Firefly Class Transport

POSTED BY: rallem
UPDATED: Thursday, November 8, 2007 14:14
VIEWED: 10790
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RALLEM

Tuesday, October 30, 2007 9:31 PM

I went ot a web site for a space ship models and they had a model at 1/288th scale which was 9" long after construction so that means the Firefly class ship is 216 feet long. Does anybody have the other pertinent details for this type of ship?

RALLEM

Tuesday, October 30, 2007 11:07 PM

In doing some research I found out that a firefly class transport is a part of the Battle Star Galactica fleet as the USS Enterprise.

FARFLY

Tuesday, October 30, 2007 11:12 PM

Here's some stuff I found somewhere..

The, “Serenity” is a Firefly Class interplanetary ship. Originally conceived and built as a medium range cargo ship.

Dimensions and Weights:
She is comparable to that of Boeing 747. She is 63 meters long, 40 meters wide and 18 meters tall. Her gross empty weight is 575,000 lbs and her maximum takeoff weight is 945,000 lbs.

Performance and Powerplants:
Primarily powered by 2 wing mounted Smith & Davis SD-2595 (95,000 lb) turbofan and solar induction engines, she can achieve a maximum airspeed of mach 2 (1484 mph) at 1000 Meters EBSL (Earth Based Sea Level,) and mach 30 (22270 mph) at 100,000 Meters (62 miles) EBSL. During the transitional phase from atmospheric to orbital flight the fan blades rotate to collect photons emitted by a solar source to feed the engines keeping the relative thrust ratio comparable to it's atmospheric rating.
The “Firefly” engine, a Smith & Davis SD-4631 photon reaction drive, was developed on the same principles that drive fusion in a star, (4 1H + 2 e --> 4He + 2 neutrinos + 6 photons.) The reaction produces enough thrust to propel the ship to 643,738 kph (400,000 mph) taking it approximately 16 days to travel 1 AU. (The Astronomical Unit is the distance from the Earth to the Sun, 149,597,871 kilometers.) Although very reliable, this reaction produces large volumes of plasma as hot as the surface of a star. Thermal panels on the outside of the engine dissipate the plasma and heat that builds up during the process typically glowing in a yellowish hue as they cool down.

Handling:
The maneuvering of the ship is handled in two different ways. In atmosphere she has flaps and ailerons that in conjunction with the pitch of the side engines control her direction. In space she uses an RCS, (Reaction Control System,) consisting of Hydrazine fueled thrusters that work in a countered measure. For example if she were to turn nose up, thrusters on the back rear of the ship would fire upwards and thrusters of the front nose would fire downwards pushing the tail down and the nose up. Variations on this, tied into the side engines pitch, produce all her movement in space.
For landing her side engines rotate vertical and vents on the front of the engine open to allow the engine the “breathe” as she hovers.

Gravity:
The Firefly class ships gravity comes from a rotating ring just aft of the ships midsection. It produces a gravity field using the "Peristere Principal," that also acts as an momentum dampener to allow passengers more freedom of movement during all aspects of flight.

RALLEM

Tuesday, October 30, 2007 11:24 PM

Thank you farfly. I got this information from wikipedia but something doesn't make sense to me. It says the ship can only accelerate a 4g, but doesn't a space craft have to accelerate a lot faster than that to leave a gravitational pull equivilant to Earth's?

Serenity (Firefly vessel)
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This television-related article or section describes an aspect of the series in a primarily in-universe style.
Please rewrite this article to explain the fiction more clearly and provide non-fictional perspective.
Serenity

Serenity in orbit
First appearance "The Train Job"[1] (2002-09-20)
Last appearance Serenity (2005 film)
Affiliation Independent
Launched Keel laid: August 2459
References Official Blueprint Set[2]
General Characteristics
Class 03-K64-Firefly
Registry 404-E-132-4FE274A
Maximum speed (Acceleration) 4.2 g
Auxiliary craft 2 Endo/Exo-Atmospheric Shuttles
1 MF-813 Flying Mule
Armaments 2 Magnetic Grappler Launchers
Defences 6 Self-Powered Transmitter Buoys (aka the “Crybabys”)
Propulsion 2 Blue Sun 6V4-178-B31 Trace Compression Blocks
36 RCS Thrusters
Mass 282,500 lbs (128,140 kg)
Length 269 ft. 3 in. (82.06 m)
Width 170 ft. 0 in. (51.82 m)
Height 78 ft. 8 in. (23.98 m)
(Landing Gear Extended)
For other uses, see Serenity
Serenity is a fictional spaceship originally featured in the science fiction television series Firefly. It has also appeared in the comic book series Serenity: Those Left Behind and the film Serenity.

The ship, which is designated a 03 Firefly-class, fits the profile of a light freighter, having a cargo area equivalent to about six or nine semis. The photon-reaction drive in the bulbous rear section of the ship lights up when accelerating, resembling a firefly, hence the class moniker. The engine nacelles can rotate down like a VTOL aircraft. Whenever the ship lands, her wings fold down like the wings of a bird coming to rest. The aft of the ship is outfitted with extenders beside and below the photon-reaction drive to ease the turbulence of lift-off and atmospheric reentry. As she is a run-of-the-mill civilian cargo vessel, Serenity has no weapons or defenses beyond the guile and skill of her crew.

Contents [hide]
1 Ship layout
1.1 Alterations for the film
2 Speed
3 History
4 Trivia
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Ship layout
Serenity is a 03-K64 Firefly-class mid-bulk transport with a standard radion accelerator core. Its layout is triple-tiered. The upper deck houses the cockpit at the front, in the "head". Moving aft from the cockpit leads into a corridor through Serenity's "neck", in which the crew quarters are housed. The starboard quarters house the rooms of ship's mechanic Kaylee Frye (which stands out from the other bunks because of the strings of Christmas lights over the hatch) and captain Malcolm Reynolds, and the port quarters house the rooms for mercenary Jayne Cobb and married couple Zoe and Hoban "Wash" Washburne, the first mate and pilot, respectively, of Serenity. All of the crew quarters are positioned at a lower level than the corridor connecting them. Some are built such that after opening the hatch someone entering them must climb facing backwards down a ladder in order to access the room. Additionally the captain's quarters has a sink and toilet which fold into the wall, conserving space on the small vessel.

There is a passage in this corridor leading down to the upper cargo bay catwalk. The middle of the top deck, in Serenity's "thorax", is the galley and kitchen, hued in a gentle yellow and decorated in part by Kaylee's stencils of flowers. Aftwards of the galley, deep in Serenity's "abdomen" and accessible through the back of the galley, is the engine room, housing the Firefly drive and a great deal of mechanical interfaces. It also houses Kaylee's hammock.

Serenity's layout, as sketched by Joss Whedon and Carey MeyerThe flight of stairs attached to the aft corridor leads down to t

FARFLY

Wednesday, October 31, 2007 12:28 AM

The great thing about sci-fi is the endless possibilities regarding the subject of space travel. Some years back, if anyone remembers, there was a TV series named Salvage 1. Here is a little squib of info regarding their mode of travel.

"The flight plan was based on an idea called the Trans-Linear Vector Principle, as put forth by ex-astronaut Addison Carmichael. Under this principle, the Vulture rocket lifted off for the moon under slow but constant acceleration. Although the initial velocity seemed much too slow to ever reach the moon, the steady acceleration soon brought the Vulture to great speeds once in space. Acceleration continued until they reached the halfway point between the Earth and Moon, at which time the ship began to decelerate ending in a smooth touchdown on the lunar surface. Total time to reach the moon was a mere 24 hours compared to three days for the Apollo missions. The trip back home followed the same procedure. The advantages of the Trans-Linear Vector Principle were many-fold:"

RALLEM

Wednesday, October 31, 2007 12:37 AM

I do remember the show about a space junk man, and for the life of me I can only remember one episode where they had to bring a glacier to the middle east. That is all I remember of the show.

Maybe you can help me. In the 1970s there was a television show where one of the crew members was a plant. Does that ring any bells for you?

MACBAKER

Wednesday, October 31, 2007 1:26 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by rallem:
I do remember the show about a space junk man, and for the life of me I can only remember one episode where they had to bring a glacier to the middle east. That is all I remember of the show.

Maybe you can help me. In the 1970s there was a television show where one of the crew members was a plant. Does that ring any bells for you?

I think the show you are talking about, was a short lived comedy series called "Quark" (no relation to DS-9's bartender). It starred Richard Benjamin (West World) as Captain Quark. He piloted a salvage ship. I vaguely remember one of the crew being a plant. Maybe a ficus!

Quark was the original "Galaxy Quest". A comedy spoof of Star Trek!

I'd given some thought to movin' off the edge -- not an ideal location -- thinkin' a place in the middle.

MACBAKER

Wednesday, October 31, 2007 1:31 AM

Okay! I was kidding about the Ficus character, but after doing a little research, I found out that's exactly what the plant character's name was! Ficus Pandorata!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quark_%28TV_series%29

Ficus Pandorata (Richard Kelton) is a Vegeton, a member of a race of sentient plant life. He is of human appearance. While he is extremely intelligent and observant, he is incapable of any sort of human emotion, including tact. He frequently finds the behavior of the rest of the crew difficult to understand. Given that Ficus lacks emotion and understanding of emotions, frequently mentions logic and often explains scientific facts to the commander, he plays Spock to Quark's Kirk ("Quark" even sounds like "Kirk").

I'd given some thought to movin' off the edge -- not an ideal location -- thinkin' a place in the middle.

FARFLY

Wednesday, October 31, 2007 1:41 AM

Don't remember a TV series about that but I used to play a computer game called Starflight, by Electronic Arts and one of the races usually selected to handle certain crew positions was the the Elowans, who were plants.

RALLEM

Wednesday, October 31, 2007 1:47 AM

I found it, the show was called quark.

MACBAKER

Wednesday, October 31, 2007 1:48 AM

Here's more "Quark" info, and the site has low res episodes available for download.

http://quark.name/

I'd given some thought to movin' off the edge -- not an ideal location -- thinkin' a place in the middle.

MICJWELCH

Wednesday, October 31, 2007 7:05 PM

You should check out this yahoo group.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Modelling_Serenity/

Also, QMX is coming out with a book of blueprints of Serenity, which also includes the other versions of the Firefly. I'm totally geeking out about them.

http://www.quantummechanix.com/IN%20THE%20WORKS/0CFE9A03-634C-40A5-ABA
A-438B4150BAF0.html

"We may experience some slight turbulence, and then... explode."

RALLEM

Thursday, November 1, 2007 12:58 AM

The Firefly Class Transport has been shown in Star Wars and in Battlestar Galactica, have any ships crossed over into the 'verse? I would think it cool if Starbug were to make a cameo in Serenity since they are somewhat similar ships.

CRUITHNE3753

Thursday, November 1, 2007 2:11 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by farfly:
She is comparable to that of Boeing 747. She is 63 meters long, 40 meters wide and 18 meters tall. Her gross empty weight is 575,000 lbs and her maximum takeoff weight is 945,000 lbs.

Length in metric, weight in imperial... that's nice and consistent...

RALLEM

Thursday, November 1, 2007 2:33 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Cruithne3753:
Quote:
Originally posted by farfly:
She is comparable to that of Boeing 747. She is 63 meters long, 40 meters wide and 18 meters tall. Her gross empty weight is 575,000 lbs and her maximum takeoff weight is 945,000 lbs.

Length in metric, weight in imperial... that's nice and consistent... ]

They speak english and chinese in the 'verse, and now we learn that they also use metric and imperial there too.

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME

FARFLY

Thursday, November 1, 2007 4:05 AM

Yeah, mph, kph, mach, meters, miles, days, AU's,... something for everyone. At least it's not STNG techno babble..

RALLEM

Thursday, November 1, 2007 10:29 AM

I don't have a problem with technobabble, because when it is done right it often gets placed into the english vocabulary. My problem with the Star Trek premise was that it set itself in an ideal world where there was no poverty and people did what ever they did out of personal enrichment.

OUT2THEBLACK

Saturday, November 3, 2007 8:09 PM

COOL and informative thread , despite a few minor

tech errors in some of the material...

Bump is warranted...

THOLO

Wednesday, November 7, 2007 11:41 PM

as far as ship sizes go this is a good site

http://www.merzo.net/

thanks

Keep Flying!!

RALLEM

Thursday, November 8, 2007 12:17 AM

That is great, thank you!

THOLO

Thursday, November 8, 2007 2:14 PM

no worries, yer welcome

Keep Flying!!