# Sci-fi geek poll, best "one man snub fighter" **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 2, 2005, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-geek-poll-best-one-man-snub-fighter/324413 "2005-10-02T02:36:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![chrisk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@chrisk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chrisk)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2005, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-geek-poll-best-one-man-snub-fighter/324413/41 "2005-10-04T17:22:47Z")
> [@Diceman](#): > > Are those the fighters that tried to stop the Borg cube when it first attacked Earth, only to get blown up with one phaser shot each? no, IIRC those weren’t manned fighters but just insystem automated defense drones or something like that… pathetically overmatched against the borg, of course. Based on the timing, the peregrine fighters might have been something that was ‘on the drawing board’ at the time… meant for possible use against the Borg (after they were first encountered way the hell out there,) but not ready yet because the first cube arrived in the federation much earlier than expected. Like the Defiant class starships. ---
**Author:** ![GargoyleWB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gargoylewb/32/199_2.png) [@GargoyleWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GargoyleWB)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2005, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-geek-poll-best-one-man-snub-fighter/324413/42 "2005-10-04T18:20:21Z")
I have to go with the Earth Defence Force fighters from the Buck Rogers tv series. Sleek and maneuverable, and delightfully low tech with just a joystick and a fire button. ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2005, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-geek-poll-best-one-man-snub-fighter/324413/43 "2005-10-04T18:33:36Z")
> [@chrisk](#): > > no, IIRC those weren’t manned fighters but just insystem automated defense drones or something like that… pathetically overmatched against the borg, of course. One theory that I’ve heard was that they were supposed to be like cruise missiles or something along those lines. There is another episode where the same model is used for some sort of warp drive testing drone. > [@](#): > > Based on the timing, the peregrine fighters might have been something that was ‘on the drawing board’ at the time… meant for possible use against the Borg (after they were first encountered way the hell out there,) but not ready yet because the first cube arrived in the federation much earlier than expected. Like the Defiant class starships. ISTR that the Peregrines used by the Federation is very similar to the fighters used by the Maquis earlier in the series. It might thus be an older design that is only brought out during warfare. Small fast ships are easy to mass produce on short notice, assuming you already have them designed. But yeah, in response to the idea of an X-Wing being better equipped to fight a Borg Cube than Starfleet’s defense drones, might I point out that the Cube is known for swatting largish warships out of space with impunity. I doubt a single X-Wing will have much luck. Now, a squadron of X-Wings, having captured the plans to the Borg Cube and knowing of it’s one weakness… 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Banquet\_Bear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banquet_bear/32/373_2.png) [@Banquet\_Bear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banquet_Bear)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2005, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-geek-poll-best-one-man-snub-fighter/324413/44 "2005-10-04T20:27:04Z")
> [@Raguleader](#): > > But yeah, in response to the idea of an X-Wing being better equipped to fight a Borg Cube than Starfleet’s defense drones, might I point out that the Cube is known for swatting largish warships out of space with impunity. I doubt a single X-Wing will have much luck. Now, a squadron of X-Wings, having captured the plans to the Borg Cube and knowing of it’s one weakness… 😉 [HIJACK] …there is an entire section of fandom dedicated to the **Star Trek vs Star Wars** debate, they would use on screen evidence, technical booklets and other means to determine who would win: classic battles would include The Millenium Falcon vs the Defiant (Although the White Star vs Defiant was the most poplular debate), Enterprice A vs a Star Destroyer, and a Stormtrooper vs a Red Shirt. Debates were hard and well fought, true victories were scarce. In 2002 a book was released called “Attack of the Clones: Incredible Cross Sections” by Curtis Saxton, that literally put an end to the SW vs ST debate overnight. The Lucas authorised book contained weapon yields vastly superior to anything the Pro-Trek lobby could field. In simpler words, Star Wars wins. This is an incredibly touchy subject: when I jokingly bought it up on a previous Straight Dope Thread, one of the participants took my comments seriously… [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=140180&highlight=enterprise+star+destroyer](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=140180&highlight=enterprise+star+destroyer) The startling differences in firepower can be seen here on Mike Wong’s website: [http://www.stardestroyer.net/Empire/Essays/FiveMinutes.html](http://www.stardestroyer.net/Empire/Essays/FiveMinutes.html) and for more information on the debate: > **[Comparison of Star Trek and Star Wars](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek_versus_Star_Wars)** > > Star Trek and Star Wars are American media franchises which present alternative scenarios of space adventure. The two franchises dominate this setting of storytelling and have offered various forms of media productions for decades that manage billions of dollars of intellectual property, providing employment and entertainment for billions of people around the world. > Star Trek was introduced in 1966 as a live-action television series and lasted three years and 79 episodes. Star Trek: The Animat... [/END HIJACK] ---
**Author:** ![cerberus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/71e660/32.png) [@cerberus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cerberus)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2005, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-geek-poll-best-one-man-snub-fighter/324413/45 "2005-10-05T01:23:12Z")
The fighter from Above and Beyond is called a [Hammerhead](http://web-worthy.com/saab/encyclopedia/search.mv?Search=hammerhead) . ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2005, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-geek-poll-best-one-man-snub-fighter/324413/46 "2005-10-05T02:46:07Z")
Two other written scifi fighters. Troll fighters from _The Apocalypse Troll_ are one man ( OK, one Troll ) fighters. Trolls are cyborgs; modified psychopathic human brains wired into the fighter ( or tank as neccessary ). It is armed with nuclear missles and “blasters”, which deliver pulses of plasma through hyperspace. The power of blasters is unknown, but a pistol version has a 1.8 kiloton per second firepower. It’s drive field can absorb most attacks, but can only point in one direction at a time ( that’s how the U.S Navy knocked some down ). It also has it’s own FTL drive. From _Footfall_ comes the ultimate in crudity for a space fighter, the Stovepipes. Stovepipes are dismounted 16 inch battleship guns, with a pilot compartment and rocket engines attached. ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2005, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-geek-poll-best-one-man-snub-fighter/324413/47 "2005-10-05T02:48:42Z")
> [@Raguleader](#): > > From what I’ve seen, a Peregrine is about the same size as a runabout, but with proportionally more engine and less crewspace. In one episode, we see them swarming a variety of Cardassian ships and pelting them with miniature photon torpedos. They typically took about two glancing shots to take down, but there were lots of them in that fight. > > Looked to be much faster than a Runabout, with a cool afterburner-ish glow on their impulse engines whenever they’d pull out of an attack and fly away. > > Otherwise, their jobs were to fly past the Defiant in a delta formation and look cool during fleet shots. I can see the argument for them being faster with the larger engines but not heavily armed. Just looking at them, a Danube looks to be crawling with technology and don’t forget that, like the Nebula Class, they have mission-specific modules that can be attached to the topside rear of the ship, including photorp launchers. I could be convinced to back a Peregrine in a race but I’d still put money on the Runabout in a fight. > [@Banquet Bear](#): > > [HIJACK] > …In 2002 a book was released called “Attack of the Clones: Incredible Cross Sections” by Curtis Saxton, that literally put an end to the SW vs ST debate overnight. The Lucas authorised book contained weapon yields vastly superior to anything the Pro-Trek lobby could field. In simpler words, Star Wars wins. I don’t care enough to fully read the wikipedia article to see if this is mentioned but I don’t see how that book could conclusively prove Star Wars’ supposed superiority when Okuda and his team consciously obfuscated any kind of dialogue that might date them by using the prefix “iso” to replace “kilo”, “giga”, et al. A quantum torpedo has a 25 isoton yield but that really tells us nothing. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2005, 7:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-geek-poll-best-one-man-snub-fighter/324413/48 "2005-10-05T07:39:10Z")
> [@Aesiron](#): > > A quantum torpedo has a 25 isoton yield but that really tells us nothing. [geek alert] Actually, the yield of a photon torpedo has been estimated at about 65 megatons, maximum, going by the official numbers about how much antimatter they carry as a warhead. Working from that, a Quantum torpedo’s yield is about 200 megatons. [/geek alert] Unfortunately, beyond that, any in-depth analysis of Trek vs. Wars firepower—while at least, in theory, you should be able to do impartially—tends to be badly colored by the prejudices of whoever’s doing the reviewing. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![chrisk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@chrisk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chrisk)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2005, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-geek-poll-best-one-man-snub-fighter/324413/49 "2005-10-05T12:06:05Z")
> [@Ranchoth](#): > > [geek alert] Actually, the yield of a photon torpedo has been estimated at about 65 megatons, maximum, going by the official numbers about how much antimatter they carry as a warhead. Working from that, a Quantum torpedo’s yield is about 200 megatons. [/geek alert] Umm… I’m curious, where did you get that?? Is there an official source saying that a QT is about three times as powerful as a photon? (Has it ever even been established just what quantum torpedos do, what power source they tap into, and if they have any particular connection with the star-busters developed by Soren in ‘Generations’?? I’ve heard or possibly made some speculation along those lines, based really on nothing more than the timing of when quantum torpedos first appeared.) ---
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2005, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-geek-poll-best-one-man-snub-fighter/324413/50 "2005-10-05T15:33:33Z")
> [@bouv](#): > > I don’t know about the Tie Defender. Sure, it was the best overall ship, but it seemed like such a cop-out to me. It’s almost as fast as an A-Wing, as tough as a Y-Wing, and as well armed as a B-Wing. Pretty much _too_ good. > . Point taken. I’ll trade it for the TIE Advanced, which can hold it’s own with any Rebel fighter without being uber. The Assualt gunboat is basically an imperial X-wing that’s as slow as a Y-wing(or so it seemed), and I always felt the speed of the Y-wing was one of it’s biggest weaknesses. ---
**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2005, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-geek-poll-best-one-man-snub-fighter/324413/51 "2005-10-05T18:15:28Z")
Tie/As are candy for my Y-Wing, though. The centrally mounted guns work really well. And there are ways to make your lagging engine work for you… as you can pitch _really_ well. Not so much speed, but pitch and yaw is very fast. And, of course, you can just ram the suckers. ---
**Author:** ![bouv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2005, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-geek-poll-best-one-man-snub-fighter/324413/52 "2005-10-05T19:05:23Z")
> [@HPL](#): > > Point taken. I’ll trade it for the TIE Advanced, which can hold it’s own with any Rebel fighter without being uber. The Assualt gunboat is basically an imperial X-wing that’s as slow as a Y-wing(or so it seemed), and I always felt the speed of the Y-wing was one of it’s biggest weaknesses. Yeah, the TIE/A is nice. But the gunboat isn’t really an X-Wing that’s as slow as a Y-Wing…it IS a Y-Wing. I mean, it has ion cannons, and a larger missle payload. Although it _might_ be a little faster than a Y-Wing, I don’t know for sure. It’s not as tough, so it would make sense that it should at least be faster. And I realized I negelcted to mention my vote for bvest fighter. If it _has_ top be a one man fighter, than I vote for the Minbari fighter from Babylon 5. Apparantly, more manuvarable and stronger than the Starfuries, but only because of a theoritical propulsion system (it uses a gravimetric engine, which basically pulls the ship in any direction, thus can mimic perfect atmospheric flight, and can therefore pitch, yaw, and bank.) However, the Starfurry IS worth noting, because it is 100% plausible given current tech levels. In the show, they obeyed the laws of momentum in space, they never did things that only a craft in an atmosphere could do, and were (mostly) practical. Four arms, with an engine on each side mounted at the corners, makes sense from a physics standpoint. But having the pilot stand up, with 80% of the front surface be glass? Not so hot. Though it also makes sense, if you stop to think, because it’s the easiest way to see what’s below you. But still…looks a little goofy, and a lot unsafe. But the Thunderbolt Starfury changed thast, but it is a 2-man fighter, and IIRC, got a lot fo flack for being too similar to an X-Wing (at least from Star Wars fans.) But again, it only looks that way because that’s what’s practical. It’s basuically an X-Wing ere an X-Wing made better. Guns on the wings? Not nearly as good as guns right below the pilot. Much easier to target, since you don’t have to rely on an optimum distance for the guns to converge at. ---
**Author:** ![sturmhauke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e47c2d/32.png) [@sturmhauke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sturmhauke)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2005, 7:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-geek-poll-best-one-man-snub-fighter/324413/53 "2005-10-07T07:12:39Z")
> [@HPL](#): > > The missle boat was great too, but lacking a bit on the laser side. If you ran out of missles, you were screwed(but it can carry up to 80 missles, so that’s not too likely). I dunno if I’d say the missile boat was lacking in laser firepower. Rather than having the typical starfighter blasters, it seemed to have a small turbolaser battery. It took a while to charge the damn thing unless you directed all your energy into it, but one hit from it did pretty large damage. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2005, 7:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-geek-poll-best-one-man-snub-fighter/324413/54 "2005-10-07T07:53:46Z")
> [@chrisk](#): > > Umm… I’m curious, where did you get that?? Is there an official source saying that a QT is about three times as powerful as a photon? (Has it ever even been established just what quantum torpedos do, what power source they tap into, and if they have any particular connection with the star-busters developed by Soren in ‘Generations’?? I’ve heard or possibly made some speculation along those lines, based really on nothing more than the timing of when quantum torpedos first appeared.) Sorry, my mistake—It’s only about _twice_ the yield of a Photon Torpeo. (50 Isotons, over about 20 for the Photon Torpedo.) And the Quantums are supposed to use “zero point energy” from an “ultrapure vaccum.” That’s according to the _Deep Space Nine_ technical manual, which goes into the subject in more detail. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-geek-poll-best-one-man-snub-fighter/324413.md?page=2)