The Firefly and Serenity Database
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Crazy-Ivan, a manuever in a twin engined vessel can create a spinning motion on the ship. By having one engine running reverse and another running foreward, the ship can effectively spin around quickly. This maneuver only functions on vessels that have their engines mounted on axis from one another.
 
   
 
The '''Crazy Ivan''' was a maneuver in a twin engined vessel that could create a spinning motion on the ship. By having one engine running reverse and another running forward, the ship could effectively spin around quickly. This maneuver only functioned on vessels that have their engines mounted on axis from one another.
The Crazy Ivan maneuver is a last ditch tactic for crews of Firefly class ships used only when the alternatives are much worse - which is not very often. One was executed at the climax of the [[Serenity_(episode)|Pilot Episode]] to escape from a larger and better armed ship, controlled by the savage and cannibalistic [[Reavers]].
 
   
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==Overview==
This maneuver relies on a Firefly class ship’s ability to rotate its atmospheric maneuvering engines in mid-flight. First, both engines are oriented as normal, with the ship flying forward. Then, one engine cuts off and rotates 180 degrees, then resumes firing. Now one engine is situated normally, and one is backwards with both firing at full force. This allows Serenity to rotate much more quickly than normal and double back to face its pursuers. The crew then initiates the space drive while still in the atmosphere, launching them away from the planet at speeds hazardous for anything less than traveling between planets. Also, since the main engine relies on a trail of plasma behind the ship, starting the drive within the atmosphere catalyzed an impressive explosion.
 
 
The Crazy Ivan maneuver was a last ditch tactic for crews of Firefly class ships, used only when the alternatives were much worse—which was not very often. The crew of ''[[Serenity]]'' executed a Crazy Ivan to escape from a larger and better armed ship, controlled by the savage and cannibalistic [[Reavers]].
   
 
This maneuver relied on a Firefly class ship's ability to rotate its atmospheric maneuvering engines in mid-flight. First, both engines were oriented as normal, with the ship flying forward. Then, one engine cut off and rotated 180 degrees, then resumed firing. One engine was situated normally, and one was backward with both firing at full force. This allowed ''Serenity'' to rotate much more quickly than normal and double back to face its pursuers. The crew then initiated the space drive while still in the atmosphere, launching them away from the planet at speeds hazardous for anything less than traveling between planets. Also, since the main engine relied on a trail of plasma behind the ship, starting the drive within the atmosphere catalyzed an impressive explosion.
The Reaver vessel is an older model which does not posses rotating engines, so it could not repeat Serenity's maneuver. It was forced to turn around like a modern-day fighter jet, wasting exponentially more time than the quarry. This does not factor in nearly as much as the fact that the Reaver ship was caught in the explosion and never seen again.
 
   
 
The Reaver vessel was an older model which did not possess rotating engines, so it could not duplicate ''Serenity's''{{'s}} maneuver. It was forced to turn around in a traditional way, wasting considerably more time than the quarry. This did not factor in nearly as much as the fact that the Reaver ship was caught in the explosion and never seen again.
It is important to note here that the Serenity crew could only pull off a Crazy Ivan within an atmosphere, as done here. There is not enough secondary fuel (ie Oxygen) in the vacuum of space to sustain such an explosion. The same drive is routinely used in space with only a signature glow to indicate that anything happened at all. Firefly flies above most other Sci-fi series since this show only makes ships act like they are in an atmosphere when they actually are in an atmosphere.
 
   
 
The crew of "Serenity" could only pull off a Crazy Ivan within an atmosphere. There was not enough secondary fuel (i.e. Oxygen) in the vacuum of space to sustain such an explosion. The same drive was routinely used in space with only a signature glow to indicate that anything happened at all.
[[Category:Firefly]]
 
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==Behind the scenes==
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A Crazy Ivan was executed at the climax of the [[Serenity (episode)|pilot episode]] to escape from a larger and better armed ship, controlled by the savage and cannibalistic [[Reavers]].
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The term "Crazy Ivan" was borrowed from the Tom Clancy novel ''The Hunt for Red October'', and is named for the maneuver performed by Soviet/Russian (hence "Ivan") submarine captains to check their baffles, an area directly behind a submarine's engines that cannot normally be monitored with sonar due to engine noise. This area creates a perfect hiding spot for enemy ships, thus the need to periodically spin around and "clear the baffles". The suddenness of the turn (hence "Crazy") is also a good deterrent against shadowing for extended periods of time, because it might result in a collision.
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==Appearances==
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*{{Firefly|Serenity (episode)|Serenity}} [[Malcolm Reynolds|Mal]] asks [[Hoban Washburne|Wash]] to perform one, and an injured [[Kaywinnet Lee Frye|Kaylie]] instructs [[Jayne Cobb|Jayne]] and [[Derrial Book|Book]] on how to help orchestrate it.
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==External Links==
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*https://keepflying.com/news/community/the-verse-loot-crate-fan-film-chock-full-of-ffo-goodies
 
[[Category:Terminology]]

Latest revision as of 17:13, 9 August 2017

The Crazy Ivan was a maneuver in a twin engined vessel that could create a spinning motion on the ship. By having one engine running reverse and another running forward, the ship could effectively spin around quickly. This maneuver only functioned on vessels that have their engines mounted on axis from one another.

Overview[]

The Crazy Ivan maneuver was a last ditch tactic for crews of Firefly class ships, used only when the alternatives were much worse—which was not very often. The crew of Serenity executed a Crazy Ivan to escape from a larger and better armed ship, controlled by the savage and cannibalistic Reavers.

This maneuver relied on a Firefly class ship's ability to rotate its atmospheric maneuvering engines in mid-flight. First, both engines were oriented as normal, with the ship flying forward. Then, one engine cut off and rotated 180 degrees, then resumed firing. One engine was situated normally, and one was backward with both firing at full force. This allowed Serenity to rotate much more quickly than normal and double back to face its pursuers. The crew then initiated the space drive while still in the atmosphere, launching them away from the planet at speeds hazardous for anything less than traveling between planets. Also, since the main engine relied on a trail of plasma behind the ship, starting the drive within the atmosphere catalyzed an impressive explosion.

The Reaver vessel was an older model which did not possess rotating engines, so it could not duplicate Serenity's's maneuver. It was forced to turn around in a traditional way, wasting considerably more time than the quarry. This did not factor in nearly as much as the fact that the Reaver ship was caught in the explosion and never seen again.

The crew of "Serenity" could only pull off a Crazy Ivan within an atmosphere. There was not enough secondary fuel (i.e. Oxygen) in the vacuum of space to sustain such an explosion. The same drive was routinely used in space with only a signature glow to indicate that anything happened at all.

Behind the scenes[]

A Crazy Ivan was executed at the climax of the pilot episode to escape from a larger and better armed ship, controlled by the savage and cannibalistic Reavers.

The term "Crazy Ivan" was borrowed from the Tom Clancy novel The Hunt for Red October, and is named for the maneuver performed by Soviet/Russian (hence "Ivan") submarine captains to check their baffles, an area directly behind a submarine's engines that cannot normally be monitored with sonar due to engine noise. This area creates a perfect hiding spot for enemy ships, thus the need to periodically spin around and "clear the baffles". The suddenness of the turn (hence "Crazy") is also a good deterrent against shadowing for extended periods of time, because it might result in a collision.

Appearances[]

External Links[]