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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
    • I think it might be worth voting on general added features before picking an individual design. The way I see it we have 4 categories of general compromises. This post highlights the major trade-offs made, please see the summary table for specifics.

    We can get:
    Exactly what we asked for.
    Donkey-lite with conventional gear at 27円
    Extra passenger and cargo capacity but heavy enough to be flight stress 2 or covered in paper.
    All 'class A' designs. Trade weirdness and rules lawyering for performance, see summary table for specifics
    Amphibious but miss a performance stretch goal.
    Dogfish doesn't have colonial range.
    Donkey-lite on amphib floats has a top speed of 190kph
    Short take-off and landing but covered in paper.
    JER-1 paper stalls at 90kph.
    STOL in paper stalls at 60kph, boost 2 at -1 MP, and restart-able engine but 3 wings and needs to economy cruise on a single engine at 140kph for ~half the flight to achieve colonial range.
     
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    I would perhaps note that whatever we vote for needs to be the design that is most readily spinnable into something we haven't yet needed to design a new airplane for. @open_sketchbook is likely to have a bunch of stuff happening in the wider world, and it would definitely behoove Ohara Airworks to not only look at what's the minimum necessary, but also at designs which can provide capabilities to markets which may not exist. The performance stretch goals are certainly laudable, but they're not everything, and something like being amphibious may allow us to market the aircraft into applications it wasn't originally intended for but could still excel at.

    As a related note: Has anyone done any calculations to see what their aircraft can do in terms of pure cargo capacity? A freight hauler is a useful thing, and if a configuration carries the exact same number of people but somehow manages to carry less pure cargo due to the way the geometry is set up, that could be a meaningful difference. This being said, I'm not sure the rules actually care so....
     
    Crasian01 said:
    I would perhaps note that whatever we vote for needs to be the design that is most readily spinnable into something we haven't yet needed to design a new airplane for. @open_sketchbook is likely to have a bunch of stuff happening in the wider world, and it would definitely behoove Ohara Airworks to not only look at what's the minimum necessary, but also at designs which can provide capabilities to markets which may not exist. The performance stretch goals are certainly laudable, but they're not everything, and something like being amphibious may allow us to market the aircraft into applications it wasn't originally intended for but could still excel at.
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    Amphibious capability specifically is (RAW) ridiculously easy to tack onto any design at all for a small-to-moderate speed penalty and no other complications whatsoever- but I take your point.

    That said, I don't agree with your point. We're pretty much at the technological point where cantilever wings have to get invented by someone, because strut drag is capping performance for basically the entire world. I expect to see them within two to five years max, and once they exist as even a theoretical concept, every heavy airplane is immediately obsolete. The difference in performance achievable for a given power and payloard is just that huge on big planes.

    (Edit: I realize that we, specifically, are performance-capped by engine overspeed, not wing design. However, (1) other countries have generally better engines and may well run into the strut/wire drag wall before the engine overspeed wall, and (2) even if not, engine/propeller gearing is really an obvious solution that just needs someone to spend the time and math working it out, rather than a spark of genius to invent cantilever wings. I don't expect engine overspeed to be a major developmental stumbling block worldwide.)

    So, I don't think the long-term development/adaptation potential of our design for this project is super important. We're after market share, name recognition, and setting norms for the near-to-mid future of commercial air travel. And, hopefully, making a ton of money for Mr. Ohara (and a bit for Asuka).

    As a related note: Has anyone done any calculations to see what their aircraft can do in terms of pure cargo capacity? A freight hauler is a useful thing, and if a configuration carries the exact same number of people but somehow manages to carry less pure cargo due to the way the geometry is set up, that could be a meaningful difference. This being said, I'm not sure the rules actually care so....
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    Yeah, the rules don't care. And given that cargo has four times the MP-per-fuselage-section density of passengers, none of them are going to be particularly great cargo-hauler conversions unless someone's shipping feathers in a tremendous hurry.

    That said...

    Pretty sure the STOL in Paper could be converted to a cargo hauler with the same number of fuselage sections and still have a generally acceptable (if no longer STOL-capable) stall speed, though the extra landing gear drag for a 5-6MP increase in weight would probably cost it a bit of top speed. Alternatively, the Dugong/Deer/similar large, closed-wing designs could trade some of their (very generous) fuel capacity to haul relatively enormous weights on short flights and maintain their generally impressive turn of speed.
     
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    thepsyborg said:
    Pretty sure the STOL in Paper could be converted to a cargo hauler with the same number of fuselage sections and still have a generally acceptable (if no longer STOL-capable) stall speed, though the extra landing gear drag for a 5-6MP increase in weight would probably cost it a bit of top speed.
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    Yeah, ripping out the interior and reinforcing the landing gear gets the STOL in Paper a speed range of 8-19 with 40 mass (8MP) of cargo. It's only a 3 MP increase in weight.

    Edit: Was tired, did the calculations assuming cargo is twice as dense, not four times as dense. The actual numbers for a cargo variant STOL in Paper are: Speed 12-18 loaded with 65 mass (13 MP) of cargo with half a section left over. Reinforced for only 60 mass (12 MP) of cargo the top speed goes back to 19.
     
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    thepsyborg said:
    That said, I don't agree with your point. We're pretty much at the technological point where cantilever wings have to get invented by someone, because strut drag is capping performance for basically the entire world. I expect to see them within two to five years max, and once they exist as even a theoretical concept, every heavy airplane is immediately obsolete. The difference in performance achievable for a given power and payloard is just that huge on big planes.
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    Well cantilever wings already exist. The Fokker Eindecker was from this era, after all. As far as my knowledge tells me, I think the development we're waiting on is really moderate thickness airfoils with rounded leading edges. We have HUGE wing area requirements because are wings are shit at generating lift, and if we could generate the same lift with less wing, we'd be in so much better shape structurally, we'd negate the need for struts, we might even drop in weight, and everything would be wonderful.

    Temporarily. Until unreasonable demands started coming in again.

    thepsyborg said:
    Yeah, the rules don't care. And given that cargo has four times the MP-per-fuselage-section density of passengers, none of them are going to be particularly great cargo-hauler conversions unless someone's shipping feathers in a tremendous hurry.
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    I'm rather peeved by this, but alas it is probably not wrong. I know for a fact that the C-5 Galaxy's floor is specially reinforced to carry main battle tanks and the C-130 does not have that capability because it was not an explicit requirement.
     
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    Crasian01 said:
    Well cantilever wings already exist. The Fokker Eindecker was from this era, after all..
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    Um. No? The Eindeckers had wire-braced wings- wing-warping wings, at that! The first cantilever wing IRL was the Junkers J.1 in 1915 (12 years After Flight, so...approximately now, in-universe, but not quite yet- there's a sketch quote somewhere relatively recent that "gay!Junkers hasn't done his thing yet" or something along those lines).

    Edit: You're probably right on the money about the airfoils, though. Even beyond better lift generation, they enable wings with actual internal volume, thus having space for internal spars and bracing so cantilever works at all, as well as in-wing fuel tanks to save us 3+ fuselage sections.
     
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    Oh the Eindecker had wire-braced wings? RIP I guess I remembered wrong.

    But yeah the airfoils thing really just seems the most critical thing to me, and that point about the internal bracing is super important too. Stiffness increases with thickness squared, after all.
     
    Crasian01 said:
    Oh the Eindecker had wire-braced wings? RIP I guess I remembered wrong.
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    Now I'm wondering if it's even possible to make a cantilever wing-warping design (I mean, I'm sure it's possible, but it sounds awful to actually try), and how the hell you'd pull it off if so.

    But yeah the airfoils thing really just seems the most critical thing to me, and that point about the internal bracing is super important too. Stiffness increases with thickness squared, after all.
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    Sadly it's not something Flying Circus models super closely- ("is cantilever" <--> "has spar component")-->"may have wing fuel tanks without additional drag" is about the extent of it, and none of those affect lift bleed at all.

    I don't think it makes any particular difference to the...expected play envelope for Flying Circus? Like, even if you get cantilever planes (and you will, because the whalebone spar lets you pull off some utterly appalling bullshit and players will want to get their grubby mitts all over that ASAP), they're still going to be primarily one-or-two-seat fighters. Transports and bombers are closer to plot devices than they are to planes, as far as the typical use case is concerned.
     
    Hey, 3d20 please.

    Pros
    [X] we didn't get a fair shot at it last time. we deserve another chance.
    [X] we share a common and important life experience and bond over it.

    Cons
    [X] asuka feels like this is cheating on yachi.
     
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    so now we have to maintain 2 relations...
    yaaaaaay....
     
    Maybe a little harder for a work aholic like our poor MC here but yeah, two relationships is generally both rewarding and pretty satisfying once you figure out the pieces.
     
    Katsuragi said:
    Maybe a little harder for a work aholic like our poor MC here but yeah, two relationships is generally both rewarding and pretty satisfying once you figure out the pieces.
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    Honestly, the number one biggest issue is proper time management. Which Asuka in particular may not be super great at... although with Kibe riding herd and keeping them from staying a couple extra hours every night, it might not be so bad.
     
    brmj said:
    Looking at a picture of that, what I see is a single fairly conventional wing with both canards and a standard tail, and a fuselage with unconventional lines that I could see maybe generating a bit of lift.
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    Really belated reply, regarding the Piaggio Avanti:

    The "canards" really aren't- all they do is provide lift; their only moving surface is a flap that goes down when the main wing flaps are lowered. Pitch control is entirely from the T-tail. Piaggio claims the fuselage provides up to 20% of total lift, which is almost certainly generous, but even if it's half that it's still enough to count as a lifting body in Flying Circus terms (where having a lifting body just means you get 2-3 free Wing Area per fuselage section, and quite likely need wings on top of that [if smaller ones] unless you're making something very large/fast/expensive).

    Many moons ago I read an article about the Avanti in...some aviation magazine I subscribed to as a teen, I've forgotten which one. IIRC, the initial design was conceived during or shortly after the 1979 fuel crisis. The process was along the lines of: We want a very fuel-efficient plane. Therefore, we want a turboprop with a very narrow, high-aspect ratio mid wing, as small as we can get away with, on a fuselage smoothly tapered at both ends (instead of cylindrical like most bizjets). In order to keep the spar of a mid wing out of the passenger cabin, we need to mount it quite far to the rear, which means the tail is going to need to be huge to balance it with so much of the fuselage weight ahead of it. So let's put a little wing on the front to balance things, and then we can make the main wing and the horizontal stabiliser smaller. Ooh, and since our fuselage is a continuous curve anyway we might as well try to approximate an airfoil shape so we can make the wings even smaller! That...sorta works, actually. Close enough. Okay, but now our propellers are right outside the passenger windows because we moved the main wing so far back, that's gonna be super loud...guess we're making a pusher.
     
    Pictures of historical tandem-wings (other than the Miles Libellula we all know and love) shamelessly stolen for your viewing pleasure (largely but not exclusively from Wikipedia). The Fernic, in particular, is kind of gorgeous. Some of the others are appalling, though:






    Amusingly, this is an example of the "all-moving / flying elevator + tandem wing" combo that several proposed designs in the thread have used. In this case, it's the forewing that pivots on that row of big struts to control pitch.

    The 1933 Mignet Pou-de-Ciel / Flying Flea, from which this design is descended, is another such.

    EDIT: I have no idea what this is, but it's pretty ridiculous.

    Edit edit: One more and I'm done. This one is a closed-wing Finnish electric ultralight seaplane:
     
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    9-9: Stumbling Forward
  • Threadmarks
    • "It's nothing. Come on."

    The streetcar arrived within about ten minutes and spirited you to the train station, where you quickly piled in to the traveller's inn and got a room. Mikami went ahead as you asked the front desk to use their phone: the woman invited you behind the desk to use it, because it was an older sort that was nailed to the wall.

    Yachi answered, sounding a little groggy.

    "Asuka? How was the wedding?"

    "It was fine." You said, getting it over quickly. "Um, I had a little too much to drink, so I'm not driving home. The streetcars are a mess, so Mikami and I are getting a place."

    "Oh." The word hung on the line a moment. You took a moment to try to steady your breathing.

    "It's not... it's not that. We're just sleeping off the drink."

    "... Okay."

    "... Yachi, we have some stuff to talk about, don't we."

    "Yeah, we do." He said quietly. "We've had a good reason for putting it off, but..."

    "We can't keep doing it." You finished.

    The line was quiet for a few long seconds.

    "What's going on with you two?" Yachi asked.

    "I don't know."

    He made a sort of noncommittal sound.

    "Yeah, I know." You sighed.

    "... well, figure it out with her." He said finally. "We'll talk about our end when you get back."

    "Okay. I... I love you."

    You could almost hear his smile over the phone. "I love you too. See you tomorrow."

    You hung up the receiver and cradled your head in your hands a moment, utterly drained. Then you thanked the receptionist and made your way to the room.

    The room in question was tiny, maybe a meter across, with space on a shelf for your luggage, a futon on the floor, and no real light to speak of. Just a place for a weary traveller to rest their head. You almost turned around right there.

    "I'll get another room." You muttered, but Mikami caught your arm.

    "It's fine, okay? I wanna talk to you anyway. We'll sleep in our clothes, it'll be fine. I'm a modern woman, and we've been dating almost three months now."

    You nodded nervously and stepped inside, sitting uncomfortably on the futon with Mikami.

    "I don't want to you sleeping in your nice clothes." You said quietly. She smiled.

    "It's fine, they're not that nice. Just gotta let my hair down is all." She said. You winced.

    "Um... well, more than that. I don't want to sleep in... in my binder. It's not healthy." You admitted. That was one of those things you weren't supposed to talk about.

    "Oh. Hell, alright, I'll give you a second."

    She stepped out and slide the door shut, and you unwrapped the offending garment as quickly as possible and lay it and your bowtie carefully on the shelf. You tapped the door frame and Mikami joined, her hair now long and loose.

    "You look weird like that." You observed idly. "Not like yourself."

    "Right? I hate having it in my face all the time. I don't wantcha to take this the wrong way, now, but I've wanted to cut it since forever. Or, I would, but..?"

    "Our test pilot does that." You said, thinking of Satomi's bob. "But, yeah. She gets misgendered a lot." The way you wore your hair was and had always been one of the most important gender markers. When you'd first cut down the sides of yours, it had been a nerve-wracking experience, even if the results were still distinctly not male and not female.

    "Yeah." The two of you sat in silence for a while, trying to wrest some form of comfort out of the space. It didn't come.

    "This doesn't feel right." You said, your voice low.

    "What doesn't?"

    "This. Us." You admitted. "I... it's confusing, right?"

    "Because of Yachi." She filled in. You nodded.

    "In that letter he sent me, the one where he, you know, where he sounded like he wanted to die." You'd filled Mikami in on the background of your relationship while discussing your problems. "He, he said he'd slept with one of the other pilots. His friend Amari."

    "And?" Mikami sounded somewhat confused.

    "Well, he felt awful, because... well, because it's all a big grey area, isn't it? Him and me, we're not supposed to be doing this either. We're not supposed to be dating, we're not supposed to be getting married... spirits, I've been engaged for seven months almost." The magnitude of the time crashed over you. "I was supposed to have... moved past all that stuff."

    "I mean, yeah, I understand, but it's absurd anyone who make any assumptions about you based on him, ain't it?" Mikami started. "I... you said he was gay, right?"

    "Yeah. I dunno why he's with me."

    "Because you ain't a woman, even if your parents got that wrong at first. Nobody's gonna mistake you for a man or a woman regardless of who you're dating." Mikami said, obviously trying to be reassuring. It was, though not for the reasons she intended.

    "Um... yeah. Actually I... uh. Mistaken for male." You said, choking out each word. You were not supposed to say that, and you regretted doing it immediately.

    "Oh spirits, I'm so sorry, I shoulda... Fuck... it's the drink, I swear." She drew inward, wincing.

    "It's fine." You said, waving it off. People guessed anyway, you just weren't supposed to confirm or deny. And the binder thing, you could see how that would have got her confused. That was on you.

    "Well, you do a damn good job with it." She said, clearly trying to salvage something from the disaster.

    "Thank you. I... I try."

    You giggled, the drink still coursing through your system. This entire conversation was absurd.

    "Right, let's back up a moment." Mikami said. "Way I see it, the area ain't too grey at all. You got the same thing everyone else has, you can date a guy and a gal. That's fair, and it ain't none of his business."

    You nodded. "I suppose. But what about Yachi's side of things?"

    "That's a horse of a different colour, I suppose." Mikami mused. Guh, it was awful, but you loved her dumb folksy sayings. She tried to keep it hidden under a veneer of Modern Urban Woman but get a few drinks in her and they inevitably slipped out. "I reckon you have to figure it out for yourself."

    "Right. That's on the agenda for tomorrow." You said.

    "Hope it goes well for you. You're real good for him, you know. I'd hate for something to happen."

    "Yeah... yeah. That's the thing, right? It's bigger than just a relationship." You started, and the words kept coming. "Like, you know, he goes off over to Joseon and he's gone a whole year and I see him twice and he's up every day flying and fighting in my stupid machines and... spirits, he lost everyone. Everyone. Even the ones that made it, everyone's been so fucked up by it. He's had a poker night with some of his friends when we were at the wedding and between the four of them they've got fourteen limbs and two wheelchairs. And I just... it's my fault. It's all my fucking fault."

    "No, hun. Oh spirits, no it isn't. The things you built kept your man alive. That's-"

    "No. It's... when I was in Gallia, when the Caspian Prince went after our pilot, I was the one who told Major Izuhara to get in the way. I... I told him to delay him while we solved the issue. And... so. This whole thing. The whole thing is my fault. All of it."

    Your voice failed you midway through the sentence, giving way to tears. Mikami shuffled over, just a bit nearer, and put her hand gently against yours, as close as she probably felt she could get.

    "I didn't know. I'm sorry."

    "It's all on me. Izuhara's dead, Yachi's fucked up, Iwasaki's fucked up, all the dead and wounded. It's all me."

    "It ain't, though. Asuka, you... you can't put that on yourself. It's not your fault, or your pilot's fault, or that Gallian lady, or Izuhara. Maybe the Crown Prince's fault, a little, but something like this is bigger than him too." She said. Fuck, she was smart. "It doesn't matter in any case. What guilt's gonna get you?"

    Dead. Dead in a phonebooth, you thought. But you didn't say it.

    "I know." You muttered.

    "Look, Asuka, none of that stuff matters in the here and now. You're holding a man together after he came back from it, and that's something."

    "You are too." You said.

    You sat with that a moment.

    "It kinda... feels like it's been a full time job, yeah." Mikami said. "I was worried I'd be bored, right, I've never not worked. But that boy needed a lot of holding together."

    "Mine too." You said.

    "Kinda got in the way of everything." Mikami said. "Kinda... in the way of us. Right on our first date, even."

    "Yeah. It wasn't... really a date, huh." You mused. "Kinda just... two sad people at a bar."

    "That could describe most of our dates, really..." Mikami said. "Two sad people at a cafe, two sad people at a park..."

    "Sorry."

    "Weren't your fault. Weren't mine really, either. That's just kinda how it was."

    You nodded. "Kinda wish we could have a do-over, you know. A second first date."

    "Hell, why not?" Mikami grinned.

    "Because that's... not how time works?"

    "Nah, look. Ask me out, like you were doing it for the first time."

    You struggled a moment to remember how to actually do that. Making the first move wasn't-

    "Shit, wait, I made the first move, didn't I?" Mikami said. "Sorry, that wasn't fair."

    You smiled. "I mean, maybe it's my turn?"

    "Nah, let's keep it consistent." She cleared her throat, brushed some loose hair behind her ear, and started. "Mx. Matsura, would you care to get tea with me, and we can get to know each other a little better?"

    "... sure. On... the 9th?"

    "Old New Years. Got it."

    You smiled. That went... much better than expected.

    ---

    You woke up the next morning partially tangled in your clothes (which was a good reminder why you shouldn't sleep in them. You grabbed your stuff and headed to the washroom to get dressed and cleaned up, did your best to wash off your face and minimize how raw your eyes looked after crying last night. Though there was nothing you could do about the patches of grey stubble intruding on your cheeks and lip. You'd heard of a process of electrolysis, and while it had always just sounded like it would be a convenience before, it was rapidly seeming like it might be a necessity.

    The two of you took the streetcar back out to get your car, then you dropped her off and made you way home. Yachi was already awake and had tea on, and you sat down with him.

    "So, what's the situation?" He said.

    "We're going to give dating another shot." You said. He nodded, a shaky hand pouring you some tea.

    "I'm happy for you. Really." He said flatly.

    You took his hand. "Babe. Nothing happened last night, I promise. Well, except that we had a drunk talk and cried a lot."

    He looked at you a moment, then he nodded. "Yeah, you look it."

    "Seriously. I... I wouldn't do that to you."

    "... I know. Fuck, I think I'm just... assuming my feelings are yours. Is there a word for that?"

    You didn't know it, but it sounded vaguely familiar.

    "I just, I felt like garbage after my thing with Amari, because I didn't know where I stood. Still kinda confused, it's... I think I know what would be fair, but I don't want to presume..."

    "I never thought I'd need to say this to you, but can you please be clearer? I'm sorry, it's too early for this." You asked.

    "Alright." He took a moment to form his thoughts. "I just... if you're dating, seems only fair that I can too. That that should be the solution to this... whole thing."

    "Yeah." You said, as a sort of cold washed over you. There was... you were jealous. It was there, there wasn't a good way around it. It wasn't fair, it wasn't right, it was intensely hypocritical, but there it was. You just got him back and now you wanted him all to yourself, and you realized it was absurd and wrong and you needed to squish it down, but it was there. Hearing him say it out loud felt far more real that text in a letter. You weren't enough for him.

    Of course you weren't. Of course. He wasn't interested in you, not really. He... was just involved. He liked men, why would he like you?

    It wasn't fair. None of it was fair. He shouldn't be shackled to you, and you couldn't be jealous of him after he was so patient with you. Spirits, Asuka, you're such an asshole. First treating your coworkers like garbage, then going behind his back with Mikami, and now this.

    "Asuka?"

    "Yeah, sorry. I... fuck."

    He smiled, slow and sad. "Look. It's the weekend, we haven't got anything to do. Remember that museum you were going to take me to, the day I asked to marry you?"

    You nodded, words being beyond you at the moment.

    "Well, I've been eager to finally get there with you. What do you say we make a day of it, just you and me?"

    Just you and him. You shuffled over to his side and pressed against him, feeling his arms around you, sinking against his chest. Here he was, barely holding it together, and he was still looking out for you and your stupid, petty, jealous feelings.

    You were going to marry this man, and nothing could make you happier.

    ---

    The next update is the vote on the planes so doublecheck your stuff and get me a final list of contenders! Limit one plane per submitter, please, it's getting out of hand around here.​
     
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