Delta Wing Starfury Squadron
Delta Wing, "The Ghost Riders", was commissioned in 2257, the third of Babylon 5's Starfury Squadrons. The squadron uses the Mitchell-Hyundyne SA-23E Starfury Aurora variant. In the company of Lieutenant Commander Susan Ivanova, you have taken a car round to the next Cobra Bay arm, and entered Delta Squadron's Ops room.
So, you've never ridden fire in a 'Fury, Sir? Well, you've certainly missed out on one of the most exhilarating flying experiences. You should get away from your desk more often. Sorry, Sir; I didn't mean to be rude.
Flight Control System
Starfuries have an integrated astronics computer system that handles navigation, manages life support and provides fly-by-wire control. In addition to the all-round view, the cockpit has a large heads-up display that you can control by voice. You can track and identify friendly or enemy ships; and magnify long-range scans.
What's she like to fly? Well, you have this kind of joystick which fires the thrusters in quads or pairs, such that you can spin on a credit, or fly backwards, or jink straight up when someone's coming at you. The stick's on the right arm of the pilot's seat, which makes it easy to control with your hand without having to support the weight of your arm. If, for example, you've got a Raider on your tail, shooting plasma cannon, you can fire both vertical vector thrusters on the lower pylons to jump above the stream of fire, then you can fire the port main engines aft, and the starboard reverse thrusters to spin round clockwise. Naturally, the computer calculates the equal and opposite burst to counter your rotation when you centre the stick. Now, you're flying just as fast, but facing backwards and above the Raider. Angle down a bit to zero in, and bingo! He's toast.
Starfury Firepower
As for weapons, well we've got four Copeland JC466/A Plasma Pulse Discharge Cannons, two located under the top wing pylon, and two set forward under the cockpit. The pilots prefer the lower guns, because the muzzle flash tends to be less irritating than having stuff stream past you at eye level. The cannon work on the same principle as all PPGs - you have a reactor heat up helium till it's ionised, then you spit it out using phase-coil drivers to give it that extra focus and punch. The damage is done when the plasma charge splashes all over the target - you get heat damage and impact damage. Just one hit is all it takes to splash a Raider.
Your left hand controls the weapons. In addition to the main Pulse Discharge Cannon, there's the slower Rocketdyne projectile guns on the same hard-point. They fire slower self-propelled heat-seeking slugs. You can select fox one or fox two with a thumb-toggle and use your trigger finger to fire the cannon in pairs or quads. It sounds complicated, but it's really easy once you get the hang. You can be turning to train your guns on one guy, while you pass through the ion contrail of another. You can lock the heat-seekers on to the second guy, fire and forget, then get on with the first target. It's all managed by the Duffy 1018MJS smart targeting computer.
Offensive and Defensive Systems
If you're really loading for bear, then you can mount external missles on the wing pylons. There are up to eight hard-points you can use. Mostly, we don't bother with missiles, since they can explode in a plasma fight. You tend to want to get rid of them quickly! As for defences, there are four ECM pods on the trailing edge of the wing pylons to jam the other guy's tracking systems.
Apart from that, we mostly rely on our piloting skills and the Starfury's sturdy construction, which counts for a lot. They can withstand maybe a couple of hits before they start to buckle. If we go, then we go. No boom today, boom tomorrow. But the cockpit module can be ejected off the front of the ship, so that gives you one extra fighting chance. And then you wear a high-gee pressure suit, so even if the cockpit gets cracked, you have another chance to get out alive. That's better odds than Russian roulette.
Would you care to visit the next bay now? Just follow the EarthForce signs.
Click on the Starfury fighter to continue to Zeta Squadron.