse into the surrounding environment. Personally, I don't see what is wrong with just using regular bullets. The plasma gun would have much greater ammunition storage and destructive power, sure, but a normal bullet would have an infinite range in space, and require less energy to fire. A normal gun would also be much more lightweight and compact.
The Arwings' ammunition supplies would be limited to how much material is carried for the plasma and gel-capsule spinnerets. I assume the munitions are stored in the pods below the g-diffusers that that drop down and slightly outward upon acquiring a 'double-laser' pickup in the Nintendo 64 game. Lastly, I assume that blue plasma bolts are more powerful than green because of the type of gas used.
The Nova Bomb or Smart Bomb, or whatever you want to call it Is a tad tricky. I would just go ahead and call it a normal bomb, but this cannot be the case because the Arwing that fires it (and its wingmen) are left unscathed. The only thing I can come up with right this instant off the top of my head, is that when the bomb explodes, it releases millions of little particles. These particles phase right through enemy's shields and armour, and enter the fuel tanks. They then cause a high energy reaction that blows up enemies from the inside. The Arwings are not effected by this because of a special material that is mixed into their fuel supplies that dissipates the reaction.
-SHIELDS and DEFENSE-
Above, I have mentioned the microwave plasma envelope around the craft acts as its primary shield system. This is basically an energy shield that can fry small projectiles to bits and disperse plasma blots alike. If the shield takes too much damage, the field will thin and eventually be disrupted, resulting in a sudden loss of control if within an atmosphere. If the shield is not recharged before an additional bombardment strikes the Arwing, the ship's hull will directly come in contact with the blow, and be penetrated within very few hits (one or two). This of course causes damage to the internal components of the Arwing (perhaps igniting its fuel tanks), and the ship is quickly destroyed. You have all see it countless times, I'm sure.
Now......The INFAMOUS BARREL ROLL! Let me first say, I have never actually seen any Arwing EVER complete a successful barrel roll. By tapping Z or R twice, the Arwing really performs what is called an AILERON ROLL. Peppy Hare is obviously a senile old veteran that has had his share of glory days, but those are now long past. He has absolutely no idea what he is talking about and should not ever be placed in high stress situations or be permitted to fly a highly experimental space craft. He should be punished for teaching a generation of young people incorrect flight vocabulary. However, I suppose an accomplished veteran would be better than some fur dyeing, cloth wearing, hippie fox-woman that has less space flight experience than a prepubescent toad. So, I will humour the rabbit. He was able to survive where James failed, after all.
The only explanation I have for the spinning-aileron-roll-shielding-technique , is that the g-diffuser systems momentarily undergo a power boost, and while the plane rolls quickly, a frame dragging effect occurs. Frame dragging is something that happens when a massive body 'twists' space and time in a spiral pattern due to its rotation. The spacetime distortion could possibly deflect enemies' weapons by causing them to veer off course. Although the Arwing compensates for the mass requirements by spinning rapidly, I highly doubt a significant frame-dragging effect would occur, meaning that this is simply another video game artifact.
Finally, during atmospheric reentry, the wing surfaces, along with power from the g-diffsuer and a high angle of attack, will decelerate the craft from orbital speeds while the plasma envelope absorbs friction and heat.
-ENERGY and POWER SUPPLY-
Now, the energy requirements for warping the fabric of space and displacing the ship's center of gravity would be obscenely high. If that isn't power demanding enough for you, the Awings' other systems, including climate control, fuel refrigeration/containment, weapon systems, avionics, and the microwave plasma envelope, just add to these power demands. I have no idea how the g-diffuser actually works mechanically, but I do understand fusion better than the average person.
Fusion reactors create power by converting the heat and light emitted from combining two atoms into electrical energy. This process is how stars produce their heat and light, and the sun could be thought of as a natural fusion reactor. Nuclear fusion reactors can be fueled by deuterium, tritium, lithium, helium 3, helium 4, boron, and even the modest proton. (As a side note, I read somewhere that there might be enough deuterium in the oceans of earth and helium in the soil of the moon to support our current power consumption for 100 BILLION YEARS. To put this into perspective, the age of the entire universe is only 13.7 BILLION YEARS.)
The point is, if a race of super intelligent furries are able to not only conceive, but physically construct a relatively small device that can influence inertial mass and bend the very fabric of the spacetime continuum, then my guess is that by that stage of technological development, they would be able to construct a compact and relatively lightweight, portable fusion reactor.
Another, much better idea I have had to answer the Arwings' power needs is carbon nanotubes. Basically, carbon nanotubes can be grown and printed in the form of a paper-thin battery that can hold an extremely high amount of electricity. This also helps shed light onto the greater purpose of the Great Fox itself. If the entire interior of the Arwing were lined with layers of nano-cells, it could dock with the Great Fox and charge it's batteries by feeding off of the carrier's massive fusion reactors.
This would again reduce weight, because the Arwing would not need to carry a potentially heavy power generator, nor would it have to carry any more fuel (for the reactor system). The Arwings' surface could also be coated with full-spectrum carbon nano-solar cells, that would absorb solar energy from the microwave, infrared, visible, and ultra-violet frequencies. As a backup system, the hydrogen and oxygen from the fuel tanks could once again again be used by combining them in a fuel-cell like fashion, providing emergency power.
-OTHER NOTES-
The Nintendo 64 ARWING has god-awful cockpit visibility. There, I said it.
Oh, and it is almost 6:00 am on day two of writing this stupid thing, and I have yet to sleep today.
Oh, and sorry if I offended anyone with that "fox-woman" crack. I am not sexist at all! In fact, I am more of a male feminist.
Uhm, I also like how in the reference video, it looks like the SFA's joysticks feature Gamecube buttons. (0:27-0:31) Sorry for that voice acting......
-PROBLEMS WITH MY THEORIES-
Heat
Standard operating requirements of the Arwings' create MASSIVE amounts of heat. I have not discussed how they will deal with said thermal energies. Perhaps they use a system of radiator devices that deploy between combat situations. These radiators would need to store the ships' heat in liquid lithium, and then expose the lithium droplets to the frigid environment of outer space to release the heat. The lithium would compensate for the small size of the radiators, as they would need to be compact, and be able to quickly fold up into compartments in the fuselage.
Less Reaction Mass Force
If the Arwings' are creating an area of lessened mass around them, everything entering the field must also lose mass. That means the reaction of the Arwings' engines would be greatly diminished because the particles that make up the exhaust have been made lighter by the diffusion device. Also, the air pressure necessary for the craft's control surfaces would produce minimal resistance upon contacting the ships' elevons.
Loophole Physics
I am not a physicist. I just play one on internet message boards. Although I have tried my best to design a coherent, working star ship, the explanations I have offered to explain the fictional Arwings' are unreliable, and purely imaginative at best.
Thank you all so much for the time spent reading this.
If you have any questions or comments, please go ahead and post them.
Also, I would love to hear your own theories as well, so don't be afraid to post! =)
REFERENCE VIDEO (better in HQ)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-bfhq7hZEQ
AEROSPIKE VIDEO
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRvYA2dTi7g&feature=related
Other reference data obtained through:
Wikipedia
Nintendo's Star Fox game series
SOL's Star Fox image board
Brain green's Elegant Universe
Michio Kaku's Parallel Words, Physics of the Impossible, and various TV broadcasts by the good doctor.
Stephan Hawking's The Universe in a Nutshell/A Brief History of Time
I'm a pilot.
