Starfox Tech Explained

[Showtime 1-1]

Hey guys, I have a bit of explaining to do.

I stared work on a fanfic, which is more of an independant side-story to the Starfox Canon, with many shared events but not any real interaction between my story and the Starfox story. Part of it covers the time before the Lylat wars, and even before the dawn of the G-Diffuser. I'm a pretty technical guy, training to be an aircraft maintenance engineer, and writing all this fictoral history, I figured I needed to establish some solid technical explanations for the machines and systems used in the Starfox Universe.

The official information i could find is mercifully vague, which I took as an invitation for some artistic license. I've made some solid, but fictional, assumptions with regards to how a G-Diffuser works and what it does, and from that, I've derived the systems that powered starfighters before G-Diffusers.

I have loosely modeled the progression after the escalation of fighter jet technology, starting in the 1960's and working up to now. The Lylat wars take place at a developmental stage roughly equal to the 1990's, when lightweight, multirole, fly-by-wire fighters (G-Diffuser equipped) had taken the front lines from the bigger, heavier, but faster, specialized fighters (non G-Diffuser).

My real question is, has anybody done this before? Does anybody here know about a technical explanation, canon or not, about how G-diffusers work? If you do, please post, because I want to know. If anybody shows an interest here, I'll explain how I've thought of it. I plan to write up a faux research-paper on the functions of these engines that I'll post along with my story once it's ready, but I'd really like to fine-tune my work first. Thanks!

[chaos_Leader]

I worked this out a little differently. Most importantly, I figured the G-diffuser far more commonplace than simply a rare thing fitted specially to the arwing. It's on practically everything that flies.

For the sake of the story, I assume that the scince of Star Fox has disovered the hypothetical graviton particle: the quantum unit of gravity, like an electron or a photon. A G-diffuser, where G represents Graviton, scatters or diffuses a mass's graviton exchange with other masses. This makes the vehicle to which a G-diffuser is installed far less affected by gravity, or completely unaffected.

That's what I got.

[ballisticwaffles]

I was under the impression that The G-Diffuser was something along the lines of Gravity Dispersion, In that it either helps disperse the weight of gravity, making atmosphearic and large object, flight easier, or in that it was an inertial disperser in that it can reduce the amount of "Gees" on a pilot, making difficult movements, such as barrel rolls, possable without snapping bones.

But thats my crackpot theory, here is arwingpedia

http://starfox.wikia.com/wiki/G-Diffusion

[Psygonis]

We've had some rather advanced tech-related stuff on the Shadows of Lylat board, here:

http://game-warden.com/forum/showthread.php?t=8090

Hope you enjoy it! :)

[Ala1n-J]

We've had some rather advanced tech-related stuff on the Shadows of Lylat board, here:

http://game-warden.c...read.php?t=8090

Hope you enjoy it!

Wow, great link Psygonis! I learned so much on the arwing! Good thing I took Science as "route" in high school.

Thanks, dude (or should I say, merci l'ami)!

Hope it'll help you, Showtime.

[psy_commando]

Here's some stuff I was able to translate a while ago, from the MFP, about the G-Diffuser : http://dl.dropbox.co...P_%20010_p7.jpg

By the way there is a typo on the translated page its "attitude" not "altitude".

Here's the original : http://f.starfox-onl...?currentpage=11

[Robert Monroe]

[Showtime 1-1]

Actually, a lot of that stuff above is pretty similar to what I thought up.

My basic hypothysis is that "The movement of polarized ions in a plasma creates a gravitational field, in the same way that the movement of electrons through a conductor creates a magnetic flux field which, when expanded or collapsed, induces a countering electromotive force."

Basically, as one of these polarised ions accelerates or slows down when moving in a plasma, it creates a gravitational force in the opposite direction of it's acceleration (or the same direction of it's deceleration).

A G-Diffuser uses electromotive force to rapidly move these polarized ions back and forth. This creates both an "ebb" and a "flow" in gravity, as the ions accelerate and decelerate.

Diffuser Foils on the wings of a ship use the "ebb" in gravity to create a "low gravity area" above the ship. This creates a lifting force, and allows for very tight maneuvers, becasue the ship basically "falls up".

The thruster on the rear of the ship uses the "flow" in gravity to create a "high gravity area", or "wave" of gravity behind the ship, pushing it along.

This system works well in both space flight and atmospheric flight, and does away with complex systems of individual directional thrusters, atmospheric flight controls, and directional intertia gyros, although variable position Diffuser Foils are sometimes required to account for the aerodynamic effects of an atmosphere. Control of the ship can be done at any speed in any condition by simply changing the orientation of the Diffuser Foils.

This explanation also explains why doing a barrel roll could deflect incoming shots; by spinning the diffuser foils, you are creating a huge gravitational anomaly, enough to deflect any projectile or a weak laser.

I stayed totally away from cobustion engines, for two reasons. First, I figured that by the Starfox timeline, they would be ancient history. Second, after working with jet turbine engines, I have learned that there are severe technical drawbacks inherent in the design which would have to be worked around rather then overcome.

And yeah, I also figured that G-Diffusers were pretty run-of-the-mill in the Starfox universe; after all, they would have been used to generate artificial gravity on spacecraft for decades beforehand. But like the turbine engine, which was used as an industrial power generator long before world war 2, the G-Diffuser system didn't reach it's prime until it began to be utilized on fighters.

The other system I thought up, which was the most widely used before the advent of the G-Diffuser, is called an Ion-Drive (or Plasma Ion Thruster) engine.

Basically, a particle accelerator fires charged, polarized ions into a tube of plasma. As the ions move through the plasma tube, they decelerate, creating an ebb, or "ripple" in gravity. This pulls along particles of matter outside the plasma tube, which are then focused to create thrust.

Once I have some time, I'll write up a full report comparing the two systems and explaining them in more detail. For now, I'd love for someone to play Devil's Advocate, just to help me refine my theroies.