On Sun, Oct 08, 2017 at 01:41:04PM -0700,  (via tml list) wrote:
> Unstreamlined craft have trouble in atmosphere not just because of
> high velocity. At lower velocities they'll have problems with wind
> loading.

They really won't.  Traveller starships have enormous sectional
densities and moments of inertia compared with any real-life vehicles
of comparable size (and most buildings, for that matter).

Even the smallest and lightest starships are more comparable to huge
flying bricks than to any aircraft.  Any intuition developed from
real-world vehicle operation has no applicability here.  The numbers
given by the physics involved show that until you get to transsonic
speeds in dense atmosphere, aerodynamic forces have negligible effect
on the motion of Traveller starships.  At worst, some particularly
fragile external equipment might be damaged if it was designed to
never enter atmosphere.

> Worse, if they are too close together, the ship may have a tendency
> to "tumble" in the relative airstream.

A tendency that is extremely small and very slow due to the moment of
inertia of a Traveller starship, and trivially correctable due to the
maneuvering forces available.

> This kind of thing is how semis running empty or with a light load
> get blown over or otherwise messed up in strog crosswinds.

Not really.  That is mostly caused by interactions between large,
complicated and rapidly changing contact forces of rolling tyres on
the ground with the wind forces.

Traveller starships have no contact forces to disrupt and are much
less affected by aerodynamic forces in any event.  Winds that would
outright lift a fully loaded semitrailer off the ground, would cause
even the lightest Traveller starship merely some very slight tendency
to drift.

- Tim