Probably the biggest one is that it had landing gear. Like, actual wheeled landing gear. Three humongous twin-wheeled bogeys that deployed from hatches in the underside of the ship. As you might imagine, this was very, very rarely used; on the rare occasions when the ship made planetfall at all, she almost always operated as a floating naval vessel (possibly with the aid of her antigravity systems, since it's not at all clear that she would have been passively buoyant). It would have been almost impossible to find a planetary surface that could withstand the colossal ground pressures applied by those wheels.

So why did it have them?

Because the Takatoku/Bandai/Matchbox 1:3000-scale SDF-1 toy has them, and I have one. It's what CLULESS based the ship on. :)

--G.
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Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

Does SDF-23 have the same functionality and has anyone tried that? I'm guessing "no" and "N/A" respectively.

> the looming bulk of the SDF-17, parked on her titanic
> landing gear near the edge of the lake.

Tho obviously no detail as to the gear in this instance :-)

Anyway, that's really cool background and it's neat to hear about that detail of the ship design!

>"Shit--looks like we've got some work to do if we're
>ever going to take off again. Yuri...engage landing cycle.
>Put us down on the outside of the crater."
> "Landing cycle engaged," Yuri replied. From the
>underbelly of the huge fortress, three great hatches opened,
>and from within, huge double-tired landing gear extended.
>The wheels were the size of largish houses, arranged in a
>tricycle pattern; as the battered vessel eased itself down
>onto the fused stone and glass that had once been
>Neo-Worcester, they impressed twelve-foot marks into it.
>Within a minute the SDF-17 was down.

I always remember thinking jeez I hope they don't get a flat. Followed by the mental image of a bunch of orange overall suited Spartan Destroids changing a giant tire.