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

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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.​
     
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  • Informational
    • SaltyWaffles said:
    I have to admit that I'm rather confused why the voters chose the Imperial Japan expy. A place with no resources, a poor grasp of logistics, and low industrial capacity.
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    Much as with the Japanese Empire IRL, the successes we and our nation achieve will be largely down to our own merits, rather than pre-existing advantages like resources and established industry. We're now embroiled in what seems to be the equivalent of the Russo-Japanese War, which ended with a humiliating defeat for the Russian Empire. That victory established Japan as a world power equal to Western nations, and deserving of respect. Given the opportunity to do something similar, and help to establish a dynamic rival to the elder Western powers, I'm not surprised that people voted for Japan. This point in history was fascinating, after all.
     
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    Sorry for kinda dumping write-ins atm for these airplane bits. Y'all have charts and technology I can't even keep up with and I'm kinda working ahead on another draft with some changes so I'm kinda out of it and just letting the tech guys do their thing right now.

    The next arc is going to be a bit... different while things stabilize. I also want to do another, cleaner sketch of Asuka for y'all, as their appearance in my head is much better defined now.
     
    Question for you, @open_sketchbook, will you link the stat sheets for the Type 2 Army Scout and the Prototype Navy Scout on the front page since we're done with those designs?
     
    Decim said:
    Updated in the sense that the sheets and specs will be brought back in line with the updated rules, or updated in the sense that as production has gone on, gradual improvements have been made to the designs?
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    More updated in the sense that we are designing planes during a dragon break and "how do plane work?" is changing behind the scenes as the different planes get designed. As an example, the racing aircraft we made can't really be made in the rules anymore. The Navy Scout would probably also work differently.
     
    To be honest I have no idea how to set up control surfaces.

    I mean, I guess ailerons, rudders, and elevators? Those are the usual things you always put on a plane. It's never actually made sense to me that elevators keep being excluded from designs, since they're sort of the most important control surface on an aircraft.
     
    Crasian01 said:
    To be honest I have no idea how to set up control surfaces.

    I mean, I guess ailerons, rudders, and elevators? Those are the usual things you always put on a plane. It's never actually made sense to me that elevators keep being excluded from designs, since they're sort of the most important control surface on an aircraft.
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    When it comes to tailless designs, there's an alternative/hybrid of both elevators and ailerons to take into consideration - elevons, which control both roll and pitch.

    On a slightly different topic, I wonder if we can at some point invent stabilators - also known as all-moving control surfaces, which rotate the entire surface, usually a horizontal or vertical stabilizer as mounted to the tail of a plane - early. These would be very useful once we started getting towards dealing with compressibility issues from trans-sonic flight.
     
    Ash19256 said:
    On a slightly different topic, I wonder if we can at some point invent stabilators - also known as all-moving control surfaces, which rotate the entire surface, usually a horizontal or vertical stabilizer as mounted to the tail of a plane - early. These would be very useful once we started getting towards dealing with compressibility issues from trans-sonic flight.
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    Both the tail fin and tail planes of the Eindecker fighters were all moving. People weren't too happy with them, apparently.
     
    Crasian01 said:
    I mean, I guess ailerons, rudders, and elevators? Those are the usual things you always put on a plane. It's never actually made sense to me that elevators keep being excluded from designs, since they're sort of the most important control surface on an aircraft.
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    Roll, yaw, and pitch, respectively. Roll is covered by us opting for ailerons rather than wing-warping (good for small, slow planes) or spoilers (whoch boost Handling at the cost of making us bleed more speed in manuvers.)

    For yaw, we have the outboard fins, and pitch we have canards. I default to @Crusher Bob for how big we should make the control surfaces for best perfromance (I'll probably agree with him once I run my own numbers).

    As for previous designs, empennage (and boy isn't that a fun word to say. Empennage empennage empennage empennage) just means we stick the pitch and yaw controls in the same place, whether that be the tail, or outboard. Though actual location matters a lot less now, soe empennage ons't mechanically a thing that matters.

    And yes, I still await the return of the V-tail and ruddervators and the T-tail which adds to effective wing area at the cost of stability. (and am terrified at the prospect of a flying wing with ruddervaterflaperons)
     
    There's a lot you can do just doing stuff with the shape and location of the wings, without changing you control surface setups.

    All of the below just have 2x1A outboard fins and 1A Cannards:

    7A High Wing (Current Configuration) (Handling -14, Stability +8)
    7A Mid Wing (Handling -13, Stability +7) (This version improves visibility)
    7A Low Wing (Handling -12, Stability +6)

    Plane wizard versions:
    6A High / 1A Mid Tandem wing (Handling -15, Stability +11)

    You want to 'improve' handling, for some reason:
    6A Mid, 1A Low Tandem Wing (Handling -9, Stability +1)

    The plane design is pretty much otherwise jammed right up against every optimization breakpoint. You can't increase the control area without more drag, which would slow you down and push you off the dive profile. You can reduce the drag in the wing configuration, because that would lower your DNE, and push you off the dive profile. You can't add any mass, lower the wing area, or, I dunno, apply an extra layer of paint without pushing yourself off the dive profile, slowing down, or both.

    Someone may be able to do something clever with anti-gravity paper, but even I have some standards.
     
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    Crusher Bob said:
    There's a lot you can do just doing stuff with the shape and location of the wings, without changing you control surface setups.

    All of the below just have 2x1A outboard fins and 1A Cannards:

    7A High Wing (Current Configuration) (Handling -14, Stability +8)
    7A Mid Wing (Handling -13, Stability +7) (This version improves visibility)
    7A Low Wing (Handling -12, Stability +6)

    Plane wizard versions:
    6A High / 1A Mid Tandem wing (Handling -15, Stability +11)

    You want to 'improve' handling, for some reason:
    6A Mid, 1A Low Tandem Wing (Handling -9, Stability +1)

    The plane design is pretty much otherwise jammed right up against every optimization breakpoint. You can't increase the control area without more drag, which would slow you down and push you off the dive profile. You can reduce the drag in the wing configuration, because that would lower your DNE, and push you off the dive profile. You can't add any mass, lower the wing area, or, I dunno, apply an extra layer of paint without pushing yourself off the dive profile, slowing down, or both.

    Someone may be able to do something clever with anti-gravity paper, but even I have some standards.
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    So just to clarify, you're saying that with the plane design as we've voted it in so far, the only usable control surface configuration is 2x1A outboard fins & a 1A canard?
     
    Without paying for an extended driveshaft (which we can't afford) we are limited to outboard fins and (cannards or outboard elevators). Compared to cannards, basic outboard elevators are +1 drag (which we can't afford) and +1 control (which we don't care about).

    Making the control surfaces any bigger means more drag (which we can't afford). It's very hard to make a plane that can dive 700m and not fall apart out of wood, canvas, and wire. There may have been a bit of wiggle room in the dive 6 version of the duck, but I had those trade everything in the optimization space for more speed. So it would probably be possible to make a dive 6 version of the duck (more maneuverable, more stable, or something) without going out of the dive profile.

    But I got most of that extra speed by sawing the wings down, which increased stall speed. Which didn't matter, because cruise speed went up, and your new, faster, cruise speed was still comfortably above your new higher stall speed. But if you started messing around with larger control surfaces you'd slow down, which would push you against your higher stall speed, which would mean more wing area...

    Part of what I am hoping falls out of the new rules is less optimization breakpoints everywhere! you must meet every single one!. Which would allow more changes to a given design without needing to change everything. The new drag/mass/speed rules proposal look like this happens, but haven't made that many planes using them yet to see if they work for 'everything' or 'just the things I've thought to make'. Mostly, people are currently busy trying to figure out a better way for engines to work.
     
    Crusher Bob said:
    Without paying for an extended driveshaft (which we can't afford) we are limited to outboard fins and (cannards or outboard elevators). Compared to cannards, basic outboard elevators are +1 drag (which we can't afford) and +1 control (which we don't care about).

    Making the control surfaces any bigger means more drag (which we can't afford). It's very hard to make a plane that can dive 700m and not fall apart out of wood, canvas, and wire. There may have been a bit of wiggle room in the dive 6 version of the duck, but I had those trade everything in the optimization space for more speed. So it would probably be possible to make a dive 6 version of the duck (more maneuverable, more stable, or something) without going out of the dive profile.

    But I got most of that extra speed by sawing the wings down, which increased stall speed. Which didn't matter, because cruise speed went up, and your new, faster, cruise speed was still comfortably above your new higher stall speed. But if you started messing around with larger control surfaces you'd slow down, which would push you against your higher stall speed, which would mean more wing area...

    Part of what I am hoping falls out of the new rules is less optimization breakpoints everywhere! you must meet every single one!. Which would allow more changes to a given design without needing to change everything. The new drag/mass/speed rules proposal look like this happens, but haven't made that many planes using them yet to see if they work for 'everything' or 'just the things I've thought to make'. Mostly, people are currently busy trying to figure out a better way for engines to work.
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    Makes sense. Well, might as well get the formalities out of the way then.

    [X] 2x1A outboard fins, 1A canard

    Does that vote format look good?
     
    If anyone is interested, the spreadsheet with the (theoretical) changes to drag/mass/speed, etc is here, though anything not the 'template' page may not have all the changes implemented. But if you want to try to design something, you can take a crack at it. If you have any more technical questions, you can ask in the sorta math/design thread here.
     
    Crusher Bob said:
    Plane wizard versions:
    6A High / 1A Mid Tandem wing (Handling -15, Stability +11)

    You want to 'improve' handling, for some reason:
    6A Mid, 1A Low Tandem Wing (Handling -9, Stability +1)
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    Is an intermediary between these two possible? Say, a 6A High / 1A Low Tandem Wing. Because even for a design requirement of "good stability" a +11 seems excessive, I'd shoot for a +3 or +5 or something if we can make our plane easier to fly and dodge with in exchange.

    For that matter, how much room do we have over our Structure breakpoint? We could make the lower Wing/Canard Anhedral, trading one each of Structure and Stability for another Control.
     
    Gnarker said:
    Is an intermediary between these two possible? Say, a 6A High / 1A Low Tandem Wing. Because even for a design requirement of "good stability" a +11 seems excessive, I'd shoot for a +3 or +5 or something if we can make our plane easier to fly and dodge with in exchange.

    For that matter, how much room do we have over our Structure breakpoint? We could make the lower Wing/Canard Anhedral, trading one each of Structure and Stability for another Control.
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    Bit late for that, we already determined the wing structure (7A High). These are just alternate paths we could, previously, have taken. I guess we could potentially backtrack but I'm not seeing a compelling reason to do so.
     
    Ptolemy said:
    Much as with the Japanese Empire IRL, the successes we and our nation achieve will be largely down to our own merits, rather than pre-existing advantages like resources and established industry. We're now embroiled in what seems to be the equivalent of the Russo-Japanese War, which ended with a humiliating defeat for the Russian Empire. That victory established Japan as a world power equal to Western nations, and deserving of respect. Given the opportunity to do something similar, and help to establish a dynamic rival to the elder Western powers, I'm not surprised that people voted for Japan. This point in history was fascinating, after all.
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    Yeah, it'll be fascinating right up until the government decides it can totally take on the most powerful nation and economy on Earth in an unlimited war that our nation has no chance whatsoever of winning.

    (Yes, I know that history will hardly repeat itself, let alone so exactly, but the point stands: once the militaristic, prideful, arrogant, and ambitious government gets in over its head by challenging enemies too powerful to defeat, things will get pretty bad. Here's to hoping that we don't find ourselves on that path.)
     
    Currently, there are breakpoints before every multiple of 5 in mass and drag.

    When you go over:
    Mass:
    +1 drag (which may also result in a drag breakpoint)
    -1 Max speed
    Stall speed may increase
    -1 DNE

    Drag
    Max Speed may decrease
    -1 DNE

    Right now, we are at the mass, drag, DNE, (and budget) breakpoints.

    In theory, we could gain 5 drag, if we could also gain +1 structure at the same time. Because we need 6A of flaps, the largest wing needs to be at least 6A. Wings can make some trade offs in drag and structure, that's why doing from a 7A monoplane to a 6A/1A biplane is possible, as long as you fit into certain structure/drag configurations. It might be just possible to go to some sort of 6A/1A biplane and squeeze out another point of drag or two to enlarge the control surfaces, but increase the outboard fins goes in 2 drag (-2 control, +2 stability) packages. And it's usually much better to screw around with the wings because more area of outboard fins is a pretty terrible trade off. More area of cannards is (+1 drag, +3 control, -2 stability) so it might be possible to get to something like 3 stability, -6 handling, or something like that, if you tried pretty hard.

    But we care more about stability, because that was in the request from the Army. Fully loaded, the Duck will turn a little better than the Navy scout but that's about all that can be said for it. An actual, purpose built fighter looks something like (-1 to +3) handling and (-1 to +3 stability). But right now (in the rules), handling only (seems) to matter when trying to play silly games with fighters and doing barnstorming type stunts.
     
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    Crusher Bob said:
    Without paying for an extended driveshaft (which we can't afford) we are limited to outboard fins and (cannards or outboard elevators). Compared to cannards, basic outboard elevators are +1 drag (which we can't afford) and +1 control (which we don't care about).

    Making the control surfaces any bigger means more drag (which we can't afford). It's very hard to make a plane that can dive 700m and not fall apart out of wood, canvas, and wire. There may have been a bit of wiggle room in the dive 6 version of the duck, but I had those trade everything in the optimization space for more speed. So it would probably be possible to make a dive 6 version of the duck (more maneuverable, more stable, or something) without going out of the dive profile.

    But I got most of that extra speed by sawing the wings down, which increased stall speed. Which didn't matter, because cruise speed went up, and your new, faster, cruise speed was still comfortably above your new higher stall speed. But if you started messing around with larger control surfaces you'd slow down, which would push you against your higher stall speed, which would mean more wing area...

    Part of what I am hoping falls out of the new rules is less optimization breakpoints everywhere! you must meet every single one!. Which would allow more changes to a given design without needing to change everything.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    To be fair, a LOT of real world pieces of technology that actually try to optimize for any given single characteristic fall prey to this. When you have, oh... I'm going to pull a number out of a hat and say eight different variables that can be changed...

    Well, any solution that optimizes- really optimizes- one of the variables is going to forcibly nail down some of the others. And given just how iterative military design processes can be, it's very easy for things to get weird when you try to make alterations to one aspect of the system after the rest have been put together into a coherent working whole.
     
    [X] 2x1A outboard fins, 1A canard
    If there's no objections we can go with this and truck on to finish the bomb load and optimization.

    Also I've been doing some research and holy shit y'all, historical Japanese attitudes to infidelity are a thing. You might not have to ditch one of your vices for this relationship after all.
     
    Both.

    Japanese attitudes towards infidelity have historically been super-permissive as long as everyone involved was discreet (by Japanese standards where everyone is highly tight-lipped anyway). However, this has never historically stopped jealousy, strife, and discord from resulting, especially when things get found out. One may speculate that Japanese levels of infidelity are arguably both a cause AND an effect of the large number of... I'm just going to call them 'emotionally dead marriages' in Japan.

    IRL this infidelity culture has (as usual) greatly favored men, with a very large and not especially subtle sex industry in Japan that mostly caters to married men. Given the ways in which Akitsukuni is and/or has been different, I suspect that the rentboy population has been gradually spiraling upwards to approach or exceed the geisha girl population.
     
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