It's called a spaceSHIP
this post was submitted on 27 Feb 2024
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Space is an ocean. That's why there's space whales.
It's a ship. You use ship terms.
More specifically because travel in space is nearer travel underwater like a sub than flying in a plane.
Because people donβt live in an airplane together for long periods of time. Pilots in sci fi are often aviation themed, but captains are naval because spaceships beyond our current level are closer to battleships, cruise ships, or aircraft carriers than fighter jets or passenger liners.
Because space is an ocean.
Seriously mate, you didn't warn about the TVTropes link? Some of us need to go to bed!
You must suffer with me
I was a good two hours on that bloody site, yawning my head off but unable to look away.
Because they're way more like ships than they are planes -- Planes don't stay in the air indefinitely or take long voyages, have large crews, etc -- They often treat the fighter pilot space ship people like AF though -- Like if I have a 'carrier' with a bunch of smaller ships on it
Space warfare is much closer to naval warfare on Earth, so naval tactics and strategies are more transferable when applied to space. For example: taking weeks to maneuver, and firing at your opponent 100,000 of kms away.
Air sorties are typically completed within hours, because it is ultimately limited by the fuel they can carry.
You'll sometimes see aviation terms for the little fighters that launch from the larger ships, like in macross. I think it's a matter of scale, really. An airplane will usually have single digit crew, maybe double digit. A warship will have hundreds, and the bigger the ship the more the crew.
spaceSHIP
I wonder if it has much to do with the USAF being a relatively new service with a proportional cultural impact, coming into being as a service in 1947. Up until then, combat aviation was subordinate to the Army and Navy. This would point to a preponderance of Army/Navy WWII vets among the show's consultants and audience.
In addition to all the other reasons offered re: functional analogy, many of the aviation terms themselves come from naval / boating / sea-faring. Pilot is a good example, previously having been used in the sense of "riverboat pilot," etc.
A notable exception is the Stargate franchise, where Earth's spacecraft are largely run by the US Air Force.
It also makes sense to not focus on the naval aspects of space flight when you almost never actually fly through space, and almost all your potential theaters of war share a common border (the stargate).
Also ExFor series where the UN's only starship is run by the US Army. But that's more... a consequence of events that lead an infantry soldier to inexplicably be in command of a starship. He even mentions how unusual the whole situation is, and to be in command over actual UN Navy officers. But he remains in command through being the only experienced skipper of a space warship in all of humanity regardless of being in the Army.
He also muses that starships wouldn't be best to be crewed by blue water navy forces, but rather submariners because they too cannot go above deck and are accustomed to long deployments in a tube. A lot of space warfare in that series is sensor evasion and standoff engagements, also like subs.
Haha also has funny lines like "I tossed the ball against the wall. I guess I should call it a bulkhead but I'm in the Army and we call them walls"
Love ExFor. Did you listen to the audio drama? I think itβs like book 7.5 or something
True, but it's only because the Stargate program is an Air Force program
Why does it matter why?
Because it explains why I guess. It's the Air Force who has the space ships because those were possible only thanks to the Stargate program which was run by Air Force for around 6 years I think before Earth got it's first spaceship (if you don't count the goa'uld glider with Air Force decals slapped on it)
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