How different would Starfleet have been...

[Melakon]

How different would Starfleet have been if it had been based on the Air Force instead of the Navy?

One of the earliest sci-fi shows I remember watching was Men into Space, where the lead character was an Air Force Colonel. The show aired in 1959, before the United States ever had a manned spaceflight.

I know nothing of military operations, but would Starfleet have functioned differently if it wasn't based on the Navy? Instead of fleets, would we have had squadrons or wings?

 

[TheAdmiralty]

Early TNG would have been very Top Gun.........

 

[bbjeg]

I have a feeling the ships would be much smaller and they would travel in squads. Also, the Enterprise may have been an outpost/base.

 

[C.E. Evans]

Starforce instead of Starfleet. Colonels instead of captains and captains instead of lieutenants. More air force traditions than naval ones.

Starfortresses instead of starships, and a lot more starfighters.

 

[urbandefault]

Early TNG would have been very Top Gun.........

Top Gun is Navy.

I have a feeling the ships would be much smaller and they would travel in squads. Also, the Enterprise may have been an outpost/base.

This.

 

[Melakon]

Yeah, I tend to favor outpost bases with small fleet yards in the fictional universes I come up with. Perhaps an influence from 60s shows like Combat!, 12 O'Clock High, and such, along with dad and brother being former Army. I didn't watch many naval shows on TV.

It also sort of surprises me Roddenberry didn't base it on his own branch of the service.

 

[Fabrux]

An example of Air Force-based space ships can be found in the Stargate franchise.

 

[Ithekro]

I still remember arguments about the illogic of fighters/carriers in space. Based in the logic of fighters being there because air and water are two different mediums, and having fighters In space is redundant when you can just warp away. Built more ships rather than manned missile platforms or drones.

This comes up from time to time at gaming conventions when a space game or series has fighters in it...like Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica, Star Blazers, Babylon 5, and Space, Above and Beyond.

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

Early TNG would have been very Top Gun.........

Full of repressed homosexuality and half-nude volley ball? Yes please