[Slime]

It's nice to have a realistic point of view, but we've had some (quite a bit IMHO..) of this in the Explosions thread already...

[jr2]

...which movies have flames burning on the outside of a ship, resembling flames on Earth?  Flames on the inside, of course, would be the same except for gravity's lack of effect.  (Unless artificial gravity is in use.)

The freespace cutscenes in this very thread, and the battlestar galactica scenes (new series)

Eh, half of the "flames" you refer to might actually be short-circuits overheating the frame in different places...  plus, whatever rocket fuel they use, if it's leaking, and oxygen is leaking too, (or if it's built into the fuel), then it will burn.  All it needs is one of those nice sparks that you noticed flashing along the hull to light it up.  The flames stream away towards the back of the ship because it's moving forwards away from them... but I'll have to take another closer look at that cutscene...

[CaptJosh]

Also remember that not every fuel requires O2 as an oxidizer. Ever hear of hypergolic fuels? They're binary substances that when mixed ignite and burn on their own. No molecular oxygen required. This makes them very difficult to handle because while the two substances are relatively inert alone, extreme care must be taken to avoid havivng them come into contact until in the combustion chamber of whatever engine they power.

[jr2]

@neoterran, you have watched the FS1 cutscene intro video, right?