Dropship Trials

[Colt Ward]

What sort of flight tests would you expect for a new dropship- say something large like a Jumbo or Overlord- to undergo as part of it builder's trials?

Would a heavily refurbished dropship go through the same paces?

[Dragon Cat]

Safe Thrust for X amount of hours
Max Thrust for Y amount of time
Maneuvering in space and atmosphere (if capable of it)
Landing and take off empty and full
Docking and undocking
Sensor tracking

Run it through its paces

I'd guess a refurbished ship would need something similar but maybe less stressful depending on what was done to it

[Ruger]

If it is a military DropShip especially, maybe some kind of shock test with explosions set off near it.

Ruger

[Daryk]

Dragon Cat and Ruger have a good start to a list, but I think there would also be a number of flights with unbalanced loads as well.  You have to set the limits of the load master's discretion, after all...

[idea weenie]

Safe Thrust for X amount of hours
Max Thrust for Y amount of time
Maneuvering in space and atmosphere (if capable of it)
Landing and take off empty and full
Docking and undocking
Sensor tracking

Run it through its paces

I'd guess a refurbished ship would need something similar but maybe less stressful depending on what was done to it

Nice list, I'll add the following:

• Hover for X hours
• Open and close the Bay doors a large number of times
• X hours of counter-thrust by the yaw thrusters (the thrusters are used at the same time so the ship doesn't spin)
• X hours of counter-thrust by the roll thrusters
• X hours of counter-thrust by the pitch thrusters
• Engine thrust buildup, going from zero to max thrust and back to zero as rapidly as possible for a large number of times
• Overpressure and temperature testing - you put the ship into space and pressure it to 3-4 atmospheres for several hours, then continue to pressurize it until you get a leak (this is likely done by remote).  The ship is put to high and low temperature extremes to make sure the seals can handle a variety of environments
• Recycle rate for the Quarters (Steerage, 2nd Class, 1st Class), aka how long does it take the systems to convert waste water into drinkable water, plus testing the water
• Re-entry tests to se how the hull handles heating issues
• Air-punching - where the Dropship takes off at its max thrust to see how it handles acceleration through dense atmosphere
• Partially open Bay doors - does the alarm go off properly, and how does the door respond to the atmospheric stresses
• Extending and retracting the landing legs over and over
• Thermal testing of the landing legs to simulate them being deployed while the Dropship is landing (it'd be annoying if a landing leg had a burn-through and didn't deploy properly)
• Overweight conditions - putting extra weight into the Dropship and seeing if the deck bends or if the landing legs have issues.  Further testing would have one of the landing legs retract to see how off-center support handles excess weight
• Non-level terrain testing - Using specially designed vehicles, one of the landing legs is lifted higher than the others to see how the landing system compensates for uneven ground, and when the uneven ground is too much.  Repeat the test with that leg allowed to go lower than the others.  Repeat for all the legs
• Lightning tests - can the ship handle being struck by lightning?
• KF integration - using a test setup, the Dropship must be able to handle the KF field extension without harming the Jumpship or Warship it is being attached to.  This is not done with an actual Jumpship or Warship, but with a basic core with a single Dropship Attachment.  This core has LOTS of sensors in place to measure deviations

Others?

[Colt Ward]

Some of those are going to be shipyard function tests rather than builder's trials, but that is a solid list.  I read something that would make a interesting mercenary campaign scenario and I just wanted to see if people had the same view as I did.

[RifleMech]

How long it takes the ventilation system to air out the refresher. How much the waste system can take before backing up. (Flushing and high gee/negative maneuvers.)
What kind of maneuvers cause what reactions. Bank right and the hot water turns off.  Bank Left and it's the cold.
Can a microwave and hair dryer be used at the same time or blow the circuits?
What size hair dryer will blow the circuits?
Water landings.
Water take offs.
Testing the designers of the ship says it can do.
Testing what the engineers say it can do.
Exceeding both of the above to see what the ship will do.
Will the entertainment system function at high gees?
How comfy are the bunks?
Making sure the WiFi works along with all the other connections.
Making sure the Parental Controls work, for the kid friendly ships.
Loading ramp tolerances.
Making sure the tiedowns work properly.
Make sure the tray tables stay in their upright position when not in use.

[Colt Ward]

Trials generally happen before detail fitting out- you are testing propulsion, power, and in spacecraft's case, life support.  Checking the amenities would be after they are installed.  Mostly b/c if the ship blows up on take off b/c a undetected flaw  . . . well at least you saved a BIT of money.

[RifleMech]

There is that.  But you don't want to get too far into development before finding out the toilet doesn't work.