Remove ads

Aircraft Design Company- Matsura's Planes Are Always Fastest!

Reader mode
Remove ads
Character Sheet
  • Informational


    • ​
    Stress
    0​
    Office Stress
    0​
    XP
    5​

    Matsura Asuka
    Head Designer for Ohara Airworks
    Age 24 (Legally 25)
    Year 12 AF (After Flight)

    Design Stats
    Aerodynamics Engineering - +2
    Structural Engineering - +2
    Chemical Engineering - +1
    Mechanical Engineering - +1
    Ballistics Engineering - +1
    Electrical Engineering - 0

    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.

    Upgrades
    - 3 XP to upgrade a stat.

    Ohara Airworks
    Start Up, Imperial Capital, Akitsukuni

    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?

    Assets
    - Engine Test Rig (Allows engine tweaking and optimization.
    - Wind Tunnel (+1 Aerodynamics)
    - Rapid Prototype Lab (+1 Clean Up)
    Expanded Cast

    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.
    Available Tech
    • Materials: Wood, Duralumin, Molded Wood, Wood & Silk Composite, etc
    • All engine mounts
    • All wing types
    • Basic reinforcement
    • Wing warping and ailerons
    • Basic water radiators
    • Flying Wings
    • 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.

    Aspects
    - Poor Resources: Aluminum costs +1.
    - Damn Akitsukuni Engines!: Engines have -1 Reliability.



    The Main Character Of This Quest Is Nonbinary And Uses They/Them Pronouns.

    I Am Putting This Here Because The Next Person To Misgender Them Is Getting Yeeted Into The Trash

    Also here's the Gayaverse TV Tropes page, because why not.​
     
    Last edited:
  • Informational
    • [X] Work to reduce mass.
    [X] Work to reduce drag.
    [X] Work to increase engine power.

    All in. Let's win this fucking war. The longer it drags on, the more chances the Caspians have to snipe Yachi.
     
    Last edited:
    Assuming that optimizations only serve to alter stats favorably, Mass, Drag, and Engine Power are all good.

    [X] Work to reduce mass.
    [X] Work to reduce drag.
    [X] Work to increase engine power.
     
    [X] Work to reduce mass.
    [X] Work to reduce drag.
    [X] Work to increase engine power.

    We need to keep pestering the Kobiyashi works for more Lucite/Perspex/Plexiglass. Inventing that shit twenty years early is really something.
     
    [X] Work to reduce mass.
    [X] Work to reduce drag.
    [X] Work to increase engine power.​

    Okay, I need...

    2d10 twice for the drag reduction.
    2d10 once for mass reduction.
    2d10 once for engine power.

    All of these will be +2.
     
    Rolling.

    Edit: Fuck. What even is this luck?
    brmj threw 2 10-faced dice. Reason: mass Total: 4
    1 1 3 3
    brmj threw 2 10-faced dice. Reason: power Total: 20
    10 10 10 10
     
    Last edited:
    That's a lot of power.

    Our machine is a beast. If there's one thing that it's gonna be known for, its that the plane wants to do one thing and one thing only, go forward.
     
    A thought occurs to me. The modifications to make a more powerful Ogre shouldn't really be dependent on the rest of the plane. Do we get to keep our improvements for future use?
     
    Well... Is there a way to get rid of a penalty puller-pusher configuration imposed on the power available realistically? Maybe they linked crankshafts and got rid of puller (or pusher) airscrew?

    Because it both gives us a 10% increase (from 33 to 36) and doesn't mean that we basically rebuilt them into entirely different engines.
    Though them inventing turbocharger could have happened too.
     
    Last edited:
    Remove ads
    4-9
  • Threadmarks
    • The next two weeks in the lead-up to New Years was spent refining the design, throwing brainpower and sheet after sheet of revisions until the aircraft was perfect. You went through a half-dozen models a day on the wind tunnel, each slightly adjusted, and outside in the engine workshop Kibe and Koide were hard at work with a sample engine, coaxing power and redesigning the radiator for maximum efficiency.

    Mass reduction was not promising; the plane was already as light as it was going to get and still have the ability to float. Every compromise you came up with would send it straight to the bottom of the sea.

    Drag was another tricky problem. There wasn't much you could do for the boat hull, though you certainly tried, before efforts refocused on the upper half of the hull. A clever compromise was made by adding a raised bump in front of the observer position, guarding them from the slipstream, then putting a board across so they could peer over it if they needed to. This reduced the amount of drag generated in normal operations considerably. Visibility from the pilot seat was not great over the nose of the craft, but both pilots could lean over the side of the plane for a better view. Finally, a length of canvas was added under the engine pod which both acted as a foil to keep air off the cross-bar supports, and to keep oil from dripping onto the pilots.

    You were feeling fairly pleased with your work, but even moreso when the mechanics crew came in with a strange proposal. Turn the engines upside-down. It was already a dry-sump design, so with some adjustments it would run just fine. What this would do is shorten the radiator lines by fitting the radiator between the pistons directly. It would also reduce drag by shortening the effective length of the pod supports, and when they pulled canvas over the engines in this shape the result was more areodynamic. Finally, Koide was just absolutely certain the engines actually ran better upside down, which Kibe disputed, but not loudly.

    Still, the math checked out, the models were good, and you had to admit; you just liked how it sounded run upside down better.

    The prototype would take a while to complete; it probably wouldn't compete for at least another four weeks. The factory couldn't simply be turned over to prototyping, because it was building Type 2s for the Army at full swing.

    You signed the papers on the final draft in the early morning, the day before New Years Eve.

    ---

    When you got home, you picked out your mail and laid it on the table. Holiday wishes from old friends and family, bills, a letter from your bank confirming receipt of a surprising amount of foreign currency, and then another letter from Yachi.

    Dear Asuka,

    I'm hoping this makes it to you for New Years. I said I'd get you that sketch, and we got it. We've been sitting near the hanger with nothing to do but clear snow off the tents, but somehow the Caspians are still flying, so we've been tracking them by binoculars. Their machines are all individually decorated; we think they might be attached to different units, so they all have different flare and they have numbers on the side, though they don't seem to correspond to anything. We've spotted five so far. I managed to get permission to go up the next time we saw one and try to get a closer look, and I got that chance a few days ago. Taking off with a cold engine was worrying, but we made it up just fine and intercepted at about 800 meters.

    Enclosed in this letter is a picture of the machine. Torio doesn't get a lot of call to use his watercolours out here, so he may have gone a little overboard. I also enclosed a note for the censor so he knows who you are; hopefully that should stay his hand. I'll tell you everything I know about it.

    So this is the machine we've been calling "46", because of the white tail and wingtips. We've spotted it maybe four times in the last few days; it's easier to see than the others because it often leaves a white trail behind it, which we think is water coming off a leak in the radiator. We approached it as it was circling our lines and their observer waved at us, so we waved back and fell in behind it for a bit. It became a bit of a contest at that point between two rival fliers, which distracted them from their job so that's a win for me. I'll say this, their machine is in every way better than ours except in the climb. It's faster and it effortlessly turns inside us. I wouldn't want to race it in this thing. We parted in good spirits as he turned back for his lines. I'll say, the poor buggers looked damned cold up there, worse than us even; they are well exposed to the wind in their perch.

    I'd estimate the best speed it made at 130kph flat. It has very good flat authority with the rudder, and rolls snap-quick. It climbs cautious though, and couldn't keep with our climbing turn.

    All these machines have the same general layout, with the engine in the nose, the skeletal body, and the funny angled wings. I'm not sure why they're like that, and it can't be a very stable ride, but I'll tell you they fly just fine. Their wings twist when they turn: we thought it was going to break up when it started turning. You can see the boxy radiator on the side; they don't have one on the other side.

    The observer sits strapped in to a little seat back there, and it looks like they have a sort of desk they can write notes on. They must have a great view back there, though the thought of it is nervewracking.

    I hope this information is useful to you, and I hope you can furnish me with a machine that will embarrass them at our next encounter.

    Speaking of next encounters, there's talk of rotating the squadron, or at least part of it, back home until things clear up. I may have buried the landing gear in three feet of snow when I landed, which displeased the mechanics to say the least. They probably want us training if we're no use right now, but if I do go home, I'll try to steal a day for the two of us. Your letters have been a real comfort out here in the snow, and I owe you some warmth in return.

    Yours, Captain Arita Yachi.
    ​
    You left the letter on your bedside table with a smile, placed your glasses atop it, and passed out dreamlessly.

    ---

    The next day. New Years Eve. The company party.

    Lavish and excessive New Years Eve parties were a common practice in a lot of firms. You were supposed to have quiet family ceremonies on the day, so the day before is when working men (and, these days, working women) got together with their coworkers and let loose. The working culture of your country was already fairly... let's call it excessive in its proclivities, but New Years Eve was a different beast altogether. As the saying goes, "Tomorrow morning, it'll all have been last year."

    On the other hand, there was a war on. The government was encouraging people to be frugal, and to direct your enthusiasm towards patriotic pursuits. While you were out partying, tens of thousands of your countrymen were freezing in trenches just a few hundred miles away. There were a lot of folks of the opinion that celebration should be subdued this year.

    With a company like yours, there would be three parties. Mr. Ohara would be attending the one with the bureaucrats and accountants, and Hirotada, the CFO, was organizing so you were sure they were going to get in a lot of trouble. The factory workers had their own gig, traditionally taking place at the workplace itself, so the design office was on their own. It was your responsibility to either plan an event, or delegate it.

    Sakane Jun wasn't in the partying mood; two of his brothers were at the front right now. While you'd still try to get him to come out, you couldn't ask him to plan. It would also be wrong to dump the planning on a new employee. You couldn't imagine Hawagawa planning a party, considering the guy's only hobbies were developing his own photographs and building card houses, so he was out. Finally, the longer-serving members of the office categorically banned Uyeno from planning the party, because she had handled last years affair and apparently Hasagawa was lucky to still be alive. That left...

    [ ] Tezuka Kenji. Expect interesting substances and interesting company.
    [ ] Kawamura Yosai. Expect dancing, drinking, and pretty people.
    [ ] Kibe Koume. Expect something vulgar and fun.
    [ ] Kobayashi Ayao. Expect something high brow, but probably fairly subversive.
    [ ] Adachi Ren. Expect something quiet and relaxing.
    [ ] Plan the party yourself.​
     
    Last edited:
  • Threadmarks
    • Reader mode
    You must login or register to reply here.
    Remove ads
    Back
    Top