. The nose section looks like it could be an emergency re-entry shape. I mean, if I were flying an Eagle in LEO, and suffered a catastrophic failure, seems pretty straightforward to hit the "eject" button, have the nose section pop off, and using some roll control jets, set myself up for a descent into the closest convenient gravity well.
Initially I would buy that, but on consideration, to my knowledge all re-entry vehicles (in current use) come in tail end (or bottom side, I think the Shuttle predominantly “pancaked”) first. I remember the most recent successful Mars landing with Perseverance and Ingenuity had a heat shield and came in tail first.
OTOH, Hollywood makes movies and we make Sport Rockets in a more “Fantasy-Style.” The Eagle and Stanley Kubrick’s Discovery One (with David Bowman and Hal 9000 [including the most haunting rendition of “Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer, do…” ever recorded) were quite utilitarian but they did look good. They did lack the swash buckling flair of the X-Wing and the Colonial Viper.
So realistic may be a bit “boring” to the general public.
Regarding alien spacecraft, I found the Formics from the Ender’s Game series to have an interesting and in some ways very plausible completely alien communication method. They communicated “mind to mind”, and they had no written, spoken, or otherwise visible or audible language. Their ships not only had no writing, their controls had no labelling.
If aliens DID have a visualizable communication method, it may not be right to left, left to right, top to bottom, or even linear at all. It is also possible even IF visual it may not be in our preferred light spectrum.
For that matter I recently saw an article on CURRENT space vehicle design that advocated doing away with transparent viewing ports. Vision is rarely needed, and closed circuit television (or equivalent) is likely cheaper and safer than port windows. It’s part of what I think would make submarine duty extremely mentally taxing— no windows (all USN subs now are nuclear, per one commander typical duration
“Knight concludes;
‘So, I would say 120 days max. Or 5 days after the coffee ran out.’”)
So even the cockpit ports are something more stylized than realistic. In fact, that’s probably going to be a potential reversal of design.
For fighter plans, the ability to see behind you for an enemy on your tail (so called, “check your six”) was big deal. It’s one of the things that made the F107 bad and F16 good
The $400,000 F35 helmet has the swash to allow the pilot to effectively “see through” the jet in all directions, so I wonder whether future jets may reduce the canopy “Bubble” in favor of improved cockpit armor coverage and or aerodynamics.
Anyhoo, hats off to another iconic design, Neil!
