The problem with combining Speed and Acceleration Drives is that the drive field affects everything inside it. Which means that the thrust from the Acc-Drive down-ramps upon leaving the field to the speed it was travelling relative to the ship it was mounted on. Even drives waved specifically for acceleration don't add much.
Thus, you have to push from outside the drive field. There's the simple way, and the mind-bogglingly complex way.
The simple way is best shown by how the Fenspace Speed Record is usually done. Take a Virgil Samms type ship, tweak the drive field to make it as tight to the skin as possible, then bolt on outriggers with acceleration drives such that the acc-drives are outside the ship's drive field. The main problem with this is the spars of the outriggers have to be really strong to take the stresses involved.
Still, the current Fenspace speed record is held by Hades Station's Research Team, after Eddie discovered that it was possible. They managed to get to a respectable 0.223c in empty space. Their next attempt used a gravitational slingshot around Jupiter and made a whopping 0.24c, but this method was disallowed.
The mid-bogglingly complex way is how the Woodsman UCAVs and Talons get their tremendous speed. By careful manipulation of the Speed Drive field (which requires far too much computer time for many people (sane or insane), and some frighteningly complex drive construction), it was possible to have the drive field end INSIDE the exhaust. Thus transferring the momentum of the thrust inside the field to the thrust outside it.
Yes, it was an effort for Eddie to do the calculations.
The extremely tight control of the drive field also grants higher manoeuvrability and better efficiencies in gravity wells. However, it led to engines as complex (if more reliable and actually able to be learnt by others) as Ben Rhodes' Waved Ion Engines (used by the Midnight and others).
Thus, you have to push from outside the drive field. There's the simple way, and the mind-bogglingly complex way.
The simple way is best shown by how the Fenspace Speed Record is usually done. Take a Virgil Samms type ship, tweak the drive field to make it as tight to the skin as possible, then bolt on outriggers with acceleration drives such that the acc-drives are outside the ship's drive field. The main problem with this is the spars of the outriggers have to be really strong to take the stresses involved.
Still, the current Fenspace speed record is held by Hades Station's Research Team, after Eddie discovered that it was possible. They managed to get to a respectable 0.223c in empty space. Their next attempt used a gravitational slingshot around Jupiter and made a whopping 0.24c, but this method was disallowed.
The mid-bogglingly complex way is how the Woodsman UCAVs and Talons get their tremendous speed. By careful manipulation of the Speed Drive field (which requires far too much computer time for many people (sane or insane), and some frighteningly complex drive construction), it was possible to have the drive field end INSIDE the exhaust. Thus transferring the momentum of the thrust inside the field to the thrust outside it.
Yes, it was an effort for Eddie to do the calculations.
The extremely tight control of the drive field also grants higher manoeuvrability and better efficiencies in gravity wells. However, it led to engines as complex (if more reliable and actually able to be learnt by others) as Ben Rhodes' Waved Ion Engines (used by the Midnight and others).