Nebulon-Bs and Fighters?

[McC]

Has anyone ever looked into the actual capability of a Nebulon-B to carry the supposed number of fighter squadrons it's stated to support?

The escort frigate's launch bays can hold two squadrons of starfighters

Uh...right. From every depiction I've seen, there's a single big-ass launch bay on the starboard side of the ship. At best, it could hold two fighters front-to-back, maybe four side-to-side. Here's a view of the modified medical frigate from EGVV compared to an X-wing and a TIE.



Unless the starfighters are supposed to fill the entire upper bulb structure, I don't see how this is possible.

So what do we do? Did I miss something, or is this an enormous error?

[Mange]

No, I agree. There's even no evidence of hangar bays. Of course, it's possible that the Medical Frigate seen in TESB and ROTJ has got its hangar bays stripped, but still... No, I think it's highly unlikely that the Nebulon B is able to carry fighters.

[McC]

Well, to be fair, the depiction of the Nebulon-B's hangar bay is always on the starboard side of the vessel, and in the films we only ever see the port side, IIRC.

But even so, as I said, the space requirement just seems unwieldy.

[Stofsk]

What about that docking crane which the Falcon was connected to? Maybe the Nebulon-B can carry fighters, but only through external docking ports.

I don't really know the answer, I'm just speculating.

[Raptor 597]

What about that docking crane which the Falcon was connected to? Maybe the Nebulon-B can carry fighters, but only through external docking ports.

I don't really know the answer, I'm just speculating.

It could be very possible and likely since it is an Imperial design. Carrack Cruisers have multiple tubes to connect some TIE Scouts and TIE/lns to the ventral surface. Perhaps the ventral docks are a doctrinal idea spreading further than the Carracks. I think the Nebulon Class frigates may have been with ISD like internal fighter storage, but that might make fight deployment be delayed.

[Jaepheth]

They must've integrated "Bag of Holding" technology

[wautd]

They must've integrated "Bag of Holding" technology

[VT-16]

Isn´t there several versions of Nebulon-Bs? One that´s several times bigger than the usual ones? It was apparently made due to a FX-error in ROTJ, where one frigate loomed over a Corellian Corvette, which would be impossible given their usual sizes.

The following is from an old discussion here on the board:

Nebulon-B CVL (Based on an EFX error, but nicely reconciles that there isn't enough room in the 300-m FF for 24 fighters)

For those of us who aren´t as knowledgeble in military jargon, what does CVL and FF mean? (I can imagine one of the F meaning 'Frigate')

[Stofsk]

CVL = Light Carrier, I think.

FF = Frigate.

I still stand by my external docking port idea; who needs hangars? Imperial pilots don't, I say.

[Anarchist Bunny]

Games aren't canon, but RSII shows some exterior docking ports that just fit over the cockpit of the fighter.

Neb-Bs could have them, but they're probably not seen in movies cause the Rebel fighters at the time all have there own hyperdrive units.

[Master of Ossus]

The only way a frigate that size could get up to the holding capacity attributed to it is if it used exterior docking points for its starfighters.

[18-Till-I-Die]

I can imagine an external dock. It doenst seem like there is enough room internally, and it seems like the most logical thing to do if you really need a frigate to carry twenty or thirty fighters.

[vakundok]

As I know:
- The SFX error, that suggested the larger Nebulon- B version has been corrected in the SE.
- The starboard side can be seen only in Rotj, but no more than two of them at the same time, so the "there were two converted medical frigates with no hangar bays, and the other frigates had the bays" theory can still stand.
- Deleting the hangar bay from a MEDICAL ship (and forcing the patients to be transported through tubes between the ship and shuttles) is one of the stupidest idea I have ever heard. (It is personal opinion.)
- Fighter carrying capability is more than just physically carrying them. It is about servicing and supplying them as well. (Yes the Carrack can carry 4 fighters to hyperspace, but it doesn't carry fighters.)

[Illuminatus Primus]

Here's a sticky point: the plot (the official component of the game) of X-Wing Alliance requires that in one mission, a defector's shuttle roundezvoused and landed in the FF Redemption.

How do we resolve that?

[McC]

Well, the problem isn't the bay itself. The game depicts a bay that would be capable of holding one or two shuttle-sized vessels. So that's okay. The trouble is in fitting two dozen fighters inside of that bay, which is downright impossible. With a shuttle in the bay, there'd be a little room to walk around and get into the proper portions of the ship. The shuttle would be fairly exposed, since the bay is necessarily not very deep (since the frigate itself isn't very wide), but it would still fit--barely.

[Lord Revan]

Here's a sticky point: the plot (the official component of the game) of X-Wing Alliance requires that in one mission, a defector's shuttle roundezvoused and landed in the FF Redemption.

How do we resolve that?

The shuttle docked with the Redemption insted landing in it

[Illuminatus Primus]

Where, praytell, does a Lambda-class shuttle have a docking port like the Falcon?

[Alan Bolte]

Noncannon sources have depicted a ventral port. I recall most vividly the cutscenes from X-Wing wherein you were tractored into such a ventral port after ejecting.

[vakundok]

If I remember well, in the game Tie fighter (battle 2, mission 4), two Lambdas docked with each other, and they faced vertically.

[Lord Pounder]

In the Wraith squadrom books they managed to fit a whole squadron inside a Corelian Corvette. So whats the hold of a Corvet like compared to a Frigates?

[Batman]

In the Wraith squadrom books they managed to fit a whole squadron inside a Corelian Corvette. So whats the hold of a Corvet like compared to a Frigates?

IIRC, the consensus back then was that that was a different model corvette because it's physically impossible to pack 9 or so X-Wings in a Blockade Runner hammerhead.

[Straha]

I know there's a WEG scenario where they have the lay-out for everything in a Nebulon-B. I think it covered the Hangar as well...

[Straha]

Here we go, from the Far Orbit Project.

Seems like the Hangar takes up two levels, with an opening on the right side. What happens is that the entry looks sizeable enough to fit roughly two ties side by side going out. The ties that come in actually go in, and then dock above the hangar deck in special tie fighter racks, the entire hangar seems to take up most of the width of the deck. If anyone can host the image (which was provided to me Thanks of Shep roughly a year ago, and I'd forgotten all about it) I'd be more then glad to send it to them.

[Darth Yoshi]

If I remember well, in the game Tie fighter (battle 2, mission 4), two Lambdas docked with each other, and they faced vertically.

That doesn't work though, because IIRC the top fin for the shuttled being docked with clipped the belly of the shuttle docking.

[McC]

Straha's image can be found here.