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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
    • brmj said:
    They've been loosing a lot of experienced pilots. That's part of why Yachi has been in such a bad place mentally. However, I don't think it implies quite as much about the overall military situation as you seem to. This is the war air combat was invented in. There is no pool of ready made experience to draw from for training. It isn't (just) that the experienced training team they need to replace their pilots is insufficient for the task and, in Coralie's case, being sent to the front. Short of some people too wounded to fight, there is no one who can train good pilots who wouldn't have to be pulled from the front for it because there have never been experienced combat pilots before. There is no proper training cadre and never has been, and it is a very hard sell to ask the army to pull back their best handful of surviving pilots for no immediate gain. The Caspians are very likely having the exact same problem.
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    This was, historically, Japan's problem in WW2; they had a very exacting, high standard for pilots pre-war and they didn't really relax those standards until the middle of the war. They also had a habit of sending their best pilots out over and over again until they died. Didn't help that the military culture meant that even if some ace pilto got reassigned to a training squadron, he'd basically be bothering his superiors until they sent him back to the front.
     
    brmj said:
    However, I don't think it implies quite as much about the overall military situation as you seem to.
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    Going back, the original question was : Why don't we have more Super DragonFlies?
    To which my answer was : We don't have the aces to fly them.

    So, the original argument seems quite well supported by the entire thingy.
     
    10ebbor10 said:
    Going back, the original question was : Why don't we have more Super DragonFlies?
    To which my answer was : We don't have the aces to fly them.

    So, the original argument seems quite well supported by the entire thingy.
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    There aren't more super Dragonflies because they are expensive in material. And the main difference to "normal" Dragonflies is more armour. So the people put in super Dragonflies would be the ones the military really don't want to lose. Coralie is very much on of those.
     
    Axslashel said:
    There aren't more super Dragonflies because they are expensive in material. And the main difference to "normal" Dragonflies is more armour. So the people put in super Dragonflies would be the ones the military really don't want to lose. Coralie is very much on of those.
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    More armor, and a little sturdier for more aggressive maneuvers without the wings falling off. Not that this changes your point at all.
     
    Axslashel said:
    There aren't more super Dragonflies because they are expensive in material. And the main difference to "normal" Dragonflies is more armour. So the people put in super Dragonflies would be the ones the military really don't want to lose. Coralie is very much on of those.
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    I think you've lost track of what my post was about.

    Your argument is perfectly valid, and I'm perfectly aware of it (I brought up the fact that military was doing massive cost cutting when the discussion started). However, it doesn't contradict the point you're actually quoting. To recap that discussion :

    @brmj argued that I was overstating the importance of an ace pilot shortage as an indicator for the overal war situation.
    I argued that I wasn't using the ace pilot shortage as an indicator of the overal war situation, but as an explanation for the Super DragonFlies diminishing presence.

    The fact that an alternate explanation for the status of the Super Dragonfly exists doesn't change or invalidate any of that. In truth, the argument will be a combination, the Super Dragonfly is very expensive, and the army is running out of pilots for whom the expense is worth it.

    To further address your point, the fact that they're handing out the super-rare plane to Coralie means that they don't have anyone more important they can give it too. This directly implies a critical shortage of aces and other veteran personnel.
     
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    I have to say having the war be decided by two d10s at the end of this engagement is very frustrating. It just feels that no matter what decisions we make or what victories we achieve, everything just comes down to a computer program that generates numbers. If maybe it could be switched to where a 1 is a critical success instead of a critical failure our low roles might become enjoyable instead of the depressing slog our rolls have become.
     
    Hey, this is the Tutorial Level of WW1, it's supposed to be a slog.

    Would like to have more impact, that's true. I feel our planes in particular should be murdering their's at a hilarious rate. But still.

    On that note, how does the Rhino compare to the Dragonfly, and the Super one?
     
    Miner238 said:
    I have to say having the war be decided by two d10s at the end of this engagement is very frustrating. It just feels that no matter what decisions we make or what victories we achieve, everything just comes down to a computer program that generates numbers. If maybe it could be switched to where a 1 is a critical success instead of a critical failure our low roles might become enjoyable instead of the depressing slog our rolls have become.
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    I think it's partly intentional? The people we're playing as can't really change how the war goes. Yachi can Ace his heart out and the battle might still be lost, or winning the battle might not matter for how the war's gone, and Matsura's ability to change things is even more indirect.

    Sometimes war is just shit, and depressing, and grinds people up. And by sometimes I mean all the time. Even a war you're "winning" is awful, for a lot of people.
     
    NemoMarx said:
    I think it's partly intentional? The people we're playing as can't really change how the war goes. Yachi can Ace his heart out and the battle might still be lost, or winning the battle might not matter for how the war's gone, and Matsura's ability to change things is even more indirect.

    Sometimes war is just shit, and depressing, and grinds people up. And by sometimes I mean all the time. Even a war you're "winning" is awful, for a lot of people.
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    But the whole war being decided by a d10? I get that war is a chaotic mess and that luck is a massive part of it, but couldn't there be more depth to the rolls or at least more thought being put into why the Akatsuki are losing and why the Caspians are winning? There could be bonuses added to the roll by how good the intelligence for the landing was, whether we gained air superiority, how accurate our dive bombers were, and how successful our ground attack aircraft were.

    There is a lot going on in a war and to decide the whole thing by the roll of one die just feels like a slap in the face.
     
    Uhm, we have a lot of impact on the war.

    open_sketchbook said:
    At the end of this, we'll be rolling 2d10 for the war score on either side.

    You get +1 for everything you shoot down, +3 for every ace out of the air, and +2 for each mission accomplished.

    If any members of your squadron die, the Caspians get +2. If they stop your missions, they get +3.
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    That's just Yachi's personal impact. Now, keep in mind that this comes on top of the warscore we already gained. You can find it in it's threadmark. That warscore includes bonuses gained from each of our designs, IIRC.
     
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    TotallyNotEvil said:
    On that note, how does the Rhino compare to the Dragonfly, and the Super one?
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    If I recall correctly: slightly less maneuverable, vastly more stable, top speed and stall speed are both a tiny bit higher, almost twice as expensive as a base-model dragonfly (difference is less for the superdragonfly), as armored as a superdragonfly with more redundancy and more complete armor coverage, sturdier, very slightly longer range, worse visibility, and a gun that will take down whatever it hits but might have more trouble hitting air targets realistically. The Rhino's biggest weakness as a fighter is probably the visibility. It's still not a bad fighter in a pinch, though, and can fly rings around the enemy planes we have seen so far. Their general performance characteristics would let them operate very comfortably along side dragonflies, and the might be more effective as fighters in combination with purpose-built fighters than they would be on their own because of the visibility issues. In addition to their intended ground attack role, I could see them performing notably well against larger bombers, airships and observation balloons. Against the current enemy fighters, they should be able to more than hold their own in a fair fight but run the risk of the enemy getting the drop on them. That said, this is dependent on ammo, and a bullet shot at a fighter (or held back in case of fighters) is one that isn't being used on a tank or a train, so making them waste too much ammo defending themselves is still a victory for the other side when they are on a ground attack mission.
     
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    Miner238 said:
    I'm aware of those bonuses, but looking back at past war rolls it just feels like our success was torpedoed by bad rolls that covered way too much of the war.
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    Thing is, there's actually not that much difference between your proposed system and the old thing.

    Miner238 said:
    but couldn't there be more depth to the rolls or at least more thought being put into why the Akatsuki are losing and why the Caspians are winning? There could be bonuses added to the roll by how good the intelligence for the landing was, whether we gained air superiority, how accurate our dive bombers were, and how successful our ground attack aircraft were.
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    Current system : You rolled badly, that means the enemy must have done something narratively important, so Open_sketchbook writes about a shell crisis or a new tank.

    Your system : Open_sketchbook writes about something narratively important (like a shell crisis), which results in malusses which cause you to roll badly.

    This seems very different, until you consider how Open_sketchbook would decide when to trigger narrative events. There's 2 options there :
    1) Railroading the war according to a predetermined narrative
    2) Utilizing dice to trigger events

    Since option 1 would be very unsatisfying, you end up with option 2, which means you're back to where you started, with dice rolls deciding the war, only now the dice are hidden a bit better.
     
    10ebbor10 said:
    Thing is, there's actually not that much difference between your proposed system and the old thing.



    Current system : You rolled badly, that means the enemy must have done something narratively important, so Open_sketchbook writes about a shell crisis or a new tank.

    Your system : Open_sketchbook writes about something narratively important (like a shell crisis), which results in malusses which cause you to roll badly.

    This seems very different, until you consider how Open_sketchbook would decide when to trigger narrative events. There's 2 options there :
    1) Railroading the war according to a predetermined narrative
    2) Utilizing dice to trigger events

    Since option 1 would be very unsatisfying, you end up with option 2, which means you're back to where you started, with dice rolls deciding the war, only now the dice are hidden a bit better.
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    My argument isn't that dice shouldn't be used. I agree it makes for a much better war experience if you aren't sure who will win. I'm frustrated that one roll decides a huge amount of these events. The roll decides the situation on land, air, and sea and I feel that is just too broad of a decision.

    I feel a more satisfying warfighting experience would be to give each service its own role. So our bonuses would go toward a roll for how the war in the sky goes, but a lesser or no bonus for the other services rolls. If all our rolls are worse then I can't complain, we had multiple points to succeed and we failed at them. To just have one die deciding everything I feel leaves too much up to luck.
     
    Miner238 said:
    My argument isn't that dice shouldn't be used. I agree it makes for a much better war experience if you aren't sure who will win. I'm frustrated that one roll decides a huge amount of these events. The roll decides the situation on land, air, and sea and I feel that is just too broad of a decision.

    I feel a more satisfying warfighting experience would be to give each service its own role. So our bonuses would go toward a roll for how the war in the sky goes, but a lesser or no bonus for the other services rolls. If all our rolls are worse then I can't complain, we had multiple points to succeed and we failed at them. To just have one die deciding everything I feel leaves too much up to luck.
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    To an extent I agree, but this is an airplane design quest and not a war quest. The rules are fine-grained for design, but background elements can/should be hand-waved a bit. You might like Petals of Titanium or similar quests more, if you are looking for the voter impact on the war?
     
    Glau said:
    You might like Petals of Titanium or similar quests more, if you are looking for the voter impact on the war?
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    Already reading it and very well done, It does not pull its punches. As for voter impact, I'm less concerned about that and more concerned at the broadness of the rolls being produced. Really I'm just arguing for more dice to decide different aspects of the war.
     
    Artificial Girl said:
    The dice system for the war just isn't that granular.
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    Then I suggest for the next war a more modular system is introduced.

    Rat King said:
    The war is a narrative element; it's not supposed to be that detailed, tbh.
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    It is an extremely important narrative element that defines the fate of our country and its future. If the ship of state sinks we go down with it.

    As for detail, think of it as trying to eat a cake. You don't just go at the cake with a fork, you cut it into pieces first.
     
    Rat King said:
    This was, historically, Japan's problem in WW2; they had a very exacting, high standard for pilots pre-war and they didn't really relax those standards until the middle of the war. They also had a habit of sending their best pilots out over and over again until they died. Didn't help that the military culture meant that even if some ace pilto got reassigned to a training squadron, he'd basically be bothering his superiors until they sent him back to the front.
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    Coralie basically did this exact thing.

    It's not only a Japanese thing, you see.

    10ebbor10 said:
    Anyway, I don't think anyone noticed this yet, or at least no one reacted.

    Coralie is going to die.

    Zero combat hours.
    Extremely flashy, high priority target plane.
    More flight hours, but most of those are useless training demonstrations. Given that I doubt the army gives ultra-expensive ace planes to trainers, I also doubt she'll have more than a week of training in the Super Dragonfly she'll be flying now.
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    Point the first: the Super Dragonfly is basically "the Dragonfly, but on easy mode." If you fly it like it was a normal Dragonfly, you won't crash it; if you fly it like a borderline reckless Dragonfly pilot, you still won't crash it.

    Point the second: the Super Dragonfly isn't that visually distinct from the regular Dragonfly. Yachi can tell the difference because Yachi is a goddamn expert who regularly gets to see the planes at rest on the ground. Coralie's (Super) Dragonfly isn't painted much more garishly than any other, and hers is not the known insignia of an Akitsukuni ace. She is not more of a target than other Dragonfly pilots, at least not by much.

    Point the second: a lot of the Dragonfly training involved combat veterans experienced from fighting on armed Desks (including Yachi), and Coralie, while bold and impulsive, isn't actually stupid and is fully capable of implementing a plan intended to maximize her own future likelihood of success and/or survival. It would be grossly out of character for her not to have been practicing air combat maneuvers heavily, up to and including practice dogfights.

    She's at risk, and no mistake about it, but I don't think she's quite as death-flagged as you think.

    open_sketchbook said:
    to be clear, the general who had to acquiesce to the politicians who dropped Cora on them saw what looks like a frankly insane record, because Coralie was a pioneer flier for the Gallians before they kicked her out for picking fights and kissing girls. she holds world records and has spent the last six months playing opfor while training the next generation of pilots. it's like... where do you think the US army would have stuffed Wilbur Wright if he had volunteered for the expeditionary force?
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    As another historical analogy, what happened when Charles Lindbergh visited the front lines in the Pacific Theater?

    [Fascist apologist scum, yes, but no one can credibly deny that he knew how to fly]

    On the other hand, to be fair, Coralie only held that world altitude record for like six weeks. Seriously, the thing got passed around like a hot potato in the early days of aviation. :p

    10ebbor10 said:
    Going back, the original question was : Why don't we have more Super DragonFlies?
    To which my answer was : We don't have the aces to fly them.

    So, the original argument seems quite well supported by the entire thingy.
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    The other answer is that it takes considerably longer to manufacture them because they have this weird extra layer of formed composite and a more complicated structure that uses steel, a war material everyone hoards jealously. There's always pressure during war mobilization to make more of the cheap version of an aircraft rather than less of the expensive version. Because among other things, simply outnumbering the enemy is often the most effective way to ensure that your people survive. A dogfight between three Caspian fighters and two Super Dragonflies is probably a lot less favorable to Akitsukuni than a dogfight between three Caspian fighters and three regular Dragonflies.

    Think of it as the opposite of the crappy reasoning that led the Wehrmacht to obsessively slow production of tanks until they were assembling impossibly labor-intensive hand-made prototypes of superheavy tanks instead of a more practical mass-production model like the Sherman or T-34.
     
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    Y5-3: Cloud-Blind
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    • You were used to them coming out of the skies. That's what they did, now. Those sturdy, overbuilt, overpowered monster Cossack-2s would throttle to nothing and drop out of the clouds, out of the sun, whatever it took to get the drop on the enemy. And the Ducks had a fixed flight pattern: they flew at a thousand meters flat so they could achieve their full dive and drop low, but still high enough to pull out. It limited your options.

    Fortunately, you weren't so limited. The Dragonfly squadron attached to the bombers could stay at a thousand meters, skimming the bottom of the clouds. You signaled to your little group to go up, up, up, to fifteen hundred, to lie in wait. Either they'd try to pounce the formation below and encounter you, or they'd try to dive on you, and the formation would get away. You were cruising at 150 kph, a bit faster than the formation you were escorting, so you'd have energy to turn into the fight if things started heating up, and you looped frequently to stay just behind the formation and keep a good eye on them.

    The only problem is that this height was right at cloud level. You were plowing through one now, just momentarily, the world around you all grey-white, water droplets forming on your windshield, when you heard the first gunshots, the overlapping tack-tack-tack of Cossack-2 pan fed guns somewhere below you.

    You broke the cloud, still in close formation, and saw that in the thirty seconds you'd lost sight of them, the enemy had pounced. A whole squadron of Cossack-2s were just finishing their pass, diving in between the fighters and bombers. You winced as one of the Cossacks misjudged their trajectory, slamming into one of the Ducks, and both planes whirled down, down, down, their structures interlocked together by the force of the impact.

    You pulled the keys on both your guns. This was it.

    What do you do?

     Instrument Panel​
     
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