StarDestroyer.Net BBS

The breakdown for a Nimitz is 3,200 ships company, 2,500 air wing. If we say that out of 85 embarked aircraft they have maybe two hundred people directly involved(at a guess) in flying them, that still leaves more than 2,000 people for maintenance, deck ops(launch and retrieval), armaments, fueling, the list goes on. I can't find the specifics of service requirements on aircraft, but the newer ones are a lot better than the old ones; something like 20:1 service hours/flying hours for a Super Hornet. Older fighters like the Phantom were something like five times that ratio(where's Shep when you need him?)

Shuttle maintenance aside for a moment... The Nimitz class carries almost 2800 crew devoted to the air operations, that is almost half the crew total.
And the reason why such a large number is needed is because they are constantly performing air operations. Federation ships do not.

Back to the shuttles... given the large amount of shuttles Star Fleet has in Star Trek there should be a significant group tasked with their maintenance, but certainly not almost half the crew. Also, if you aren't constantly using your aircraft/shuttles, they can just be parked like a truck with wings. They need to make sure seals are intact and that they have power or are charging or whatever, but for the most part they would become very low maintenance.

That said, we aren't quite sure that Starfleet in Star Trek doesn't rely far more on their shuttles than they did in TOS, given how many they keep aboard, but even if they do use them primarily for going planet side, that is still nowhere near the constant beating air craft take on a daily basis on a carrier.

Havok wrote:That said, we aren't quite sure that Starfleet in Star Trek doesn't rely far more on their shuttles than they did in TOS, given how many they keep aboard, but even if they do use them primarily for going planet side, that is still nowhere near the constant beating air craft take on a daily basis on a carrier.

I don't see how you can come to the conclusion that an aircraft patrolling around a carrier group is taking a "beating" which is much worse than a shuttle which performs an atmospheric entry and landing from orbit, and then flies back to orbit. In terms of energy expenditures and stress conditions placed upon the ship, the shuttle is taking far more of a beating.

Darth Wong wrote:

Havok wrote:That said, we aren't quite sure that Starfleet in Star Trek doesn't rely far more on their shuttles than they did in TOS, given how many they keep aboard, but even if they do use them primarily for going planet side, that is still nowhere near the constant beating air craft take on a daily basis on a carrier.

I don't see how you can come to the conclusion that an aircraft patrolling around a carrier group is taking a "beating" which is much worse than a shuttle which performs an atmospheric entry and landing from orbit, and then flies back to orbit. In terms of energy expenditures and stress conditions placed upon the ship, the shuttle is taking far more of a beating.

I'm talking about the constant take offs and landings on a carrier. And isn't there magic treknobabble that protects the shuttles from the majority of the beatings?

http://img.trekmovie.com/images/merchan ... st09-1.jpg

Model is built from CGI scans, this image any good for scaling?