Seto wrote:At the point we see the Alpha in Sentinels, it's already at least in low rate initial production and more likely has already cleared operational evaluation and entered mass production given that the UEEF is already training its rank-and-file pilots on them. It's profoundly unlikely that the UEEF would consider anything more than the most minor changes to the aircraft at that point.
I agree about the Alpha's production status. I do agree that for the given models produced by 2022 minor changes are more likely than major changes. I do disagree that the aircraft can not see major changes for the next model(s) that might come along, and some of these might have been produced for testing but did not procede to production. (Given all the work that goes into a new model, Edwards could co-opt such work in the open to reduce the load on his Shadow Fighter Development team).
Seto wrote: In the original/correct specification, this is just a thrust vectoring nozzle connected to the main turbines used for VTOL. Removing it will not free up ANY internal space for propellant storage or anything else because the ducting it's connected to still needs to be there to feed main nozzles in the feet. It's not like you're going to get a radically more efficient nozzle either because it doesn't need to be complex to do either of its main jobs.
The Nozzles are 3-D structures, we know this from the cutaway. Using 2 profile views from AotSC (pg78, side and bottom view), and scaling them the Forward nozzles (hidden behind the square area with the delta marking) are ~0.70m x ~0.58m and the rear is ~0.35m x ~0.35m, the main issue as I said before is their depth. If all are ~0.23m in depth (which can not exceed ~1.1m, the height of fuselage in F mode sans arms/canopy/landing gear) one ends up with ~95L and ~28L respectively (1cubic meter = 1000L), and the ~0.23m depth is pessimistic I would think and is based on the undercarriage center-line protrusion. That is 123L in total, even if we cut the depth in 1/2 for ultra pessimistic that is 61.5L vs a best case scenario of 72L if the HBT/PC-cells are the only source. That is hardly a trivial improvement as you've nearly (if not out right) doubled the capacity.
There is room for improvements in the nozzle design of the VTOL.
Seto wrote:What it amounts to is proof that the Shadow Fighter CANNOT be using the same docking system used on the regular Alpha because the people who spent years developing this movie literally couldn't figure out how to make the existing docking connector work on the Shadow Fighter's design. The omission itself in light of their inability to get it to work could be called an animation error, then again you've been clinging to an equally-fallacious scene as gospel truth so... are they both animation errors, and therefore your entire premise is faulty or is this evidence that the Beta docks differently to Shadow Fighters because they couldn't get the existing design to work, and therefore your entire premise is faulty?
This is something different given we know they could not get the CGI to work, but the handdrawn H/I/Zs in the 80s could get it to work and the only real applicable difference between them and the -S/X in this matter is the nature of the battloid's groin area (vented vs non) which would mean this is an AE given the docking beam is visible in other media that preceded it. There is also no indication officially that the docking system changed on the Shadow Units, nor is there an indication that the Regular versions can not dock with a Shadow version (due to docking incompatibilities, not negating the Shadow Device), and we know the H/I/Z use the same Beta model (just painted to match the Alpha) given MS & KP's attempted switch in Sentinels and IIRC "Birthday Blues" with the -I docked to the Beta. The Docking Beam still exists and visible in Fighter Mode, at best you might have a case for a SEPARATE system added for Battloid Mode only.
The scene in question is also taken at face value in terms of implications, which DO NOT line up with the background info which has aspects we agree don't make sense, aspects that don't add up (even w/o TSC), and aspects that are poorly defined.