Stormfront Part II

[Captain Seafort]

The tech manual suggests relatavistic speeds, page 2 for the design requirement, page 75 for the actual ship. Unfortunately the TM's main usefulness is as a guide to writer's intent, rather than a hard-and-fast rule. In the actual canon, I think the best we've heard is 0.7 c, which was achieved by a shuttle using a slingshot around a moon.

[Sionnach Glic]

Ok, thanks.

[Crushproof]

I can't remember where it said it, but the universal full impulse for all Federation ships is .25c to keep the time dilation to a minimum. I think 3 times that is the actual maximum for the Fleet's fastest ships. Personally I like the idea of a universal top speed because it gives definite speed statements for 1/2 and 1/4 impulse too.

However, this raises a minor problem.

In ST3 the Enterprise is escaping Spacedock at 1/4 impulse. That's 0.0625c. Now, c is 300,000km/s so .0625 of 300,000 is 18,750km/s. Problem.
The spacedock is 3.8km wide at it's widest point, and inside the Enterprise would have to cover less than half that. Let's say 1.6km. After they set off at "One quarter impulse" Sulu says "One minute to Space Doors". One minute at 18,750km/s is 1,125,000 kilometres. I don't think Spacedock is quite that big. Infact, at that speed they're going only 0.0266km/s making full impulse a ridiculously low 0.1064km/s
Silly writers =P

Actually, this should be a YATI

[Captain Seafort]

You can easily dismiss that as "1/4 impulse" as being the ship's acceleration, since the figure of 0.25c is set by regulations to avoid time-dilation problems rather than a physical limitation. It also allows you to reconcile the rather poor speeds observed on screen with the significant fractions of lightspeed referenced in supporting literature - they can go that fast, but it takes ages to work up to it.

[Crushproof]

That is a nice explanation, but the Enterprise class was supposed to have the best acceleration rate of the time.

[Bryan Moore]

Silly writers =P

Actually, this should be a YATI

Son of a bitch! You ruined that scene for me! And I was going to watch that next week (I've been doing the movies, one a week lately)

[Crushproof]

My work here is done. *Smug expression*

[Captain Seafort]

That is a nice explanation, but the Enterprise class was supposed to have the best acceleration rate of the time.

Says a lot about impulse engine capabilities doesn't it.

[Blackstar the Chakat]

I'm sorry but aren't impulse drives unable to be used in atmosphere? I just watched a DS9 episode were Major Kira took a sub-impulse raider into the atmosphere so that the pursuing ships would be limited to thrusters. Something about conventional impulse drives would ionize the atmosphere. I can't remember were I read that, but I'm almost certain impulse can't be used in atmosphere because of the environmental damage. Further more Enterprise couldn't go too fast because of the extensive damage. This is a time before force fields and SIF generators. Not only is the Enterprise not designed for atmospheric flight but with so much of it's interior exposed high speeds would have been melted the exposed interior, much like when the Space Shuttle Colombia was destroyed after heat-resistant tiles were damaged and the heat melted the wing and sent the ship to die a fiery death.

And with all the vibration from the hull damage combined with the sensor interference I wouldn't have pushed the ship far past 200 MPH in any case, at least as long as they were going for precision. JU-87's are capable of well over that, and we don't know what modifications were made to the fighters other then the plasma weapons. Their engines could have been even more powerful in that timeline, perhaps to compensate for the plasma weapons and to make the design more versatile

[Mikey]

we don't know what modifications were made to the fighters other then the plasma weapons. Their engines could have been even more powerful in that timeline, perhaps to compensate for the plasma weapons and to make the design more versatile

The planes we saw were clearly prop-driven; we can safely extrapolate from that fact that they had good ol' piston IC engines. Maybe they had superior superchargers or something, but there's only so much one can do. However, the assumption that impulse drive was unavailable combined with the NX-01's extensive damage explains that scene as well as anything else I've heard.

All explanations aside, though, to me it still beggars understanding that a spaceship capable of warp 5, molecular transport, blowing up mountains, etc. could be in any real danger from a couple of WWII dive-bombers.

[I Am Spartacus]

They weren't any larger in the forward fuselage than real Stukas, so at least we can know that their engines were not larger and therefore could not have been significantly more powerful. If the aliens can build plasma cannons and a time machine, surely they could at least construct a decent atmospheric combat vehicle, in the event that someone tried to interfere with their efforts to alter the timeline?

[Mikey]

One would think so, considering the fact that the Na'Kuhl were fighting the Temporal Cold War against an enemy with equivalent tech as they had, which enemy was bound to try and stop them...

The Na;Kuhl's monomania with constructing their time travel device took some weird forms, though. They certainly never improved any ground transportation - they traveled in an old-fashioned one-ton truck.

[Crushproof]

we don't know what modifications were made to the fighters other then the plasma weapons. Their engines could have been even more powerful in that timeline, perhaps to compensate for the plasma weapons and to make the design more versatile

All explanations aside, though, to me it still beggars understanding that a spaceship capable of warp 5, molecular transport, blowing up mountains, etc. could be in any real danger from a couple of WWII dive-bombers.

Capable of all those things in the best of situations, but Enterprise was next to dead. I wouldn't be surprised if those plasma cannons could do severe damage to the already overstressed hull.

Also: Enterprise vs. Stuka video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwR4H9upiPk

[I Am Spartacus]

JU-87's are capable of well over that

Actually, the JU-87B depicted was capable of 238 mph tops, not that much more than 200.