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

[open_sketch]

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Stress 0​

Office Stress 0​

XP 5​

Spoiler: Character Sheet

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.

Spoiler: Ohara Airworks

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)

Spoiler: Expanded Cast

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.

Spoiler: Technology

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

Spoiler: Akitsukuni & World

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.

Spoiler: Old Map

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.​

 

[Artificial Girl]

we might be able to make this happen.

Click to shrink...

Not really. The level of technical and institutional knowledge, plus the amount of money needed to proliferate radios to smaller units... It's not possible. Plus to really make CAS doable you need radios that are portable enough. Right now they're big things that need their own trucks to carry and set up and most communications between units are still done by runner or field telephone.

 

[Shadows]

From a mechanical standpoint, it would be better to have a gear with cutouts for the barrels to fit through and slide this gear about halfway down the barrels. Keep this gear from sliding off using set screws. You already need a way to hold the barrels together anyway, and this avoids the hand crank somehow going to hell during operation.

Click to shrink...

Or a gear mounted in a ball bearing race.

Wait, that's a Mid-Barrel Clamp...

 

[Crusher Bob]

Not really. The level of technical and institutional knowledge, plus the amount of money needed to proliferate radios to smaller units... It's not possible. Plus to really make CAS doable you need radios that are portable enough. Right now they're big things that need their own trucks to carry and set up and most communications between units are still done by runner or field telephone.

Click to shrink...

Well, obviously what we need to do it make a Looking Glass aircraft and give it enough crew to coordinate a whole section of the air war at once...

That way, when the Doomsday Zepplins take off, we'll have somewhere to bring the Empress...

 

[brmj]

From a mechanical standpoint, it would be better to have a gear with cutouts for the barrels to fit through and slide this gear about halfway down the barrels. Keep this gear from sliding off using set screws. You already need a way to hold the barrels together anyway.

Click to shrink...

Plausible, but that depends on the gun's design. If it works like a Gatling, sure. Just rotating the barrels will work perfectly fine. If it works like a Hotchkiss Revolving Cannon, though, that's not possible and we're stuck with gearing going to where the crank normally is. That said, I have real concerns about how the Hotchkiss would handle that duty cycle compared to some of the other options.

 

[noliar]

A radio is more use on the two seaters because the spotter/gunner can operate it - and a plane with loiter time, spotter and two way radio is very useful even without the gun.

Unfortunately, I don't think we can bring in a two seat, two engine machine in for under 42 and that's without a radio or composite hull and using the unreliable hobgoblin. Unless we can get those 25mm cannon for free but even that leaves us well over.

Radio, H series (Al) and the extra wing to carry them is 60+

 

[Rat King]

I'd like to respectfully disagree with this. Radio is vital for coordinating with the infantry for the kind of combined arms tactics involving close air support that deals with trench warfare. If we don't have real-time coordination with the boots on the ground as provided by a radio, this plane can still be sent after trains and armor, but can't suppress enemy infantry as part of an assault.

Click to shrink...

At this tech level, we need a dedicated radio operater, I think.

 

[Ganota]

Well, obviously what we need to do it make a Looking Glass aircraft and give it enough crew to coordinate a whole section of the air war at once....

Click to shrink...

I think that would work far better as a zeppelin rather than a plane. That way you can go all in with the best radios available.

 

[brmj]

Turns out there is in fact a precedent for putting externally powered, multi-barrel guns on a WWI aircraft:

Fokker-Leimberger - Wikipedia

Pretty much everything the internet knows about it, including the only picture, traces back to a letter to the editor in a 50 year old magazine (Page 1, Page 2). This appears to be one of a number of prototype designs in response to the same request, but other than an externally powered version of a maxim, I'm not finding anything about the other ones. This gun in particular was a new, rifle-caliber weapon with a remarkably simple action of a sort that turned out to be a really bad idea. It was fed with a cloth belt and powered with the plane's engine or an electric motor. No particular mention is made of synchronization, but it wouldn't have been able to get away with a standard synchronizer without throwing away a lot of ammo unfired, so it either totally lacked that capability or would have been used geared to so as to not need it, with some mechanism to let it be connected and disconnected from the drive without loosing synchronization. Given that this was late enough in the war that not being able to shoot through a propeller would be a big problem, I wouldn't be surprised if it was the latter. The ammo feed interruption thing @Shadows was suggesting isn't an option with this one because of the belt.

On the whole, not hugely directly relevant to what we're doing with the information we actually have about it, but this is at least a sanity check on the whole idea of externally powered guns in this era, and maybe a point towards the synchronized version heaving been solved, or at least investigated, historically.

 

[Gravitas Hunt]

Something a bit unrelated to the current discussion: I've found a thesis someone wrote on the history of aircraft instrumentation from 1909 - 1919. I haven't read much of it; just going to look through for some inspiration for cockpit designs.

(Warning: link seems to force a download, in case that's problematic for anyone; it's a PDF document)

 

[Rat King]

Something a bit unrelated to the current discussion: I've found a thesis someone wrote on the history of aircraft instrumentation from 1909 - 1919. I haven't read much of it; just going to look through for some inspiration for cockpit designs.

(Warning: link seems to force a download, in case that's problematic for anyone; it's a PDF document)

Click to shrink...

This looks super cool.

 

[open_sketch]

def gonna check it out

 

[samdamandias]

Meanwhile, elswhere, but not very much elsewhen

You are Vanja Pet'a Kriz, and you are dreaming.

You sit on a grassy hill, bottle of kvass in one hand, a string leading to your biggest kite ever in the other.

In the distance, a war rages on, a thunderstorm of metal and fire and blood and pain.

A person sits next to you. You recognize them, but at the same time, you don't.

"You see it too."

"Yes"

Some time passes, as you watch the storm unfold.

"That one," you say, gesturing with your bottle.

"What?"

"That one, with the three red stripes on the wings. That's my brother-in-law's plane. "

Your companion raises a hand and points. "The one with the black tail and rear wing. My fiancee flies it."

"My brother-in-law used to run an art gallery before the war. There were these Alleghenian paintings he absolutely loved. Gorgeous landscapes, clouds so real you'd swear you could hear the wind. But the only way to get clouds like that is with a storm. Beautiful, but terrifying when you get close. We're close, and it's too late to find shelter. But maybe the worst of the storm will pass us by, and hit somewhere else. Or maybe we get lucky and lightning strikes us so we don't have to see the rest of it."

"I'm sorry"

"As am I. Your planes are brilliant."

Your conversation partner nods towards your kite. "I've never seen a kite that big"

"Not a kite, if you believe it. The packhorse, which can carry half a ton of cargo five hundred kilometers. Turns out the wings are big enough that when she flies empty and low on fuel, there's enough lift to keep her aloft in a stiff breeze, and she can break 200kph in a sprint. But they never fly empty. Always carrying something important to the war."

"But the return from the front?"

You jerk your head to the side, indicating behind you, without looking. You already know what's there. It will be there until the day you die.

"Coffins."

 

[open_sketch]

Okay everyone, just informing you..

I'm taking a week-long hiatus from this quest and Whispers in the Deep. I'll still be working with @Artificial Girl on Castles of Steel, but...

Ur girl needs a break. She's gotta put some serious time into reassembling the core rule stuff of Flying Circus, with the goal of getting the rulebook layout to page 120 by next Friday.

So no updates! Oh no!!!!!

These quests have been extremely helpful both to the development of the system and to my own personal development as a writer. However, they've also cut into some of my professional time a little too hard, and I need to scale back for a while. I'm hoping when I come back I can achieve a better balance, and I hope that doesn't mean denying you too much content.

I love you guys!

As a topic of discussion to suppliment the aircraft design element (which is probably ready for a vote, and I'll put it to one soon), I have a question.

Where do you see Asuka's personal life going? What do you want them to do with their money and time?

Thus far they've been a very reactive character, but I've started dropping some hints that they are seeing a need in their life to be more proactive in getting what they want and engaging with others. What do you want them to do? Where do you, the voices Asuka is hearing in their their head ever since the stress of starting a new job got to them, see them in 5 years? 10? 20?

 

[Ramble]

The enbi needs a house. A big house, with three stories, running water, electricity. When the war is over, gotta splurge on the most pretentious possible foods. Gold leaf on everything! Why? Because money!

Also some sort of charity.

 

[The Sandman]

Up in not-Hokkaido helping not-Sugimoto in his search for the not-Ainu gold?

(Seriously though Golden Kamuy is great and everyone should read/watch it)

 

[open_sketch]

Up in not-Hokkaido helping not-Sugimoto in his search for the not-Ainu gold?

(Seriously though Golden Kamuy is great and everyone should read/watch it)

Click to shrink...

was that the super dope one with mark twain and YOU KNOW THE PENALTY FOR KILLING YOUR MOTHER and "but you paid for 16 ninjas!!!" ???

 

[brmj]

Huh. That's a surprisingly tough question.

What does Asuka even want? An end to the war, and Yachi back home safe, obviously. Also to build cool planes, and not have them used to kill people. A better society and a better world, but I don't think they have terribly well developed ideas about what that means beyond kinder, more democracy and less prejudice. They want to build a life with Yachi, but probably don't quite know what that means for them. Moving in together, presumably, but they may not have thought too far beyond that. Probably not getting a bigger place, at least for quite a while, since their current one is very well suited to their needs and preferences from the sound of it. I doubt they want to adopt kids any time soon, if ever: they seem to do well enough with kids, but don't really seem like the type it would even occur to and would probably be more happy being a favorite... there really isn't an enby equivalent for uncle and aunt, is there? Whatever that would be.

I think they still haven't really grappled with what it means to have money, which isn't entirely a bad thing in that they haven't settled into the mindset of a wealthy capitalist, but is also pretty problematic in that it maybe kind of comes with not grasping what it means to not have money, and what else could be done with some of that money in someone else's hands. I think they value their comfort and convenience, and are appreciating being able to take the easy way out using their money sometimes, but they don't have any use for luxury and ostentation for its own sake. At this point, they probably aren't substantially motivated by money on a personal level.

I think they've got some growing up to do around developing their ideas about politics, society and so on a bit more, but I think it's important that they do it without losing anything of their essential character. I'd like them to take a greater role in avoiding what may be to come and bringing the country towards a better future, but I don't see them out at the front of a march waving the red flag or whatever. They're not that person.

If things do go bad, I'd rather they notice and get out than try to keep their head down and keep going. You may have been inspired by The Wind Rises to some degree, but that's not quite the story I feel like helping tell.

In some ways, I think Asuka needs an external motivation to stay interesting, at least so far. Left to their own devices, they'd probably build beautiful, fast, peaceful airplanes that are wonderfully suited for whatever their purpose is. The international air racing world would turn into a contest to see how badly Asuka's latest plane beats the world record set by their previous one. They'd build airliners, and trainers, and mail planes, and bush planes for remote areas, and they'd be happy, but it would eventually stop being easy to keep it interesting to read about. They have no grand ambition beyond that which is immediately quite achievable as soon as the war is over. Baring some development in that direction, they may need externally provided challenges, motivations or limitations to keep things interesting. War can do it, but so can any number of other things, ranging from resource limitations to unusual and difficult engineering challenges or design objectives.

 

[Gnarker]

Okay everyone, just informing you..


Where do you see Asuka's personal life going? What do you want them to do with their money and time?

Click to shrink...

Invest in other technology branches, forge international relations, become famous, become politically active and help prevent the shitshow that was OTL Imperial Japan (and unfuck Navy politics and nepotism in the process), get married to Yachi, find other people to get married to with Yachi, become a symbol for people breaking out of the traditional gender and sexuality molds.

Also, before you take your well-earned break, would you mind answering the below questions?

@open_sketchbook, couple questions:
First, if we include both a cannon and a machine gun, in addition to more versatility against both ground and air targets, could a pilot use the MG to walk their fire, increasing the cannon's accuracy?
Second, would ammo that's not incredibly outdated improve the 25mm's damage, AP, and range to bring it more in-line with the other cannons?[1]
Third, where might we get such ammo? Besides inventing it ourselves, either as part of the design process or through our RnD division, would there be another way?
Fourth, someone proposed pneumatic mortars. Viable, or not?

[1] For example:
Damage: 4, Hits: 2 (3), AP: 3
Knife: +1 Hits, Close: -, Long: ?, Extreme: -1 Hits, -1 AP

(Long: ? because the Light and Heavy both have Long: -1 Hits, but the Mechanical has Long: -, and an upgrade making that worse feels weird.)

Click to shrink...

 

[DocMatoi]

was that the super dope one with mark twain and YOU KNOW THE PENALTY FOR KILLING YOUR MOTHER and "but you paid for 16 ninjas!!!" ???

Click to shrink...

Unless I'm way behind, no. It's the one with the Japanese soldier and his adopted ainu little sister searching for treasure using maps tattooed on human skin

 

[open_sketch]

@Gnarker

1. no because varying velocities (see also: trying to sight the zero's cannons with the MGs not working)

2. no because the gun would not be designed to withstand more force you could at best just eliminate the smoke

3. sponsor it through ohara's dedicated r&d company

4. strictly inferior to dropping bombs or shooting cannons. also good lord compressed air on a plane do you want to die?

 

[noliar]

A 200+ kph attack run is a useful boost muzzle velocity. Enough to come out ahead even if one were to cut an inch or two off the barrels maybe.

The next generation of ammunition might include a small bursting/incendiary charge just to lower the mass.

 

[KhazintheDark]

Invest in agriculture and mechanisation, set up a power company, Japan is an island nation heavily reliant on imported goods, set up a business designing bulk cargo ships.

There isn't much of a market for services yet so manufacturing is the industry to invest in as its seeing the largest growth. It'd also be a good idea to invest in some local coal mining as a power source for the electricity company.

Also set up a bank as a subsidiary so the overarching company can more easily keep track of the company's finances. Plus if you can make ID cards for banking you can also approach the government about expanding your production to cover a variety of licenses.

 

[Gravitas Hunt]

I've started looking into instrumentation.
Things we should already have:

• Engine RPM indicators: these were basically taken straight from cars with some lightening
• Yaw strings: even the Wright Brothers used them; they're arguably the first specialised aviation instrument

Things that are close to being useful; would likely be within reach of a research roll:

• Pitot tube anemometer (i.e. airspeed indicator): the technology exists (invented circa 1903), but it wasn't used on aircraft until 1913.
• Altimeter: moutaineering altimeters exist, but are very sensitive to vibration, and cannot keep up with the more rapid changes in altitude that aircraft are capable of
• Compass: old tech, but v. vulnerable to vibration and the magnetos of the engine

It looks like the artificial horizon is still a while away, though.

 

[noliar]

I've eliminated a couple of mistakes and can now do the Hobgoblin 2,2 at cost 38. 1000 km cruise range too.

 

[Artificial Girl]

I dunno. Matsura Asuka, capitalist, doesn't really seem to fit them. They'd probably invest enough money to keep themselves comfortable but I have to think they'd be more interested in like... actually designing and building things. Maybe travel a lot more and see the world and learn from other aircraft designers.