[newman]

That "spoiler" would probably do more harm than good in atmo flight. Besides, I doubt the thing was ever intended to enter atmo in the first place..

[festivefire]

that's why i said it would disintegrate, and probably didn't have the engine power to maintain flight. I'm pretty sure the biggest ship that could make landfall might be a smaller gunstar or  support craft or one of the medium sized civy ships.

[General Battuta]

Valkyrie crew were not picking up enough dates, added the spoiler and a real throaty rev sound when spooling up the FTL drive. Morale improved significantly (recommend additional STI screening)

[StarSlayer]

You forgot the under body LED kit and massive intercooler intake.

[newman]

Well, Adama kind of did a maneuver in the series that disproves the whole "it would disintegrate" theory. Didn't seem concerned about reentry heat or it frying any of the more exposed systems, either - the main concern was activating FTL in time. As for engine power, we've seen colonial ships cover interplanetary distances on sublights pretty quickly, implying good acceleration capabilities, so I'd speculate that's not a problem either. I would say a battlestar is capable of flying through an atmosphere of an Earth-like world without sustaining any serious damage, but I doubt it could actually land in one piece. And, 99,99% of the time a battlestar has no reason whatsoever to actually hit atmo.

[headdie]

where you going to stick the oversized alloys?

[newman]

You forgot the under body LED kit and massive intercooler intake.

I just thought of a reason for a battlestar to enter atmo: to show off it's massive subwoofer system. No sound in space, but that doesn't mean you can't set your periapsis a few km above Caprica City, zip over it at 10 km/s, blasting away this at the unsuspecting population...

[headdie]

around here it is more likely to be something from the latest clubland album

[An4ximandros]

Now this is interesting, the Valk had the flight pod cover as far back as the concept art, maybe it was simply meant as engine armor? As a bonus, there's a bunch of alternate concepts too, some of which are actually interesting.

And some Cylon stuff, with a Colonial ship.

Edit:


Tons of neat concepts for the show from the artists.

[festivefire]

Well, Adama kind of did a maneuver in the series that disproves the whole "it would disintegrate" theory. Didn't seem concerned about reentry heat or it frying any of the more exposed systems, either - the main concern was activating FTL in time. As for engine power, we've seen colonial ships cover interplanetary distances on sublights pretty quickly, implying good acceleration capabilities, so I'd speculate that's not a problem either. I would say a battlestar is capable of flying through an atmosphere of an Earth-like world without sustaining any serious damage, but I doubt it could actually land in one piece. And, 99,99% of the time a battlestar has no reason whatsoever to actually hit atmo.

I think you forgot the part where after they jumped, Adama and the chief had a conversation about patching up the ship, that maneuver destroyed the CIC from vibrations, and they also had the flight pods in which probably allowed them to sustain more drag before braking apart. i think if you tried to actually fly a battlestar in a way that the spoiler would be usefull, it would split into multiple pieces, and crash and burn.

[newman]

I didn't forget (it's a bit hard to after spending so many years working on a BSG related game, scouring the show for references.. we've all become experts on it through the whole process), but it's all a lot of speculation, really. The maneuver didn't destroy the CIC (though it did take some damage as we've seen), but the CIC damage was the least of the ship's problems at that point - it's structural integrity was beginning to falter, which is a bit harder to patch up than just reroute a couple of cables through the CIC. Later on when the chief talks about damage to the big G, he lists the atmo jump thing as one of the things that hasn't contributed to the ship's condition, but the fact remains that the Galactica was over 40 years old and about to be decommissioned at the start of the show. Then she got nuked, took tons of conventional fire, had Cylon agents activate bombs on the inside, and was still able to make the atmo jump, limp over to the end of the show, have boomer do the raptor ftl thing, took incredible amounts of fire, jumped one more time, and she was still flying (though in extremely bad shape) when they flew her into the Sun.

A smaller, well maintained battlestar like a Valk could probably do the maneuver without too much of a consequence, but again, there's no reason for them to do this. Physically possible doesn't equal to smart or useful

At any rate, Valkyrie's spoiler is definitely not an aerodynamic feature - that would be way too dumb (and wouldn't work).

[festivefire]

I agree with the engine diagnostics package, or part of drydock theory for the Valks spoiler at this point, since if it was supposed to be engine armor, why wouldn't they just patch armor plating onto the engine cowlings themselves instead if wasting double the weight on a big bulky spoiler that only blocks about a quarter of the engines, leaving the bottom and back exposed to enemy fire?

[newman]

It wouldn't make any sense as engine armor, it would only block fire from a very limited angle. Even then, there would be danger of the spoiler or some of it's pieces breaking off and colliding with engines, damaging them. It's simply not how armor works.

[MR_T3D]

Maybe it could be an auxiliary tillium fuel storage, kept a bit away from the ship so it the ship won't blow up if it's detonated, like an jerrycans of fuel on a tank

[newman]

Except it's a pretty thin part. It's not really a shape you'd use if you were creating external tanks. The additional fuel capacity would be negligible.

[David cgc]

Maybe some kind of electronics package? Sensors, comms, or jamming equipment, like an AWACs pod. That Valkyrie variant could be the capital-ship equivalent to the Raptor flying with a Viper squadron.

[newman]

Maybe, but considering it's hideous and we only ever saw it on the ship when docked, I'm sticking to my earlier theory of this being something they put on during maintenance.

[Ghostrider93]

Well you don't see AWACS ships/aircraft very often, and they are usually kept behind the frontlines. So you wouldn't need many, hence the rare appearance.
The dish as external tank is not really an option. You would have a giant 'napalm' bomb strapped to your hull, and indeed the capacity is way to low. BTW that is not the place where you strap a tank to the hull.

Anyway, wether or not the dish appeared once or not, I like the diversity, maybe it is good inspiration for the guys making the battlestars for the game. And what function it has... To me it does not really matter. The fact is that we likely will never know what it is used for... What does matter is that (we or I) like the form or idea of the object. Be creative and make it as you like..

(Sorry for kicking the door in like that  )

[The E]

Make it as you like in this case meaning "Not at all".

[newman]

And guys doing battlestars being me, as in the guy who hates the stupid rollbar with a passion