StarDestroyer.Net BBS

Surlethe wrote: That reminds me: how do they compensate for the effect of firing their heavy guns? That should throw them off-course.

If it’s in any way possible to aim the effect of the anti gravity, then you could make a linkage that would automatically set the direction at an angle to compensate for recoil. It would be within the limits of 1930s technology to make an electro mechanical computers to calculate this and then transmit the necessary angles. The US battleship fire control computers, called Rangekeepers, did far more.

Otherwise they may just have to accept some level of inaccuracy, calculate corrections, and fight at closer ranges, which are already going to happen compared to WW2 practical ranges. Probably they'll fight even closer then in WW1

Sea Skimmer wrote:Probably they'll fight even closer then in WW1

Flying battleship fleet engagements over the countryside shown in the picture are going to suck for the civilians down below. A close range fight over a city would cause as much collateral damage as a fair-sized bombing raid. I wonder if the ships stay low and try to use terrain features (i.e. low hills) for concealment and blocking incoming fire.

Sea Skimmer wrote:WW2 monoplanes however, would be about eighty thousand times more effective against a flying armored warship. It’s just too easy to pack a warship with automatic guns that would devastate any biplane attack. The hips of Alpha Shade however, look neat but seem quite poorly designed and lacking in secondary armament. Clearly weight must not be any great concern as they have wing turrets.

Biplanes are a relatively recent invention in the world of Alpha Shade. Laura's air force is the first and only in the entire world to use planes.

Ford Prefect wrote:

Sea Skimmer wrote:WW2 monoplanes however, would be about eighty thousand times more effective against a flying armored warship. It’s just too easy to pack a warship with automatic guns that would devastate any biplane attack. The hips of Alpha Shade however, look neat but seem quite poorly designed and lacking in secondary armament. Clearly weight must not be any great concern as they have wing turrets.

Biplanes are a relatively recent invention in the world of Alpha Shade. Laura's air force is the first and only in the entire world to use planes.

For a very short period of time. As soon as they start massacring those large flying birds, everyone else is going to be fitting out biplanes with two machineguns, too, and so off goes the progress of war...