Turbolaser Speed and Range

[Frankenerd]

Well, canonically for speed:

According to the TESB (movie, novels, and radio drama), the Rebels were afraid to keep the Hoth Shield open for more than a few seconds (if not much less - some suggest a fraction of a second) - a short enough time that they suggested that timing was important. Given the approximate distance of tens of thousnads of kilometers or so from Hoth for the Imperial warships, this suggests a velocity of thousands/tens of thousands of kilometers a second, at a bare minimum.

We also know they considered bombarding the planet from outside the orbit of Hoth (if not from near the asteroid field itself) - which places weapons ranges easily in the hundreds of kilometrs.

There's also the "lightspeeD" reference in the AOTC ICS, which was echoed by Destiny's Way, the Allston Wraith Squadron novels, and Allston's "Rebel Stand."

Range wise, there are incidents in the Corellian trilogy suggesting hundreds of thosuands of kilometers and tens of thousands of kilometers (minimum) velocities, the Thrawn Trilogy includes some range examples as well. I also believe the WEG Star Wars Sourcecbooks give indications of weapons range/velocity (one suggests ships can engage in combat at speeds in excess of thousands of kilometers a second, and another suggests sensor ranges in conjunction with weapons targeting that imply a range of around a million kilometers, IIRC.)

That's all I can recall off the top of my head (I did a more thorough analysis some time back, though.) If anyone is curious about something I mentioned, just ask for clarification.

Quoting non or Lesser Connon sources when they contradict with the movies seems strange to me!

As far as I can tell, no TL Bolt is on screen for less than three fraims. That gives something less than light speed. In screen captures of the asteroid blasting, the bolt shows in the first three fraims. That every single shot of weapons fire shows this sub-light speed, makes arguing for a faster speed seem?

A far better answer would be some sort of rocket powered missile. This would solve all of the defects in all of the other ideas.

[AdmiralKanos]

We don't like sock puppets around here, Stewart.



Goodbye.

PS. You had to be some kind of blithering idiot to think you wouldn't be identified by your atrocious spelling alone.

[Ender]

You know, I'm not going to complain policy here or anything about his banning, but I think it would have been funny as hell to watch him try to explain away predamage since he says a rocket powered missile explains all TL problems.

[Ghost Rider]

It probably would have...if he didn't already try before.

Stewart of SDI has a nice long history of literally being one of he truly dumb trolls.

As of this day...he considers himself a Super Ninja, marksman, secret agent of 50 years old who runs a private firm out of his paren't basement.

[LapsedPacifist]

I'm surprised. I really thought that the whole spelling thing was an act to make his shit hard to read. I had suspected that if he came back he'd actually spell stuff correctly so it would be harder to tell it was him. Boy was I wrong.

LP

[Connor MacLeod]

Quoting non or Lesser Connon sources when they contradict with the movies seems strange to me!

Prove the contradiction exists, please.

As far as I can tell, no TL Bolt is on screen for less than three fraims.

So you just "think" its so? That means that you only think there is a contradiction?

That gives something less than light speed.

The beam isn't visible, and the pulse is therefore not a good indicator of speed. And how do you explain the fact they don't arc or interact with gravity noticably?

In screen captures of the asteroid blasting, the bolt shows in the first three fraims. That every single shot of weapons fire shows this sub-light speed, makes arguing for a faster speed seem?

Proof, please.

A far better answer would be some sort of rocket powered missile. This would solve all of the defects in all of the other ideas.

Uhm, right. Did you watch the battle of Yavin in ANH? Remember the whole bit about ray and particle shielding?

[Connor MacLeod]

Moreover, I would have loved to see him try to explain how some laser cannons (like those mounted on an X-wing" ) are supposed to fire these "rocket powered" missiles from such tiny apertures.

For that matter, does that mean the superlaser is actually composed of MANY tiny rocket powered missiles fired continuously at Alderaan?

How about how the SPHAT and LAAT's fire those rockets from those flat dishes of theirs?

[Howedar]

Mind, they're big long rockets.

[Connor MacLeod]

Mind, they're big long rockets.

And the glow is from the targeting radars making the surface of the missile glow like they do with soft talc asteroids.

[Praxis]

A bit broken off from the thread I started in the Pure Star Wars forum, but the results there were inconclusive and unsatisfactory, seeing as how what comes from this will likely be used in many SW vs. debates to come. Over at SB.COM, they've started this thread on the speed and range of turbolasers. So far, the consensus seems to be that TL bolts are quite slow, as their progress of travel can be easily seen with on the screen. There are some who maintain that TL bolts can have variable speeds and actually gain momentum with distance. However, I've yet to see that proven. Why is this important? A large contengent of Trekkies maintain that Trek ships can strike Imperial ships from incredible distances, while the slow-moving TL bolts fired by Imperial ships would take days or more to reach the Trek ships (if the Imperial ships fired at all).

Looking for all of your two-cents worth on this.

Note Hoth.
Somewhere on Stardestroyer.net's hate mail is a video clip of it, but i can't seem to find it just now.

The ion cannon from Hoth shot up from the planetary surface (thousands of kilometers) in a second or two. That's really fast.

Off-Topic: I just looked at your avatar...*shiver*...the words of evil itself...