Talk:Blackbird/Archive 1

Photo

We should probably get a screenshot of the Blackbird, both when under construction and during its test flight. -- Joe Beaudoin 00:03, 17 September 2005 (EDT)

I added a photo of the blackbird at the commissioning, since it was the widest shot of the ship -- Danaucpe 21:34, 18 September 2005 (EDT)

Thanks! Hopefully when the DVDs come out for Season 2 we can get a cleaner, crisper screenshot. -- Joe Beaudoin 12:29, 20 September 2005 (EDT)

I might be able to get a cleaner one, but I'll have to see. I won't have time for a couple of days, maybe, but I'll give it a go and see what I can do. If I replace this image file, does it have to be the same size, or if I crop it differently, will the Wiki software still handle it okay? I'll also see about getting one from when it's under construction. --Day 13:29, 20 September 2005 (EDT)

It doesn't have to be the same size. The software will know the difference. Thanks Day! -- Joe Beaudoin 13:31, 20 September 2005 (EDT)

Name

"The first prototype was dubbed "Laura", in honor of President Laura Roslin." Are there really going to be any more of these things? If they had to through so much to scrounge up materials for just one...Also, isn't its name now 'Laura,' not 'Blackbird,' which I thought was just its temporary designation? Kuralyov 10:57, 17 September 2005 (EDT)

I'm not too sure, to be honest with you. Perhaps someone more knowledgeable with this sort of thing might wish to come forward and clarify for us. As for scrounging up parts, they may eventually be able to get some from unserviceable Vipers. -- Joe Beaudoin 11:07, 17 September 2005 (EDT)

Two points to resolve this. One, we'll just check next episode, and if they consistently call it Laura and never "Blackbird" we change the name. Two, next episode the Battlestar Pegasus is showing up, with a full compliment of Vipers, so that should kind of render it a moot point for a while. ---Ricimer, 17 Sept, 2005

Perhaps it's the Blackbird-class Viper "Laura", where Laura is the name of that particular ship. Well, I guess we'll find out later. --Talos 13:24, 17 September 2005 (EDT)

Huh. I hadn't thought of most of those things. I got the impression that it was a Blackbird (implicitly Mark I) named Laura. So, I wouldn't call it a Viper. But there's nothing conclusive yet. --Day 15:23, 19 September 2005 (EDT)

In the blog I linked to below, David Eick says that it's definitely not a Viper, but something completely new. He also says it's the only stealth ship in the Fleet, which I guess might say somehting about the Colonial military mindset. Kuralyov 14:28, 20 September 2005 (EDT)

Well, we wouldn't know if the Colonial Military had stealth craft before the attack or not, since none of them escaped with Galactica. --Peter Farago 14:45, 20 September 2005 (EDT)

• The latest video blog (here) has Eick calling it the Blackbird, not the Laura, so I guess that is the accepted name afterall. Kuralyov 11:20, 20 September 2005 (EDT)

Blackbird is the name of the ship type (like "Viper" or "Raptor"), Laura is the name of the ship itself. Philwelch 17:08, 25 September 2005 (EDT)

Apollo just called it the Blackbird in "Pegasus". --Peter Farago 17:28, 25 September 2005 (EDT)

With only one Blackbird, the group will call it only by its kind's name. If more are made, maybe the nicknames will be used, maybe not. This nicknaming was common in WWII on bomber aircraft, but right now it's just an honorific. Militarily, "Blackbird" rolls off the tongue better and appears as the common usage right now. Spencerian 10:37, 26 September 2005 (EDT)

Blackbird's Shape, and the Shuttle Orbiter

According to online sources, the design of a stealth aircraft uses angles along the fuselage and a low profile to cause radar signals to bounce erratically off of it, causing a small radar image, perhaps the size of a bird, if at all. Further reduction of the radar bounceback can be done by using radar-absorbing materials (RAM), which absorb radar energy, emitting heat as a by-product. While carbon-composite materials may not actually be in truth RAM material, in Galactica's universe, DRADIS may not be sensitive to it. Color does not matter for RAM material; this is a matter of visual stealth and aesthetics. In the case of the American aircraft mentioned in the article as a stealth fighter, its shape is less used in stealth, but obviously RAM is used for this purpose.

Sources

• Definition of RAM
  
• Info on the F-117 Stealth Fighter

The entire vehicle that lifts off the pad at Cape Canaveral is officially known as the Space Transportation System, or STS. Colloquially the entire launch vehicle is also known as the Space Shuttle. The Orbiter is the official name of the winged vehicle and the only part of the launch vehicle with its form of carbon composite known as Reinforced Carbon-Carbon, which is why I'm a stickler in noting the Orbiter, not the entire Shuttle stack, uses carbon composites. Since the Blackbird uses a kind of carbon composite that can cover the entire ship, the material is significantly lighter than RCC, which has some weight and greater fragility than what Galactica's carbon composite appears to be. Perhaps they use carbon-fiber composites similar to that found in our popular in racing bicycles. Perhaps they use graphite...who knows? Whatever it is, it's lightweight. 00:17, 18 September 2005 (EDT)

FTL Drive

So now we know. Now somebody explain to me how Starbuck could sneak right up the Cylon's preverbial arses yet still set off the Fleet's Dradis while still outside of visual contact. --Watcher 23:03, 6 January 2006 (EST)

Blackbird presumably has a silent running mode of sorts; as you could see in "Flight of the Phoenix" they announced "no Dradis contact" when Starbuck *killed the engines* and turned her lights off. So it seems that, at the time, they were expecting it to have a contact. Starbuck probably kicked her engines on FULL BLAST here because she WANTED to get their attention. --Ricimer 23:40, 6 January 2006 (EST)

Yeah. I imagine it's an emissions management issues. Notice, too, that when shew flew by the Ressurection Ship, she seemed to switch off several systems, perhaps in order to reduce the electricity that she was using. I bet she did a lot of engine flaring, creating a large infrared signature. --Day 23:43, 6 January 2006 (EST)

Good points. But look at that scene again. She's awfully darned close to the Resurrection Ship (and presumably inside the defense perimeter of the two Basestars) when she shuts everything down (I'm presuming that's RDM's intended indicator that the Blackbird has gone quiet). When she lights up again (including restarting her engines and spinning up her FTL) she only a hair's breadth out of the innards of the R.S. It seems to me that in both situations she should have drawn attention. I think this was probably a cheat on RDM's part for the sake of visual and expositional brevity. --Watcher 23:56, 6 January 2006 (EST)

Yeah. I do, too. THough, I think it would have been equally understandable and within the style of the show to simply show her close to the R.S., then show her far away and jumping. There's plenty of implied action elsewhere in the series. --Day 00:50, 7 January 2006 (EST)

Re-imagined Series definition: "Direction, Range, and Distance", Colonial equivalent of radar or lidar

Re-imagined Series definition: technology enabling travel across distances faster than the speed of light would permit, see: FTL