Toggle menu
Toggle personal menu
Not logged in
Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits.

Viper (TOS)

From Battlestar Wiki, the free, open content Battlestar Galactica encyclopedia and episode guide
Revision as of 05:21, 4 November 2005 by April Arcus (talk | contribs)
(diff) ← Older revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)
Starhound Viper (credit: Universal / ABC)

The Colonial Starhound Viper was the primary space superiority fighter / attack craft deployed by the Colonials. Capable of atmospheric flight, it was a single-seat craft mounting two laser-torpedo guns as standard, as well as having hardpoints for mounting missiles.

The Viper was originally introduced into Colonial service during the 1,000 yahren war with the Cylons, and was a far superior craft to the Cylon Raider.

Propulsion was said to be provided by a hybrid tylium / fusion reactor powering three ion engines with a "turbo-boost" facility for very rapid acceleration. For atmospheric flight, the engines are additionally supplied with atmospheric gases as combustibles to conserve on-board fuel supplies. The viper cockpit is fully pressurised, and in the event of catastrophic system damage, the entire module can detach and eject away from the damaged Viper.


Dimensions

  • Length: (approx) 8.7m
  • Wingspan: (approx) 3.8m

Propulsion

  • 3x ion engines mounted aft

Aramaments

  • 2 x forward-firing laser-torpedo guns
  • 4 x two-hundred kiloton Solonite missiles
  • 2 x thirty megaton Solonite bombs

Crew

  • Pilot

Layout

File:Tos-viper-cut.jpg
Starhound Viper Cutaway (credit: Mike McAdams)

The Viper is a long, sleek vehicle that can be spilt into two parts, fore and aft.

  • Fore section: comprises the nose back to the cockpit. This contains the targeting dish and sensor array, the forward landing gear; the main avionics and sensor packages, plus the cockpit module
  • Stern section: comprises the main engines, reactor systems, turbo-boost injection systems, fuel tanks, wings and vertial stabiliser. The wings themselves contain the laser-torpedo guns and their power packs. Harpoints beneath the wings allow missiles, munitions pods and other items to be rack-mounted.