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Description

Main image: fav.me/ddnl31b

The rear of the S-3c FireHound starfighter shows the three PLX-364 engines, the powerful ion thrusters responsible for the fighter's impressive maneuvering capabilities. The unusual configuration allows space for maintenance crews to easily access all three engines from below the wings. It's also the reason for the characteristic rolling and spinning maneuvers that the fighter is known for, as the triangular setup allows any one engine to provide thrust farther from the central axis, for a sharp turn.

Each engine is able to output over 363'000 Newtons of thrust, giving the fighter a maximum acceleration of 126m/s/s, or about 12.8 Gs. This effect is of course largely mitigated for the pilot by the Inertial Compensator system, though that in turn reduces performance by about 5% as it compensates. To that end, many pilots keep their compensators tuned to approximately 80%, balancing out G-force negation with performance reduction.

Description

Main image: fav.me/ddnl31b

The rear of the S-3c FireHound starfighter shows the three PLX-364 engines, the powerful ion thrusters responsible for the fighter's impressive maneuvering capabilities. The unusual configuration allows space for maintenance crews to easily access all three engines from below the wings. It's also the reason for the characteristic rolling and spinning maneuvers that the fighter is known for, as the triangular setup allows any one engine to provide thrust farther from the central axis, for a sharp turn.

Each engine is able to output over 363'000 Newtons of thrust, giving the fighter a maximum acceleration of 126m/s/s, or about 12.8 Gs. This effect is of course largely mitigated for the pilot by the Inertial Compensator system, though that in turn reduces performance by about 5% as it compensates. To that end, many pilots keep their compensators tuned to approximately 80%, balancing out G-force negation with performance reduction.