COLONIAL VIPERS | Viper models from the mark I to the mark VII explained | Battlestar galactica lore 

"Stubby little wings that could in no way support flight." *F-104* "Am I joke to you?"

If you're ever having a bad day, just be thankful you're not strapped to a fragile rocketship, yetted out into the depths of space through the Holy Wall of Flak (blessed be it's name) at Mach Fuck by an electromagnetic catapult into an oncoming wall of densely packed and extremely angry ass-grabbing robots, and expected to just make it work.

Small quibble, but BSG: Deadlock is not what introduced the Viper mk.1 to the RDM remake timeline. In the very first part of the Miniseries, there is a Viper mk.1 on display in the museum aboard Galactica. It was either non-functional or deemed too outdated to be reactivated like the mk.2s from the museum were, so it was never seen again in the series. But the point is, the Mk.1 was ALWAYS meant to be a part of the re-make's lore as an older ship.

One thing you should have noticed is that due to most of the mass being in the rear of the vehicle the maneuvering thrusters in the nose gives the Viper the leverage needed to literally turn on a dime in combat.

Viper wings also had RCS thrusters on the wing tips to increase roll and pitch authority [putting thrusters out on arms adds to leverage]

The Battle for New Caprica was visually stunning, but tactically and strategically a disaster. Bill Adama made the calculated decision to sacrifice Galactica and Save Pegasus because Pegasus had all the manufacturing and logistics equipment to be truly self sufficient. Her foundries could not only produce replacement ships, but spare parts for other ships in the fleet. Her library contained schematics and technical readouts for so much equipment and was basically a how to build/fix for dummies. Given enough time, I wager Pegasus could begin building corvettes or other small capital ships by sealing one of her four flight decks and using it as a drydock. She has the manufacturing facilities to make components, and the space to assemble them. Lee Adama wanted to save his father. I understand this. But he should have let the Galactica go down and instead evacuate the Admiral and Galactica's crew to the Pegasus. By throwing away Pegasus, he threw away a more powerful combatant and a major logistical resource. In a modern Navy, disobaying direct orders to engage in that kind of unfavorable trade for personal reasons would see you stripped of command at best and drummed out of the navy at worst.

I do not hate my liver enough to accept your challenge.

>can't fly in atmosphere The f-104 would like a word with you.

18:56 If you think that is bad, I suggest reading about the debacle that was the Mk.14 torpedo used by the USN in the opening stages of the Pacific Campaign.

Per Wikipedia, the Trinidad overran the malfunctioning torpedo while using evasive maneuvers against other attacks, rather than a flip & return to momma. She survived that oopsie (minus 32 crew) and was partially repaired at a friendly port. Those repairs were insufficient and made her a lame duck when attacked by a force of JU-88 bombers. She took a hit and it was decided to scuttle her rather than attempt to reach home port for full repairs.

Adding the raptors to standard flight operations in the RDM series was great. Fighters rely in their ewo/ewacs.

yet another great episode guys, but i am a little disappointed that the "blackbird" wasnt mentioned, although to be fair, its status as a "Viper" is debatable...

Also, I love the elongated leading wing edge on the mkvii, looks like an F-18.

Deadlock taught me keeping the vipers as guards is a waste as if you set them to attack they will shred the cylon light ships very quickly one after another without me babysitting them.

Me: "Shut up Liver; you'll be fine."

Back in the late '60s there was a TV show called "UFO". Their space interceptor looks like a predecessor to the BG Viper.

Have you looked at the Hammerhead's from Space Above and Beyond? While filming the prop was being shipped full size and the Russian's thought it was a new fighter that the Airforce had a new design. It was a great looking ship and yes I think it looked better than the Mark 1 Viper even though I love the show.

The soundproofing on the cockpit and helmets must be fantastic, considering that you're sitting there with the engine a few feet behind your head.

You mention an air-breathing jet fighter named "Viper". Such a fighter actually exists, it is currently the most produced jet fighter in use by the USAF and much of NATO as well as other customers. It is the F-16 Viper. It got its name when early F-16 pilots in the USAF thought it had some characteristics in common with the Colonial Vipers of the then popular Battlestar Galactica series of the 1970's as well as General Dynamics using "Viper" as the code name for the development project (also named after the BSG fighter). Before being officially named "Fighting Falcon" the name "Viper" had already stuck and to this day F-16 pilots in the USAF continue to call them "Vipers". Much like how the A-10 was officially named "Thunderbolt II" but everyone knows them as "Warthogs", same deal. Also, it goes full circle with the Viper MK VII. The producers in an interview stated that the Viper MK VII's design was based on the F-16. Many elements of the MK VII's design are actually recognizable features from the F-16 Viper (such as the bubble canopy, leading edge extensions, underside intake, and fly-by-wire control system).

I like Babylon 5's Starfury Aurora better on a practical level - it makes more sense IMHO. But the Viper just plain looks better.

In Freespace 1 & 2, you the player is often tasked to intercept bombers and ordenance to defend capital ships. Iirc in the Wing Commander series you sometimes had this kind of mission too. It's not a trope unique to the Vipers.

Deadlock has some really good ship designs and as for the viper the MKI and prototype MKII in the gamenlook pretty sweet. The BSG game back in the early 2000's also had a bunch of cool viper designs that doesnt get seen very much. The MKII though damn what a fighter.

Babylon 5's "Star Furies" could intercept missiles and had the advantage of being part of a capital ship's "Defensive Grid.". This grid would comprise on-board weapons systems (traditional guns) and fighters. The grid could augment the ship's defensive weaponry by taking control of Star Furies and adding the fighter's weapons to the craft's defensive and offensive screen. In the B5 universe, Earth Force was the only major power to have perfected and implemented this type of "Defensive Grid." After many years of development, it became one of the most potent weapon systems ever deployed and surpassed the older races in lethality. Few, if any, enemy fighters could penetrate this grid due to its targeting accuracy at short and medium ranges. Fewer capital ships would venture within the 'kill zone' [point blank] of the grid without being crippled if not destroyed due to surprisingly awesome firepower from the Star Furies' rapid-fire plasma canons and medium anti-capital ship weapons, not to mention the railguns and particle beam weapons of Earth Force's warships.

Have loved BSG Vipers since the late 70's. In the early to mid 80's my friends and I named our BMX's different Vipers and spent days just bombing around on them...after an appropriate high speed tube launch of course. Better times.

An ASF so cool in the original series, the Jock/Nerd hybrid class known as Air Force Pilots named the F-16 after it.

Next the Starfury from Babylon 5.

I know I say this every other video, but I love this channel, it's entirely my jam. Please keep it up. More spaceship talk the better.

23:22 That seems like that would be an extremely bad thing for them since the Cylons are great at hacking colonial technology. I feel that there are only a few ways to deal with that. 1. Have as little computers as possible or even being entirely mechanical. 2. Being far more advanced than the Cylons could be. But that would be a tall order if you made them or you're on the backfoot as a species trying to survive. 3. Having such a radical difference in technology that it would take a lot of time for them to figure out your technology if at all.

probably not cannon anymore but in the X-wing/tie fighter game series you spent a reasonable amount of time taking out missiles aimed at either your self or capital ships with your fighter

What about the two cannon stealth vipers?

The ^VIPER^ is also my favourite SCI-FI Fighter ship of all time and is even my gaming and discord name. As for the changes from the Mark 2 to the Mark 3, this really does remind me of my favourite Earth based fighter, which is the F/A 18 Hornet. When you look at the difference in size, weapons and capabilities between the early Hornets: A, B, C and D and compare them to the specs of the SUPER HORNET: E, F and G, you can see how similar this looks to the differences between the Mark 2 and the Mark 3.

New to the channel 👍 love the work. Also the FTL theme got me straight away 😊. Subbed

The Viper/mark drinking game is the true reason Steve has disappeared for awhile; he tried to keep up and gave himself alcohol poisoning. May your liver recover soon!

The Viper MK5 you love so much is actually the design from an aborted continuation of the OG BSG.

and dither treating the enemy with an point blank taste of the sun with nuclear munitions LINE GOSE CRAZZY 4:25

My new oven just laughed. Prehistoric toasters?

"Enchonked", whata brilliant word!

Shooting down incoming missiles reminds me of the WWII British fighter pilots that took out the V-1 " buzz bombs.

I would think those wings are more for stability in flight, not lift.

Challenge Accepted. Drinks Ready.

24:17 Oven?! Embrace tradition! Use pan to toast your bread.

There was a old sci-fi game where you piloted different fighter models and part of the missions where to intercept enemy fighter, bomber and Torpedos in capital ship fights. It was called Starlancer and i think Freelancer told the story after Starlancer had ended.

That thing was pretty good at it's job

OOOOOOOOOKAAAAAAAAAAAY! This guy gets BOTH series mixed up!!!! SHEESH!!!!!

Challenge rejected. Haram detected. PS. I did drink copious amounts of Qahwa during the vid tho. Cheers ❤

You missed one... In BSG the Series there was an episode (The Long Patrol) where Starbuck was forced down to a forget penal colony by a 6th Millennium starfighter which looks like a viper with flat wings... the true mark one?

The colonials could establish a multi planet empire but couldn't figure out how to turn the wifi off

1. I think that you accidentally placed this in the wrong Playlist. 2. I don't think that the mark IV would have whatever it is on the front of the engines like that, but it is an interesting idea. 3. Very nice video. Please keep up the good work.

I liked how after the Pegasus the Viper fleet transitioned to primarily Mk VII.

Have to object to your claim the vipers wings dont help with atmospheric flight due to small size. The size of the vipers wings are comparable to those of the F-104 Starfighter, which was highly maneuverable, very fast.

I grew up in the 70’s and 80’s and this show was My favorite I had a bunch of the toys and I had the ship from Space 1999 and would play with them all the time.

You missed one... in the original series Starbuck was forced to land on a forgotten penal colony by an early model viper. Were is that one? He was forced down because his viper was unarmed as the turbo generators for guns were removed to give him more turbo boost

Cool use of Bill Prunty's FTL music!

Said that there was no instance of fighters being used to shoot down ordinance fired at the Galactica. This is not necessarily true. In WWII Germany would fire BUZZ BOMBS at brittan. The RAF would use spitfire fighters to fly along side of them and then with their wing tips they would smack them and send them off course, if not just outright shooting them down like pigeons.

i love the Mk 7. though to be fair had I been on the design team for the RIS i would have argued to replace the dorsal gun with a D'assault Rafale style ECM Suit. the 3rd gun over the cockpit gives me E-Wing flashbacks

Thanks!

GOD I would love to see a game in this universe that is modern

Excellent Video. One thing that always bugged me about the RDM remake though is that while their Capital and ships down to Raptor-size MUST have some level of Artificial Gravity/Inertial Dampeners (Not necessarily the same thing), we don't actually know if the Fighter Craft did. BSG '78 clearly did because... 1,000 years of Space-Combat = Crushingly Better Tech than less than 60 in the remake. In the '04 version, even the Viper Mark II likely could EASILY exceed in any vector, what the Human Body could withstand, making any Speed/Maneuverability improvements moot. So Inertial Dampening tech becomes absolutely mandatory to take advantage of those improvements.

"mark" was said 61 times, didn't keep track of "viper" but 61 shots should be more than enough to knock someone out so...

The 2003 Battlestar Galactica video game took place in the original 1970s universe during the first cylon war (non-cannonical now) That game had a version of the mkiii viper. Though it was a little bigger than the mkii, the biggest visual difference was that version of the mkiii had a third autocannon mounted above the cockpit.

Theres even an older raptor, theres piston engine/turboprop models before the atmospheric jetfighter, you see them in caprica in a flight simulator, also you should do a misic small craft video, cover the taipan and the chaff dispenser small craft of the first war

i have seen a cool model of a ww2 themed viper conversion based of the jet version shown in Caprica

The "Mk IV" was a proposed design for the stillborn Bryan Singer movie. I think two wood full size models were partially built before production was stopped due to 9/11 and other obstacles.

Sorry to disagree, but for me the Mk1 is still the most beautiful version. I love the more industrial look, with the engines not fully covered, the bigger and more rectangular air intakes and the sleeker nose. Also the iconic wing shape is just perfect. 🥰

I built the viper in vanilla kerbal with the rapier engines and without. If it went fast enough it would fly really well. I always enjoyed putting around cape kerbal in it..

At the end of the third season Lee Adama was flying in a Mark 7 that had the CNP taken out.

I tried joining your discord server and your link turns up as expired. It may be time to generate a new invite?

Mark 1 Viper. Outrun. Yes Out gunned? Maybe Outclassed? NEVER

Viper II ---> Viper III = Legacy F/A-18 Hornet ---> Super Hornet. Looks alike, but is larger in every dimension and a new ship under the skin.

It's Viper squadrons not squad since a squad is an infantry organizational element that is the smallest in size. However a squadron is what a fighter organizational element stemming from cavalry of old or so.

Now on to the video about the Cylon themselves

What happend to Steve?

To be honest the 3 main sci fi hero ships of the late 70s was an swing a viper and the thunderfighter from buck rodgers. The thunder fighter looked like if a star wars howlrunner and snow speeder had a love child and it became a space fighter. But those 3 ships cemented sci love of space fighter ships. Then as villains you had tie and Cylon ships. I had all 5 as a kid.

What about the early Viper from the original series episode think it was "Prison Planet"? I don't remember if it was called a Viper or maybe it was an Asp? It looked like a Viper except the wings were flat instead of canted down as on the Viper.

You forgot to mention this, but in the original BSG (1978) the Vipers also had a scouting role to check various routes a head to find the safest routes for the Galatica and the fleet.

Like the idea that the Viper continued to be a chonker in the Mk IV with fleet command wanting a do-all craft that still didn't use any automation. I imagine the Mk. V being more purpose-built and beginning to be once again a little more compact as the computers within that were not connected to anything important were allowed to be multi-function again. Think 1996 before WiFi with a laptop in the car loaded with Mapquest data. Sure, the computer wasn't hard-wired to be single purpose. This allows the Mk IV to be enshrunkened a little as computer paranoia begins to subside a bit. The Mk VI using the simpler Mk VII concept art makes sense. And of course the Mk VII-B being simplified for faster production makes sense. Leave out the computers, reduce the materials used to construct the part of the nose they formerly occupied, skip pointless things like fancy paint jobs. Get it built and get it in the tube. And this ability to replenish lost supplies and equipment that can be built by mechanized factories is THE REASON Lee was an idiot. Yes, it probably wouldn't have mattered which battlestar they had. But no, Lee could never have known that. I'm confident Bill had a plan to get the hell out of there because he would know damned well how inexperienced Lee was. And Lee was the only other officer who might have been ready for command. But that … is another debate.

4:07 *Looks like Apollo's brother Zac receiving the damage that will lead to his death after he & Apollo discover the empty cylon tankers & are jumped by cylon raiders just before the peace conference set up by Baltar from the original series*

Admiral Cain: Why are these Vipers painted!

hey SCI, just a heads up this video is showing up in the Battletech playlist, not the BSG playlist. Love both universes and your vids but just FYI.

Video like this on the Starfury ?

Vipers are smexy AF. In WH40k universe, Fury Interceptors. Hell Blades and Swiftdeath Fighters are used to screen capital ships from missile or torpedo barrage

Where you getting all your cool pictures

I wonder if you know about the projects working on 1:1 models of the Colonial Viper? I know because it's also one of my favorites :D BTW the Discord link is expired.

I'm surprised that twin canted vertical tails with guns and engine thrust vectoring were not considered for the newer variants

You know. My profile picture IS cute. My name IS funny. Anchovies though?!?!? Are.... yeah pretty nasty I won't lie there. Keep up the awesome videos!

I tried your "challenge" young sir! I will try again on the morrow!

Fighters go bbrrrttttttt

I love all the great things you had to say about the viper in the beginning of this video considering going to last video you said how useless it was to even do it and there was not much to them I guess when you can make a few bucks it's ok

Make sure someone at SC.I adds this to the BSG playlist

19:08 Ealy war American torpedoes were so wose especially the attempt at homing torpedoes.

Nothing worse then fighting "talkie toaster " in the morning.

This is in the Battletech playlist for some reason. Not sure if you knew.

I always considered the fighter known as the 6th Millennium Starfighter (from the original series) as a predecessor to the viper, using a similar spaceframe, but we're just talking about vipers I guess 😉

Just a heads up, this video's in the battletech playlist

Man I loved this. I personally think the way they killed off the Pegasus was stupid. They could have set a ambush for the two battlestars but have the Cylons focus down the Pegasus rather than the captains decision to sacrifice the new and better Pegasus class for the older outdated, not able to build its own vipers Galactica.

I have loved the Viper since 1978, It is such a cool design. I do like the new designs from the reimagined series as well. I much prefer the original series over the reimagined one and think they could have done a much better job, much like the new star wars movies they had a blank canvas to expand the story but decided to jump on the let's just redo the original with some twists bandwagon.

Adama flew the MkII. Literally in Canon and one of the first to launch in the pilot.

It's my favorite sci-fi fighter. I like it better than the X-wing, even. It's engineered to have maximum effect in a minimal frame, and the shape and placement of the wings and engines is aesthetically pleasing. Original is probably my favorite, but I also like the curvier MII. The MVII kind of lost the iconic look, though, in my opinion. You're going to hate me for saying that. Maybe I'm just too fond of the older version, but I don't like the look of the VII. Buck Rogers' Starfighter is also a very nice-looking ship, but the Viper is my favorite.

The dreaded hot run during WW2 some subs killed themselves with their own torpedoes

No mention of Starbuck's cobbled together stealth 'Blackbird'? Surely that would be the only Mark 8 ?