Matsura Asuka is an aircraft designer in Akitsukuni, a country not unlike late Meiji Japan. They are the best at what they do, but the world is changing around them, and nobody knows what the future holds.
A playtest for the aircraft construction system in the RPG Flying Circus, heavily based on the film The Wind Rises.
Ever since you were a child, you loved flight. You loved watching birds sail through the blue sky, and you wished one day you could join them. You were flying in all of your dreams, your arms outstretched and the wind playing at your hair.
You weren't even a teenager yet when the first airplane took to the sky. You saw pictures of it, and marveled at it. Then, airplanes suddenly started popping up everywhere. In your dreams, you suddenly were behind the stick of one of those machines, sailing off into the horizon. Eventually, you even got to see one take off in a crowded field, buzzing over your head in a cloud of fumes, and you were obsessed.
By the time you were sixteen, you were working in a motorcycle shop, your notebook full of scribbled equations and sketches. At 17, you were hospitalized when your first design failed spectacularly twelve feet off the ground. But that got you noticed, and you were sent immediately to an engineering school. Your teachers said you were a once in a generation mind. You were out of school by 23 and the job offers poured in.
Where did all this take place?
- [ ] Dysklande, a rising imperial power.
- [ ] New Alleghany, a vast frontier nation of great wealth.
- [ ] Akitsukuni, a mineral poor and backward island nation.
- [ ] Great Caspia, a massive and decaying state.
- [ ] Albian Union, a world-spanning empire.
You are...
- [ ] A man.
- [ ] A woman.
- [ ] An aircraft designer.
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Experimental Quest! This one will be short and have a definitive endpoint. (Disregard I'm stupid as fuck.) We're gonna design airplanes, creatively!
So, basically, Whispers in the Deep is held up by the fact that the plane design system is kind of a mess, and the best way to fix a mess is to play with it. So that's what we're doing here.
This quest is inspired by the Small Arms Commission Quest, which is awesome, go check it out, and The Wind Rises, which is very, very good.
The setting of this game is much like Small Arms Commission Quest, a Not Quite Our World. History will be familiar, but not quite predicable. However, you'll be more of a person, and you'll have a personal life. We'll use a barebones version of d10 driven Apocalypse World; when you do a thing, roll 2d10+Stat. 16+ is a full success, 11-15 is a partial and I offer options, 10 or less and it went wrong. There won't be much life or death though. Expect drama. Maybe romance.
Personal/Political Stats
Social Skills - 0
Politics Skills - 0
Importance - 2
Income - 1
Investments - Ohara
Resources
Power - 0
Wealth - 2
Designs Type 1 Series - Military Variation (Designated T1M1) Type 2 Racer (World Speed Record October 1910-April 1911, 180kph)
Model 2 Scout (Designated T1M2)
Navy Scout Prototype (Drowned Rat)
Dive Bomber B1M1 "Duck"
Machine Gun Carrier R1A "Dragonfly" (World Speed Record May-July 1911, 200kph) Naval Rescue Water-Landing Supply Plane NR1M0 "Dolphin" (World speed record 240kph) Rhino Demon Train Hunter
The world's first airliner
The world's first pulsejet airplane
Assets
Slide Rule
Computator (1 Reroll per Routine)
Languages Albian Gallian
Familiar Vices
Drinking Prostitutes
Dancing
Family Life
- Engaged to Arita Yachi, formerly the leading Ace in the Imperial Army. Designated #1 Cutest Army Boy, he's having some serious problems with PTSD right now.
- Taking a second try at dating Mikami Kiho, ex-dockerwork from the south.
Owner
- Mr. Ohara, Rich. Aircraft Enthusiast. Business guy.
Engineers
Kibe Koume, 26, Office Manager Tiny & angry, Kibe went to school in Albia, picking up the language, the religion, and a fuckload of swear words. Speaks Albian.
Mechanical +2, Ballistics +1 Office Manager: If Kibe is not assigned to a team, the Office Stress is reduced by 1.
Sakane Jun, 26, Second Team Leader A soured patriot, Sakane is married and has a young child being raised gender-neutrally. His two brothers who fought in the war.
Structural +2, Aerodynamics +1 Team Leader: If there are any additional projects, Sakane will lead them. Joinery: Sakane has training in the traditional Akitsukuni carpentry art of joinery, creating complex self-supporting joints with no fasteners or glue. When working with non-monocoque wooden spars or ribs, +1 Structural.
Tezuka Kenji, ??? A stoner with occasional flashes of insight. Nobody really knows what he does, but he's probably useful?
Aerodynamics +2, Chemical +1 Flashes of Brilliance: Each natural 10 rolled by any team Tezuka is assigned to gives +1 forward to the next research roll.
Hasegawa Morio, 26 A hopeless nerd with a photography habit, mostly on account of developing his own film, Hasegawa seems to do nothing but work and stack card houses, but somehow has an incredible attractive boyfriend. Speaks Gallian.
Chemical +2, Ballistic +1
Silent Workhorse: Hasegawa can work on two different projects at once for no cost to Office Stress, providing they use different stats.
Kawamura Yosai, 25. Serially successful womanizer and incredibly attractive, Kawamura doesn't seem to have much of a personality outside of seducing women. Well, except for that time he seduced Asuka, which nobody talks about. Speaks Dyske.
Structural +2, Electrical +1, Social +1 Easily Distracted: If Kawamura is working on the same team as a female or non-binary employee, the team is at -1d10.
Koide Hatsu, 24. One of the few female graduates of an Akitsukuni engineering school, Koide is brilliant and incredibly driven, but her first job at Akibara was both humiliating and exposed her to an abusive coworker. Her father is a rich businessman with factories in Joseon, and she's engaged to Ken from Castles of Steel. Speaks Joseon.
Mechanical +2, Structural +1 No Sleep: If you let her, Koide will work herself to death. She can work a second project for no Office Stress, but all her stats will be reduced to 1 for the routine.
Kobayashi Ayao, ??? Disowned heiress of the Kobayashi family, all Kobayashi wanted was a career and to be a modern woman. For her trouble, a cousin threw acid on her, scarring her face, neck, much of her torso, and her left arm. Despite appearing serene and above it all, she's actually an avowed communist activist and baseball player.
Aerodynamics +2, Social +2
Adachi Ren, 24 Adachi learned chemistry from her father, one of the most famous chemical engineers in the country, rather than through formal schooling. She's married, has a kid, and takes spirituality very seriously. Yes, you did the math right, she had Yuki when she was 17. It's 1912, folks.
Chemical +2, Electrical +1 Young Mother: Adachi will cause double Office Stress if she has to work multiple tasks.
Uyeno Sei, Ballistics Engineer, 31. The oldest member of the crew, this is Uyeno's second career. Her first was as an officer in the Imperial Navy with specialized technical training: her very promising career was cut short by her transition. Her work in a naval arsenal on machine-guns landed her the job here. Briefly dated Satomi (the age range is a bit creepy but again, 1912), she's missing a piece of her ear and is deaf on that side, from an exploding cannon. Recently returned from Varnmark from experimental surgery, she's known for her skill navigating gendered bureaucracy.
Ballistic +3
Mi Kyung-Jae, 23 A recent graduate of the Imperial College of Heijo, Mi is from the recently annexed territory of Joseon. For those keeping track at home, that means he's a Korean national living in Imperial Japan in 1912. We haven't seen much of his personality because he's rightfully terrified of everything around him. He has a specialty in endurance engine design and modification. Speaks Joseon.
Mechanical +1, Chemical +1 Endurance Engines: Mi has an excellent understanding of metallurgy and tolerances. Any engine he works on gains +1 Reliability if a 16+ is rolled. Pulsejet Wizard: Mi is now one of the world's leading experts on the pulsejet engine. He can be given his own project to custom-craft pulsejet engines, and he gives +1 to any pulsejet-related project. Joseon National: Mi does not have security clearance to work on any top-secret projects.
Miyoshi Shigeri, 23. A non-binary person and admirer of Asuka's work, they were in an support role in the Army before joining the company.
Structural +1, Mechanical +1, Aerodynamic +1 Mechanic: Miyoshi has some experience repairing and refurbishing aircraft. They get +1 if assigned on the clean-up phase.
Other Employees
- Ohara Satomi, 22, Mr. Ohara's niece and the company test pilot, Ohara is a general lesbian disaster. She's good at flying planes, driving cars, and kissing girls. She's bad at being patient, being respectable, and sticking to literally anyones conceptions of gender roles. Deeply in lesbians with Coralie D'Amboise.
- Fujkikawa Sotatsu, old, modelmaker. He's an old man and toymaker and we don't see much of him because he locks himself in his workshop a lot. He's friends with Kawamura?
Akitsukuni Industry
- Homura Mohoko: Head Engine Designer for Kobayashi. First female engineer in the country. A lot of sex appeal.
- Okumura: Head of Akibara aircraft design.
- Yamanaka Hajime: Kobayashi engineer. Young and eager.
- Igarashi Masazumi: Kobayashi engineer. Reserved and experienced.
- Admiral Akibara Toru: Imperial Navy Admiral. Maximum nepotism. Maximum douchebag.
- Lt.Cmnd Akibara Shinzo: The above's son. A hottie but very forward.
Character Families
- Matsura(?) Mizuko: Asuka's sister. Was paralyzed in an accident in Asuka's first flight. Lives Elsewhere and is married now. Can't forgive Asuka, even though she's tried.
- Adachi Motoki: Adachi's husband, an accountant. Legally blind.
- Adachi Yuki: Adachi's 7 year old daughter and wannabe pilot. Very adorable.
- Yachi's Brother: Exists.
- Sakane's Wife: Exists. Drives him a bit crazy, but he loves her.
- Yachi's Brother's Wife: Exists. Is statistically likely to be pregnant.
- Lt. Coralie D'Amboise: Gallian pilot in exile. Satomi's girlfriend. 25. Accomplished bisexual duelist. She flew in the war for a single day, and for her troubles got a hole blown in her cheek and had her left arm paralyzed.
Akisukuni Army & Ex-Army
- Lt. Torio Tanaka: Yachi's former observer as an enlisted man. Was jumped up to fly Ducks and lost a leg on his first mission. A trained painter, married to Torio Saya.
- Captain Amari Shiro: A Dragonfly pilot who ended up flying as Yachi's partner. Kind of delightfully twinky. They sorta slept together at one point, which wasn't great. He lost his previous boyfriend in the April Offensive and turned his plane into a shrine. He was shot in the gut and is still recovering.
- Major Izuhara: Logistics officer, Imperial Army, this bespectled officer stood up to the Caspian Crown Prince and accidentally kicked off the Akitsikuni-Caspian War. The guilt was so much that, after almost a year of running Army procurement, he shot himself in a phone both.
- Captain Nakai Sekien: Army scout pilot. First person to drop a bomb from an airplane, later head of the Duck Squadrons.
- Captain Teshima: A Desk pilot that fought with Yachi. Lost an arm in the process, took over for Major Izuhara after his death. Seems cheery despite it all.
- Captain Nashio: A real piece of shit dude and probably a rapist, he's also a war hero as the second-highest scoring ace on the Akitsukuni side. He was a young shitty kid in way over his head but it's no excuse.
- Lt. Kinjo: Kind of a dumb lump and Nashio's friend, one of the desk pilots. Dead at 19.
- Lt. Okazaki: Yachi's friend from before the war and pilot, he died in a spin in his dragonfly. His death probably hit Yachi the hardest.
Westerners
- Rose & Antoinette Sears: Pioneers of flight. Sisters. Black in 1910s not!America. Yikes.
- Timina Guasti: Famous aircraft designer from Otrusia. Likes big planes and green.
- Prince Protasov Vasilyevich: Crown Prince of Great Caspia. Real dick. You gotta hand it to him though, a decent flier.
- Count von Zeppelin: Invented rigid airships. Runs a successful airline business. Damned impressive.
- Bennhold: Aircraft Engineer. Experimenting with metal aircraft.
- Aileen Middlemiss: Albian reporter for the Artimis Times. Well meaning and oblivious.
Semi-Monocoque design (requires at least half the slots have frame pieces)
Valved pulsejets
Basic weapon mounts and turrets
Tech not Yet Developed
Custom engines
Monocoque construction
Cantilever Wings and associated tech
V and T tails
Tailless designs
Aluminum and titanium
Cellulose surfacing
Any kind of radar
Weapon accessability mods
Interruptor gear
Geared propellers
And Maybe Other Stuff
Akitsukuni Island Nation
Government
Constitutional Monarchy
- The democratic portions of the government are dubiously legitimate.
- The head of state is the Empress of Akitsukuni. She gives her blessing to newly formed governments.
- The Navy and a small number of families have undue influence on politics.
Economy
Developing Mixed Market
- Most industry is controlled by a small number of wealthy, family-owned companies.
- The state provides most contracts to industry. Consumer good market is anemic.
- Exports are few, mostly cultural.
- Imports are raw minerals, food, oil, and expertise.
- Currently suffering an economic crash after the last war.
Politics
The Diet is currently ruled by a Constitutional Nationalist government. It has a system of nonlocal proportional representation, with representatives appointed by the party in accordance to their share of the vote.
- Constitutional Nationalists: 50%
- Purity Club: 9%
- New Independents: 26%
- Fairness Association: 11%
- United Communist League: 2%
- Monarchists: 1%
- Assorted Fringe Parties: 5%
Demographics
Akitsukuni is mostly very ethnically homogeneous. Around 5% of the population are various minorities, most from nearby countries. Roughly .1% are westerners here for business or in advisory positions.
- Population: 55 Million
- Religion: Mostly Kodo. Roughly 2% of the population follows western religions.
- Wealth: Most wealth is concentrated in the top 5% of the country. Nearly 20% of the population lives in conditions indistinguishable from peasantry.
- Urbanization: Heavily urbanized for a small economy: 35% and rapidly growing.
Military
At Peace
- Imperial Akitsukuni Navy (IAN): The 6th largest in the world, and the most experienced.
- Imperial Akitsukuni Army (IAA): 150,000 highly experienced soldiers, and a considerable reserve.
warningThe Attack chopter meme is a known joke about the Trans community that ridicules them and devalues there struggle. So I do not want to see it in the quest.
The Imperial Capital of Tokei, an endless blanket of wooden and paper houses stretching to the horizon. You'd seen photographs of the great cities of the world, and... Tokei was not one of them. It was backward, poor, ramshackle almost. Most of the streets were unpaved.
You'd been here four years prior, technically, but seen almost none of it from your dorm room. You then moved out of the city while waiting on job offers: it was cheaper to live out in the country on your meager savings. You spent a few weeks of familiar work repairing tractors down south, waiting for responses. Akibara Complex, the country's largest corporation, tried to snap you up immediately, but working on their tractors soured you on the idea. Kobayashi Heavy Industries offered you a junior position with promises of quick advancement, and you nearly took it when another offer arrived that was much more interesting.
You disembarked the train, holding your hat on the windy platform. It was late July, the heat was intense, and the moment you left the hissing steam, churning gears, and screeching rails of the train yard the familiar sounds of cicadas returned with a vengeance. Beautiful clear blue skies, enough wind for lift without being dangerous... it was perfect flying weather.
You had a taxi waiting for you, sputtering up the road on it's little engine. It wasn't even of local manufacture; it was made on an assembly line in New Alleghany, and it dodged and weaved around horse-drawn carts, factory workers, and farmers moving goods to market on their backs. The contrast it brought was accompanied by a sense of frustration and sadness. The roads of Lucretia, where many of your professors were from, was paved in gleaming asphalt and driven as much by cars as carriages. Here, there were still people looking at that car with curious wonder. Automobiles were almost fifteen years old, they weren't special!
Yet, above, there was a hot air balloon, so despite everything there was a spring in your step. A massive mountain dominated the horizon and somewhere at it's base was the Imperial Palace. The observers in the hot air balloon could probably see it. They could also probably see the dockyards and the brick factories lining the harbour, the stirrings of new industry that would sweep across this country, if we could afford it. If we could feed the factories.
They could probably see your new place of employment, too, the offices of...
- [ ] Ohara Airworks, a start-up which has until now has only made knock-offs of other designs. They're operating on a shoestring and they have a garbage reputation, but you'll be the most experienced designer there, and they're young and dynamic. In a business environment built on decades (and sometimes centuries) of trust, though, they're a dangerous thing to have on a resume.
- [ ] Akibara Complex, the home of the largest company in the country. The Akibara Company is deeply conservative organization that's been around since before Akitsukuni was a single country. They make ships, consumer goods, cars, generators... basically everything. Their air division is considered subordinate to several departments, but there's no end to resources.
- [ ] The Imperial Navy Capital Arsenal, working directly for the Navy as a civilian. The Navy is interested in military aircraft and has access to incredible resources, including cutting edge materials and technology, but they are known for very stringent control of their designers and general disrespect for civilians.
- [ ] Kobayashi Heavy Industries, a company primarily build around refining metals and chemicals, which sees aircraft design as a means of breaking into a new market. If everything works out, you might build a new department from nothing, but the rumour is that they are looking for any excuse to drop the department at the first sign of trouble. Then you'll be looking for work.
The taxi made it's way down the twisting streets, dodging pedestrians and wagons, lurching heavy on the suspension. Motion sickness had never been a problem for you, but you still ended up having to put down your newspaper and clean off your glasses, your vision swimming a bit.
Finally, you arrived before a gleaming, modern building of concrete and stone, eight stories tall, shining glass and iron fencing. It was beautiful.
You got out of the car and headed to the opposite side of the street.
Ohara Airworks was currently based out of what you were pretty sure was an old school, with the factory yard and halls laying behind. Smoke poured from a short stack to generate power for the machines, and at the end of the yard was a road leading down to the docks. There wasn't enough room for a proper proving ground; the planes would need to be taken by barge to a field outside the city. As you approached the front steps, the doors swung open, and a middle-aged man wearing a wrinkled suit and a huge grin stepped out to meet you. Mr. Ohara himself.
After the formalities, which were pretty bare, and getting the paperwork sorted, you found yourself touring the factory floor. It was... pretty spare, all things considered. There was modern machining tools (most of which bore the names of foreign firms) but the working space was not great. You estimated that the line was probably to limited building aircraft with 8 meter wingspan. There was a stockpile of fine birch and other wood, and rods and ingots to be worked into simple metal parts. A rack of radial engines hung from chains on an overhead assembly, ready to be mated to the airframes of the company's latest product, a cheap copy of an Albian biplane. You winced at some of the techniques; corners were being cut everywhere you looked.
Mr. Ohana was right by your side throughout the inspection, so you tried to look impressed.
Next, you headed to the designers office, which definitely gave the vibe of an old classroom. Packed inside at drafting tables were eight engineers, all young and wide eyed, scrawling away and fiddling with slide rules. Only a few heads even bothered to look up as you entered the room.
"Attention everyone!" Mr. Ohana said, and the room calmed a bit. "I'd like you all to meet our new head designer, Matsura..."
Why, that would be the Sears sisters of Buckeye, New Alleghany! Rose and Antoinette, a seamstress and print shop mechanic respectively. Rose built steerable cloth kites as a hobby, constructed using experience from building hoop skirts and ribbed corsets, and when Antoinette saw her innovations she realized her sister had fixed many of the problems plaguing early attempts at flight. They procured a light engine from a machine shop, built a wind tunnel in their yard, made a series of progressively larger gliders, and just about exactly ten years ago they made the first flight of 14 seconds.
They're still out there flying and designing, you know. Maybe you'll get to meet them.
Of course, there's a lot of dispute over this; a lot of bigshot engineers and inventors aren't terribly happy they got beaten to the punch. But the Sears Sparrow is generally accepted as the first.
.. Asuka, the genius designer who's going to get this company off the ground!"
Everyone stood up and huddled around, and you tried your best to keep up with the blur of new names and faces in your team. Everyone was young and a little disheveled.
Your Team
- Sakane Jun, Materials Engineer. A young man with close cut hair and a trim suit, who regarded you quite seriously. You noted the Imperial Starburst pin on his lapel.
- Tezuka Kenji, Areodynamics Engineer. A tall, willowy man with long hair and an unusual smell clinging to him. He seemed cheerful enough, if slightly dazed.
- Hasegawa Morio, Chemical Engineer. A bespectacled, short and youthful looking man with stress already etched on his face. He looked somewhat starstruck.
- Kawamura Yosai, Materials Engineer. Relatively sharply dressed, and with a sweep of messy hair. You noted the silver chain of a fine pocketwatch in his vest.
- Kibe Koume, Mechanical Engineer. An extremely short woman with boyish, short-cropped hair and oil stains on her fingers. A monocle rested in her shirt pocket.
- Kobayashi Ayao, Areodynamics Engineer, who was definitely a member of the business family of the same name. Judging by the burn scar just peaking out of her high collar, it was not an amicable separation.
- Adachi Ren, Chemical Engineer. A striking woman with long hair and fine makeup, clearly concerned with her appearance. You noted a paper tag on her desk.
- Uyeno Sei, Ballistics Engineer. A very tall and well built woman who greeted you with a smile. She looked to be the oldest member of the team, and you couldn't help but notice she was missing a piece of her ear.
When you design aircraft, you will choose a subset of your team to work with. Each member of your team will carry their own bonuses, and will give you your team's stats for the project if you want to innovate. The team will change as we go.
After you'd met everyone, you settled in to get briefed on the current project.
"Right, so, here's the situation." Mr. Ohara started. "We've received our largest order yet, from the Imperial Army. They're interested in exploring military aviation for scouting and artillery spotting but they don't have the budget the Navy does, so they've come to us for a dozen of our Type 1 Series; that's the copy of the MacUilleim Model 3 two-seaters you saw in the factory."
"That's great!" You said. "But I don't see why it's a problem for the engineers. Why can't we just run them off the line?"
Mr. Ohara looked embarrassed and hestitated a second, and Kawamura spoke up. "Because they expect the same performance from our knock-offs as the original."
You put the pieces together. "... And ours don't have that performance. Okay, what's the issue?"
Mr. Ohara regained his composure. "It's something with the materials. From what Mr. Sakane explained, they're using a chemical treatment to strengthen the wood we don't have access to. As a result, our plane is much more delicate than theirs."
Kobayashi interjected, bitterness in her voice. "The frame can't handle any more than the engine's top speed going flat out, about a 100 kilometers an hour. The original is rated for 140kph. So if the army guys pitch down even a little while flying at maximum speed, pieces are going to start coming off."
Over the next hour, you became engrossed in conversation with the team. Everyone had their own ideas for strengthening the plane, but they were working with little oversight or coordination. The plane was right up against it's tolerances; an addition in any area would impact performance in another. Mr. Ohara was watching you work with the team, and you realized he expected you to come to a decision. You would...
- [ ] Go with Sakane Jun's plan to reinforce the plane internally with additional bracing, increasing mass and decreasing handling. (+1 Stress)
- [ ] Back Kibe Koume's plan of stringing additional bracing wires, increasing drag and decreasing top speed. (+1 Stress)
- [ ] Side with Kobayashi Ayao's plan to close the wing structure. This would increase drag as much as the wires, but would produce twice as much structural integrity. The difference from the original would be blatantly obvious to Army inspectors, though. (+1 Stress)
- [ ] Agree with Adachi Ren that there is nothing to be done but to order the treated wood from the Albian Union, regardless of the (considerable) cost. (+1 Stress)
- [ ] Stay overnight on your first day with a team and try to make a miracle happen. (+3 Stress, roll a Check)
Every production cycle you'll build up stress when you make decisions, especially hard ones. You can blow off some steam through extracurricular, but it'll catch up with you eventually, and it can have very serious personal consequences.
[X] Go with Sakane Jun's plan to reinforce the plane internally with additional bracing, increasing mass and decreasing handling. (+1 Stress)
You quickly swept aside the papers on one of the empty desks and laid out Sakane's plans across them. "This is good. The Army won't notice the extra pounds, and longer runway requirements won't even register for them. We should probably pull out this spar here and replace it with an x-frame... somebody hand me a slide rule."
Within a few hours, you and the team wrapped up the calculations and stared at your blueprints with glee. The changes got pretty involved; a new wing spar, the addition of metal bracing clips to hold key components, and an increase in the density of support bars. You probably added a hundred kilos of material to the plane, but externally it was basically identical to the original. If your calculations were correct, the new plane would need to get pretty close to it's top speed to take off, but it's top speed was within 2 kilometers of the standard model.
Outside, the day was growing long, and the muggy September heat was giving way to a cool evening breeze. You could probably turn in the project right now...
- [ ] Turn in your papers to the factory and end your first day.
- [ ] Stay late and try to optimize... (+2 Stress)
Optimizing will involve a Check. You'll get a +1 to it for each of the specialists you keep on your team with you, and also add your stats. As a starting designer, you have a 0 in all your stats, as you haven't specialized yet. That means you're basically competent at everything.
[X] Leave it well enough alone and go home defeated. (+1 Stress)
You and the relevant members of the team spend the next week trying to reduce drag on the aircraft to no avail. You couldn't streamline the nose of the plane, or else you'd end up blocking airflow to the already overworked rotary engine and burning it out, and that was the biggest culprit for drag. It didn't help that there weren't great models, mathematically or otherwise, for determining the causes of drag on these aircraft. You'd kill for a wind tunnel and a small-scale modeller on the premises.
The factory quickly converted one of the planes already on the line to a prototype, completing the work in a mere two weeks, with the team consulting to solved small issues. The result looked almost exactly like the original, which pleased you. After some tests in the yard to ensure the engine was working properly, it was dragged by horse cart down to a barge and pulled to the proving fields outside the city. With it went another of the standard type for comparison.
There, on a blustery day, you got to watch your design take flight. The added weight was noticeable to you, though probably not to anyone else, as the plane rolled along the grass and took off into the wind. It turned sluggishly in broad circles over the field, the original easily keeping a turn inside it. The two had comparable flat speeds, as you expected. You figured endurance would be lesser, but both should more or less be able to fly for about two hours.
However, when it came to dive testing, there was no contest. The original could only descend by blipping the engine and at no more than 10 degree increments, while the new model eventually achieved a remarkable 50 degree dive, topping out at blistering 170 kilometers an hour before the pilot pulled back. That was even better than the Albian Union version! Fancy wood was no match for simply putting crossbars on everything that might take stress and bolting heavy metal clips onto the central supports.
As the team and factory representatives chatted excitedly, Mr. Ohara came over to you, a huge grin on his face. "Well done! I'm sure the army will love it. We'll show it off to them within a week. We should probably paint it up proper for them, right?" He showed you a crude sketch he'd done while the plane was flying, showing the plane in a yellow and black similar to the Ohara family mon that adorned the company logo. "What do you think?"
- [ ] It looks wonderful, sir. Remind the Army where it comes from.
- [ ] We should appeal to the Army's patriotism. White and blue, sir, the national colours.
- [ ] We should appeal to the Army's traditions. Horizon blue, like their uniforms and artillery pieces.
- [ ] We should appeal to the Army's practicality. Sky blue underside and green up top, as camouflage.
- [ ] We should appeal to the Army's spartan sensibilities. Leave it unpainted.
[X] We should appeal to the Army's traditions. Horizon blue, like their uniforms and artillery pieces.
Two weeks later, you were standing out on the testing field, the little blue biplane being swarmed by mechanics and inspectors. The entire design team and much of the factory were standing out on the grass, the few married designers having brought their families and turned the event into a picnic. There was also a gaggle of soldiers in their grey-blue uniforms and caps, a few civilians from nearby villages who had heard about the day's proceedings on the sidelines, and, late to show, a Navy officer in impeccable white clothing, pulling up in a very modern car with a pair of assistants.
Mr. Ohara looked kept consulting with you and the aircrew back and forth, his nervousness obvious. A contract for the Army would be huge. This could make or break it.
At a signal, the mechanics lined up to start the plane, ready to pull the blocks. Two of them lined up in front of the nose; one gripped the nose, the other grabbed her belt. The pilot gave a nod to Mr. Ohara and the Army observers.
"Contact!"
---
Success Checklist - Matches client's requirements. ✓
- Exceeds client's expectations for performance. ✓
- Added features that appeal to the client. ✓
- Good reputation with the client. ✗
- Panders to the client. ✓
- Features cutting-edge technology. ✗
- Under cost. ✗
Penalty Checklist - Is notably unreliable. ✗
- Is obsolete on the world stage. ✗
- Over budget. ✗
- Has obvious or glaring flaw. ✗
- Bad reputation with client. ✗
- Insulting to client. ✗
- Hard to fly. ✗
