It's your story, and everything in here is IMHO only, but there are some things that you might want to take into consideration:
Nice aerodynamic design == lousy spacecraft design
Given that a spacecraft is VERY dependent on thrusters in order to change vectors, a design where the main thrusters are placed facing back only is a lousy design. A space fighter, like a fighter jet, needs to be manuverable, ie able to change vectors rapidly. In a conventional Space Shuttle like design, the spacefighter will have to rotate then fire thrusters in order to change vectors efficiently. Even assuming that the spacecraft manuevers using vector jets, the most manueverable design would prolly look like a ball with thrusters at various points. Thus far, the closest I've seen to a really viable spacefighter is prolly the B5 Starfuries
Flying airplanes/fighters != flying "normal" spacecrafts
In your story, the hero starts of as a normal intra atmosphere pilot. This does not equip him with the skills one would need to be a spacecraft fighter pilot. While he prolly has the reaction time and hand eye coordination desired, he will have been trained for the wrong type of reactions. At best, he will be training from scratch. Worst case senario? He'll have to unlearn how to fly in atmosphere...
Of course, being that it's fiction, you can very well write it off as being unnecessarily complicated. Which brings me to the next point.
While realism is fine and all when writing a story, some times you have to take a step back and see if that's really where you want to go. Admittedly, since your story will likely end up only being told in a text format(Yes, it would be nice to see it made into animation, but short of you actually selling the script to some animation company? *shrugs*) it's less of an issue. Remember, the fun part about science fiction is that it's Fiction. Make it plausible, make it fun. We may like to really dig into the tech behind the universe, but at the end of the day, it's the story being told that makes it fun.
I mean, Macross had all the problems you're trying to plug, but we all still enjoyed watching it right?![[Image: Bansho.jpg]](http://www.animecubed.com/billy/pics/sigs/Bansho.jpg)
Be the Ultimate Ninja! Play Billy Vs. SNAKEMAN today!
Nice aerodynamic design == lousy spacecraft design
Given that a spacecraft is VERY dependent on thrusters in order to change vectors, a design where the main thrusters are placed facing back only is a lousy design. A space fighter, like a fighter jet, needs to be manuverable, ie able to change vectors rapidly. In a conventional Space Shuttle like design, the spacefighter will have to rotate then fire thrusters in order to change vectors efficiently. Even assuming that the spacecraft manuevers using vector jets, the most manueverable design would prolly look like a ball with thrusters at various points. Thus far, the closest I've seen to a really viable spacefighter is prolly the B5 Starfuries
Flying airplanes/fighters != flying "normal" spacecrafts
In your story, the hero starts of as a normal intra atmosphere pilot. This does not equip him with the skills one would need to be a spacecraft fighter pilot. While he prolly has the reaction time and hand eye coordination desired, he will have been trained for the wrong type of reactions. At best, he will be training from scratch. Worst case senario? He'll have to unlearn how to fly in atmosphere...
Of course, being that it's fiction, you can very well write it off as being unnecessarily complicated. Which brings me to the next point.
While realism is fine and all when writing a story, some times you have to take a step back and see if that's really where you want to go. Admittedly, since your story will likely end up only being told in a text format(Yes, it would be nice to see it made into animation, but short of you actually selling the script to some animation company? *shrugs*) it's less of an issue. Remember, the fun part about science fiction is that it's Fiction. Make it plausible, make it fun. We may like to really dig into the tech behind the universe, but at the end of the day, it's the story being told that makes it fun.
I mean, Macross had all the problems you're trying to plug, but we all still enjoyed watching it right?
Be the Ultimate Ninja! Play Billy Vs. SNAKEMAN today!