Registered: Mar 2001
Location: Singapore
Posts: 54

I have a question about the Thunderbolt.

It has one cannon, right?

So, can I assume that that one cannon is more powerful than the twin cannons on a Starfury?

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Registered: Jul 2000
Location: The Cold Northland!
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One cannon (although someone seemed to think it had six??? crazy!)...with a much faster refire rate (about what you saw on the show) and more damage per shot. At present I think its just a bit better than the StarFury's twin 40mm (with firing rate considered) but the fact is that any human is going to land more shots with a more rapid fire rate. So the overall advantage is definately there. Plus the T-Bolt is faster, slightly more manuverable, and a bit more durable (I say a bit because its a matter of 20 points).

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Registered: Oct 2001
Location: Nottingham, England
Posts: 1470

IIRC in 'Ship of Tears' Sheridan states that the Thunderbolt has four main cannon. Also, in the Babylon 5 Security Manual it says that the Starfury has four forward cannon.

Neither of these statements are backed up by action seen in the show, the Starfury only ever fires its bottom two guns and the Thunderbolt only ever fires one main gun just under its nose.

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Registered: Feb 2001
Location: Joutsa, Finland
Posts: 564

quote:

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Originally posted by IceFire
Plus the T-Bolt is faster, slightly more manuverable, and a bit more durable (I say a bit because its a matter of 20 points).

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More manuverable than Starfury?! What the hell?
I thought it was not as agile as Starfury. Just faster and has more firepower etc. Afterall, it was designed athomospheric flight in mind.
BTW. Has anyone noticed how much better view the pilot has from Starfury? You can't see out too well from Thunderbolt....

About those guns... I have seen pics where the Thundebolt has four (4) (IV) holes in the nose. It looked like gatling gun (ofcourse it wasn't) Perhahaps there is 4 guns which fire one after another (imitating Nial, perhaps)
Howewer, in this case it doesn't make any difference now does it...

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Registered: Jul 2000
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quote:

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More manuverable than Starfury?! What the hell?
I thought it was not as agile as Starfury. Just faster and has more firepower etc. Afterall, it was designed athomospheric flight in mind.

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Registered: Feb 2001
Location: Joutsa, Finland
Posts: 564

Well I have read it from some forum and I have heard people talking about it... I'll see if I can find any proof regarding my statement about the manuverability...

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Registered: Oct 2001
Location: Germany
Posts: 77

quote:

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Neither of these statements are backed up by action seen in the show, the Starfury only ever fires its bottom two guns and the Thunderbolt only ever fires one main gun just under its nose

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Registered: Apr 2001
Location: Finland
Posts: 576

quote:

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Originally posted by Raider

It has a Gatling configuration.
And the Starfury relay has 4 guns, I have the model right here. Four guns.
But somewhere I read, the T-Bolt also has a neutron beam against capships? Anyone any ideas?

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Registered: Aug 2000
Location: Somewhere
Posts: 2894

Yeah, a gatling is one weapon - just with multiple barrels so the refire rate is much higher. You'll note, in Severed Dreams among other episodes, T-bolts shot 'bursts' of five or so bolts in rapid succession, about as fast as the Aurora could fire once. That, to me, implies gatling.

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Registered: Feb 2001
Location: Finland
Posts: 3194

Even B5Tech (that usually gives all ships unrealistic massive armaments) says that Thunderbolts have following armament:

4 Linked, Unidirectional 40mm Pulse Cannons
Fusion missiles [10 points]

Note: 4 linked = 1 gatling
And it seems to be about just right. (this time)

Even though it seems to give Aurora following armament:
4 40mm Pulse Cannons
2 35mm Pulse Cannons
Fusion missiles [8 points]

Six gunbanks...

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Last edited by Mr. Fury on 01-07-2002 at 10:20 PM

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Registered: Nov 2001
Location: Netherlands
Posts: 371

Wrong...
Linked doesn't have to mean Gatling...

Gatling means that you have a rotating set of barrels and just one firing chamber(where the bullet comes from). By rotating the barrel before the chamber you can achieve a very high rate of fire with less cooling problems.(the bullet takes another barrel)
Gatling wouldn't be logical when talking about energy weapons..
In space you would normally have no problem with cooling your barrels...

However a linked set of Guns can be 4 seperate guns which fire in succesion...(e.g it takes to much energy to fire all the guns the at the same time)


yeesh.. Hope you guys understand what I mean, my English sucks...

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Registered: Feb 2001
Location: Lisbon, Portugal
Posts: 1218

quote:

---

Originally posted by Triggy
IIRC in 'Ship of Tears' Sheridan states that the Thunderbolt has four main cannon. Also, in the Babylon 5 Security Manual it says that the Starfury has four forward cannon.

Neither of these statements are backed up by action seen in the show, the Starfury only ever fires its bottom two guns and the Thunderbolt only ever fires one main gun just under its nose.

---

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Registered: Mar 2001
Location: Charlottesville, VA, USA
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The 2 extra guns on the Starfury are no surprise to me and I'm sure many B5 fans. Thoes guns have been noticed before and brought up elsewhere.

I just noticed that they were not on the Starfury in the game. Will that be fixed in the future?

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Registered: Dec 2001
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The "current" series era starfury is the SA-23E I think. The E on the end means there were a few other versions. This may account for the disparities in armaments.

But the one we've got now is fiiiiine by me.

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Registered: Jul 2000
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I know that there are 4 guns....but we've never seen them firing...or if we have, in some very obscure fashion....and most likely its a matter of one set fires and then the other set fires.

Basically the reasoning is that we've never seen 4 pulses come from an Aurora at once. It doesn't rule the guns out, but we balanced with 2 guns in mind and with the intention of portaying the visual of the show (in this instance).

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Registered: Mar 2001
Location: Charlottesville, VA, USA
Posts: 169

I didn't mean make them have the ability to fire. I meant just to have them there.

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Last edited by Ranger1 on 01-08-2002 at 07:21 AM

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Registered: Oct 2001
Location: Nottingham, England
Posts: 1470

Everybody has seen all four of the Starfury guns, just the same as nobody has ever seen the top two fire. As for the two rear guns on the Starfury, again I think that the official B5 Security Manual is responsible for this datum. The missile hard points are well observed in 'Thirdspace' but obviously not standard armament.

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Registered: Nov 2001
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Posts: 56

I think you are all confused. "Gatling" does not mean rotating, as a single barrel gun can be a gatling cannon. As for the rate of fire, this is called the cylclic rate.

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Registered: Jul 2000
Location: The Cold Northland!
Posts: 8392

I checked around a bit.

The Gatling gun concept was developed by a guy whose name was Gatling. His gun had a internal barrel that revolved around while firing. Thus gatling.

4 linked pulse cannons may have been a slight bit of technobable...B5 didn't have much of it so there it was, your token technobable.

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Registered: Oct 2001
Location: Germany
Posts: 77

In a Gatling not only the barrels are rotating, mos of the weapon is rotating, exept the triggerthing.
Don´t now whats in english.

The fighter with the rearguns was a Starfury Bomber configuration, the Badger.

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