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.​

 

[someplaneguy]

My design, the Dart, is probably the closest you'll get at stall 20 because it's lower drag than the others. As @FrangibleCover said getting much lower retention requires increasing stall speed, which isn't something we really want since it'll make thermalling much harder.

 

[Glau]

I'd imagine that most of the more reliable updrafts in the country would be wind against the mountains? There's a lot of long-fetch winds coming in perpendicular to the ranges and not a lot of flat ground to spawn thermals... So I figured training within a thermal would be a less-used technique.

 

[someplaneguy]

By better at thermalling I really meant lower minimum sink. The updraft has to be faster than your min sink for you to gain altitude and lower stall allows for a slower min sink. It doesn't really matter what the source of the updraft is. Min sink also doesn't depend strongly on lift to drag ratio, lift/drag only controls at what forward speed your min sink occurs at.

Of the designs put forward so far: Deluxe bote is the best at staying in the air, the Dove variants can handle twice the g-load of the others, and the Dart flies the fastest.

 

[open_sketch]

"Try it again. And give me a second to cover my ears this time."

Mi nodded, took a second to psych himself up, then he primed the fuel pump and stuck the burning torch back near the valve. Almost instantly, the hideous low drone, louder than anything you'd ever heard, returned with a vengeance, a throbbing scream from hell. Covering your ears did nothing. You felt it in your bones, the vibrations through the floor like a little earthquake.

They ran it twenty seconds, the exhaust tube getting hotter and hotter, then Mi cut the fuel line again and the engine died, along with the infernal noise.

"You see why I test them at night when nobody's around!" Mi announced.

"So can you build more of these, then?" You asked at a shout. You could barely hear yourself, but Mi nodded.

"Yeah! They're dirty cheap! I wouldn't want to ride with one, though, and the plane would have to be really structurally sound!"

The two of you took a few minutes back in the officer to recover your hearing before continuing.

"So, we could build examples of pretty much any size?" You asked. You'd sort of turned the engines over to Mi after he finished work on the airliner project, not having the time to fully dedicate to it yourself. He'd taken to it with gusto.

"Shouldn't be too difficult. The parts can be pretty sloppy and wouldn't need much specialized machining. I have my doubts about its practicality for just about any kind of manned aviation, though."

"The noise is awful, yeah." You said. A pilot would go deaf after a flight, no question.

"Not just the noise. For one thing, the vibration. The engine is basically blipping constantly as it action cycle, this one about 40 times a second, I think. I've found some Europan literature on versions of it built over there, including some versions that sound like they don't have valves, but this one is far more sophisticated and lighter weight. I want to meet whatever Cathay genius built the thing."

"Me too." You said. That was impressive, considering the general industrial base over there.

"Well, the second thing is the lifespan of the engine." He turned some notepads towards you. "Now, providing you aren't worried about the pilot's hearing, or shaking their bones up, the version from Cathay lasted about half an hour on a relatively low power. The valves wore out, springs first. I'm not sure what they were expecting in the race, but maybe they had higher-quality parts. I've had all kinds of oddities with mine, but mostly the springs fail. Other problems have included the hinges failing, the shutters blowing out, or the whole thing catching fire, but its mostly the springs. Don't expect to run it more than about forty minutes."

You read over the report quickly. "I wonder if we can ease up some of those issues with better construction."

"I'm sure we can eventually." He said. "Convince the boss to throw me some money and assistants, and we might make some strides. Until then, if you can figure out a use for this thing, we have it."

---

Mi has managed to reproduce the pulsejet for use, and he'll be able to build them to specification for you if you need them. Because they are simple to prototype, being incredibly mechanically simplistic, they can be made to order: just say what Power you want the engine at and one of your mechanical engineers will build it for you (AKA, I'll build it using the engine builder.) The engineer you pick will affect how I assign stats: Mi's will be more reliable, Kibe's more powerful, and Koide's will get it done cheaper.
Otherwise, keep gliders, and glider discussion, coming.

 

[Ramble]

I wonder if we could put a small one in the gliders.

You know, so the pilots have power steering on landing, or something.

 

[Himmelhand]

I wonder if we could put a small one in the gliders.

You know, so the pilots have power steering on landing, or something.

Click to shrink...

Consider this a horrified rating.

Koide, can you build us a 20 Power engine?

 

[Always Late]

Mi nodded, took a second to psych himself up, then he primed the fuel pump and stuck the burning torch back near the valve. Almost instantly, the hideous low drone, louder than anything you'd ever heard, returned with a vengeance, a throbbing scream from hell. Covering your ears did nothing. You felt it in your bones, the vibrations through the floor like a little earthquake.

They ran it twenty seconds, the exhaust tube getting hotter and hotter, then Mi cut the fuel line again and the engine died, along with the infernal noise.

Click to shrink...

Sweet, sweet bass-dropping music to my ears.

"You see why I test them at night when nobody's around!" Mi announced.

Click to shrink...

WHAT? I CAN'T HEAR YOU!

"So can you build more of these, then?" You asked at a shout. You could barely hear yourself, but Mi nodded.

"Yeah! They're dirty cheap! I wouldn't want to ride with one, though, and the plane would have to be really structurally sound!"

Click to shrink...

"Yeah! They're dirty cheap!

Click to shrink...

*inarticulate noises of glee and speed*

"Not just the noise. For one thing, the vibration. The engine is basically blipping constantly as it action cycle, this one about 40 times a second, I think. I've found some Europan literature on versions of it built over there, including some versions that sound like they don't have valves, but this one is far more sophisticated and lighter weight. I want to meet whatever Cathay genius built the thing."

"Me too." You said. That was impressive, considering the general industrial base over there.

Click to shrink...

I'd put my money on some Confucian scholar spending a bit of time overseas, then came back and made the engine we saw with an almost artisanal approach.

Mi has managed to reproduce the pulsejet for use, and he'll be able to build them to specification for you if you need them. Because they are simple to prototype, being incredibly mechanically simplistic, they can be made to order: just say what Power you want the engine at and one of your mechanical engineers will build it for you (AKA, I'll build it using the engine builder.) The engineer you pick will affect how I assign stats: Mi's will be more reliable, Kibe's more powerful, and Koide's will get it done cheaper.

Click to shrink...

*still blanks out when looking at mechanics*
Cheap is for when we've got our production more into these engines and the inherent quality taken up a bit. Power is for anything that must absolutely epitomize 'thrust over aerodynamics', like a missile. Reliability is always a fundamental factor of turnaround time.

 

[someplaneguy]

Approximately how much mass and drag would a power 1 pulsejet have? I'm wondering if I could fit one onto a glider with a single microtank for self-launching...

 

[brmj]

Approximately how much mass and drag would a power 1 pulsejet have? I'm wondering if I could fit one onto a glider with a single microtank for self-launching...

Click to shrink...

I'm not sure what the final set of rules @open_sketchbook is using looks like if it differs from the state I left them in when I got distracted, but with my sheet in the state I left it, a representative WWI tech valved pulsejet with 1 power, pneumatic fuel injection and absolutely no upgrades or other bits of fanciness might have 1 mass, 1 drag and a 10 cm throat diameter, with the combustion chamber being somewhat wider. It might be around a meter long, though there could be some variability there depending on the exact design. It uses about 2 mass of fuel per hour of operation, which is actually a lot better than I feared.

Edit:
The complicating factors are what's needed to make it work safely. To use the pneumatic fuel injection you need a 1-mass compressed air tank, though perhaps @open_sketchbook would let us just call it the same tank as the fuel and have it work like a pressure fed rocket engine, since it would be a tiny engine and a single microtank. The glider would also need to be strong enough for the engine not to shake it apart, and the bits attached to (and directly around) the engine would need to be non-flammable. Think "engine is held away from the plane on metal supports, and there is a patch of polished aluminium under it to deal with the heat it puts out while glowing orange hot". Fortunately, this engine is at least small enough that it can probably be started with hand bellows on the ground rather than a blower or compressed air tank, so that's good.

 

[chriswriter90]

Approximately how much mass and drag would a power 1 pulsejet have? I'm wondering if I could fit one onto a glider with a single microtank for self-launching...

Click to shrink...

Something to think about for launching planes off cruisers and battleships until catapults become a thing in the 20s.

 

[brmj]

Something to think about for launching planes off cruisers and battleships until catapults become a thing in the 20s.

Click to shrink...

That's probably not very viable. This is a 1-power engine maybe launching a glider which is designed to be as light and sleek as possible with a tiny stall speed. A military aircraft with the kind of stall speeds we typically end up with is going to require a much larger engine. The sort of engine you design around rather than tacking on. Solid fueled rockets are probably a better choice for that role. And if that sounds like a good way to light the plane on fire, so is a pulsejet.

 

[someplaneguy]

WWI tech valved pulsejet with 1 power, pneumatic fuel injection and absolutely no upgrades or other bits of fanciness might have 1 mass, 1 drag
snip
To use the pneumatic fuel injection you need a 1-mass compressed air tank

Click to shrink...

Dreadful Racket
Matsura's planes are always craziest.

Spoiler: Math

Part	円	Mass	Drag	Structure	Strain	Frame	Other
CREW
Pilot		1	3			-1	+2 Bail Out
ENGINES
Tentative Power 1 Pulsejet + engine Pod	?	1	6
COVERING & FRAME
Strut Core				15
Struts and Wire x2		2		4		2
Canvas x2			4
Stubby Tail						-1	-3 Pstab
WINGS
Forward stagger Parasol (6m^2, 8m)			-2		-12		+5 PSTAB, -2 Bleed
Shoulder (3m^2,3m)					-3		+2 PSTAB +3 Bleed
Longest Wing Effects							0 Authority
Total Wing Area Drag			4
STABILIZERS
Canard Stabilizer							-3 PSTAB
Vertical Stabilizer							0 HSTAB
CONTROL SURFACES
Ailerons: Default
Rudder: Default
Elevator: Default
REINFORCEMENT
Wooden Strut x2	2		6		10		30 Tension
Wires			5		27
LOAD
Micro-tank+Compressed AIr tank		2
UPGRADES​
none
LANDING GEAR
retractable
TOTAL	2+?	8	27	29	22

Stability 2, Max Strain 21, Toughness 8, Handling 98, Stall 2, Flight Stress 1?

At a cost of 2+pulsejet 円, we can make the worlds first jet motorglider! Depending on pulsejet thrustslope it's speed under power is somewhere between 30 km/h and 80 km/h for a single fuel use. I had to go single seat to keep it MP 1, but it's only got a single DP more than the Dart. It's even got 1 mass and 2 drag leftover in case @brmj was a little optimistic.

 

[Glau]

But what about pulsejet helicopters?

Sikorsky Pulse Jet Helicopter

 

[brmj]

Dreadful Racket
Matsura's planes are always craziest.

Spoiler: Math

Part	円	Mass	Drag	Structure	Strain	Frame	Other
CREW
Pilot		1	3			-1	+2 Bail Out
ENGINES
Tentative Power 1 Pulsejet + engine Pod	?	1	6
COVERING & FRAME
Strut Core				15
Struts and Wire x2		2		4		2
Canvas x2			4
Stubby Tail						-1	-3 Pstab
WINGS
Forward stagger Parasol (6m^2, 8m)			-2		-12		+5 PSTAB, -2 Bleed
Shoulder (3m^2,3m)					-3		+2 PSTAB +3 Bleed
Longest Wing Effects							0 Authority
Total Wing Area Drag			4
STABILIZERS
Canard Stabilizer							-3 PSTAB
Vertical Stabilizer							0 HSTAB
CONTROL SURFACES
Ailerons: Default
Rudder: Default
Elevator: Default
REINFORCEMENT
Wooden Strut x2	2		6		10		30 Tension
Wires			5		27
LOAD
Micro-tank+Compressed AIr tank		2
UPGRADES​
none
LANDING GEAR
retractable
TOTAL	2+?	8	27	29	22

Stability 2, Max Strain 21, Toughness 8, Handling 98, Stall 2, Flight Stress 1?

At a cost of 2+pulsejet 円, we can make the worlds first jet motorglider! Depending on pulsejet thrustslope it's speed under power is somewhere between 30 km/h and 80 km/h for a single fuel use. I had to go single seat to keep it MP 1, but it's only got a single DP more than the Dart. It's even got 1 mass and 2 drag leftover in case @brmj was a little optimistic.

Click to shrink...

If anything, I'm being a bit conservative on the pulsejet itself. The 1-power engine is only mass and drag 1 because I set the sheet to round up to 1 if it would be less than that, rather than down like normal. You can go a fair bit higher power than that without those going up to the next integer, but the fuel consumption rises proportionately.

And for the record, the thrust slope my sheet gives is 0.8283342633, for a max speed of 80. This is vastly more slopey than the propeller ones, and might be messed with for game balance or something, but the calculation that led to this is the way it is because that's what was needed to fit the actual measured performance of the V-1's engine, plus a few others tested less rigorously.

 

[Crasian01]

I mean you can build a pulsejet to spec. Literally just choose a power and see what happens. This is, like, almost (but not quite) Christmas.

The concern is weight as a function of power which we don't have the curves for, but we can totally make it happen. Maybe we could get each of the three engineers to prototype four engines at 10, 50, 100, and 150 power? IDK how much that would cost us but knowing what those regressions of power to weight look like is critical.

Given the sheer trashiness of that reliability though... I mean it has to be some kind of boost-to-altitude thing or else you won't be able to pull a design off. And once it gets to altitude the engine will die and just lie around uselessly which is very very not ideal. Sure, you can accept it sometimes, but if you could make it something you could detach...

Ugh and the problem with missiles is guidance and navigation, and the only reliable thing we have for that is a person, and even then.

Maybe, I dunno, depending on how much it weighs, you could tie it into the exhaust system of an aircraft? The scheme would have to be to pipe all the exhaust gasses out of one giant tube for some reason, possibly to drive a turbocharger. In normal operation the valves are open or something, so exhaust just flow through no problem. When you activate the pulse jet, an intake door is opened to allow more air in and you spray in extra fuel to the combustion chamber to turn the pulsejet on.

This seems pretty clunky as ideas go, but maybe it would be useful on an interceptor? Something that needs to be able to pop off of a runway with lots of firepower to take down enemy bombers? I can see the argument:

1) We saw in the Akitsukuni-Caspia War that bombers were very important for strategy, and will likely be used more in the future.
2) Bombers with multiple engines are likely to be faster than single engine fighters, which are principally intended for maneuvering fights (this is only true in WW1 and before).
3) A fighter aircraft that can catch bombers and keep up with them while also fighting other escorting fighter aircraft is not feasible due to limitations of modern piston engines, and a fighter aircraft that has to pull double duty like that often is bad at both of jobs anyway.
4) A paradigm shift towards a two-pronged fighter fleet is necessary, whereby one prong of the fighters are dedicated towards destroying other enemy fighter aircraft and the other prong is dedicated towards destroying enemy bombers.
5) We propose a concept of operations whereby anti-bomber aircraft (interceptors) and anti-fighter aircraft (pursuers) work in concert, with interceptors launching with minimal forewarning from forward airbases and focus on destroying waves of enemy bombers while pursuers patrol areas of responsibility and focus on entangling and/or eliminating escort fighters, under the presumption that interceptors will lack the maneuverability to adequately engage with enemy escorts.

And then:
6) For such a concept of operations, no propulsion system currently in production provides adequate power for an interceptor type aircraft to carry a large enough weapons load can be carried to guarantee destruction of enemy bombers and additionally ensure adequate reliability and ammunition.
7) A pulsejet or pulsejet-augmented aircraft provides this capability, as pulsejets provide a higher power to weight ratio than existing Akitsukuni piston engines. This higher power to weight ratio means that for the same overall takeoff weight, a pulsejet powered aircraft can fly faster than a comparably sized piston engine aircraft. The inverse is also true: a pulsejet powered aircraft can be heavier than a comparably performing piston engine aircraft without any loss in capability.
8) A major limitation of pulsejets is their endurance, and more specifically their tendency to wear out in less than 1 hour of operation.
9) However, applications of pulsejets to interceptor aircraft obviate this limitation, as engagements lasting in excess of one hour for the aforeproposed concept of operations are unlikely.
10) As a result, pulsejets potentially provide an ideal propulsion system to interceptor aircraft intended to operate out of forward airbases and focused principally on speed, in order to keep up with and destroy enemy bomber fleets.

---

But, that's 10 logical steps. I feel pretty worried about 10 logical steps here. Notice how I had to invent a whole new way of the Akitsukuni military running its air fleet? It might even work, but there are many problems that I haven't thought of that probably exist, and that's leaving aside any issues with convincing the military that this is a good idea. Consider the astronomical cost that would go into revamping your fleet-composition, and what would happen if you just were wrong?

But maybe it's a good idea at the same time to be thinking about such a CONOPS and have a few designs kicking around a cabinet somewhere, just in case. It's not like Matsura doesn't just yeet planes into existence as a hobby anyway.

 

[brmj]

I mean you can build a pulsejet to spec. Literally just choose a power and see what happens. This is, like, almost (but not quite) Christmas.

The concern is weight as a function of power which we don't have the curves for, but we can totally make it happen. Maybe we could get each of the three engineers to prototype four engines at 10, 50, 100, and 150 power? IDK how much that would cost us but knowing what those regressions of power to weight look like is critical.

Given the sheer trashiness of that reliability though... I mean it has to be some kind of boost-to-altitude thing or else you won't be able to pull a design off. And once it gets to altitude the engine will die and just lie around uselessly which is very very not ideal. Sure, you can accept it sometimes, but if you could make it something you could detach...

Ugh and the problem with missiles is guidance and navigation, and the only reliable thing we have for that is a person, and even then.

Maybe, I dunno, depending on how much it weighs, you could tie it into the exhaust system of an aircraft? The scheme would have to be to pipe all the exhaust gasses out of one giant tube for some reason, possibly to drive a turbocharger. In normal operation the valves are open or something, so exhaust just flow through no problem. When you activate the pulse jet, an intake door is opened to allow more air in and you spray in extra fuel to the combustion chamber to turn the pulsejet on.

This seems pretty clunky as ideas go, but maybe it would be useful on an interceptor? Something that needs to be able to pop off of a runway with lots of firepower to take down enemy bombers? I can see the argument:

1) We saw in the Akitsukuni-Caspia War that bombers were very important for strategy, and will likely be used more in the future.
2) Bombers with multiple engines are likely to be faster than single engine fighters, which are principally intended for maneuvering fights (this is only true in WW1 and before).
3) A fighter aircraft that can catch bombers and keep up with them while also fighting other escorting fighter aircraft is not feasible due to limitations of modern piston engines, and a fighter aircraft that has to pull double duty like that often is bad at both of jobs anyway.
4) A paradigm shift towards a two-pronged fighter fleet is necessary, whereby one prong of the fighters are dedicated towards destroying other enemy fighter aircraft and the other prong is dedicated towards destroying enemy bombers.
5) We propose a concept of operations whereby anti-bomber aircraft (interceptors) and anti-fighter aircraft (pursuers) work in concert, with interceptors launching with minimal forewarning from forward airbases and focus on destroying waves of enemy bombers while pursuers patrol areas of responsibility and focus on entangling and/or eliminating escort fighters, under the presumption that interceptors will lack the maneuverability to adequately engage with enemy escorts.

And then:
6) For such a concept of operations, no propulsion system currently in production provides adequate power for an interceptor type aircraft to carry a large enough weapons load can be carried to guarantee destruction of enemy bombers and additionally ensure adequate reliability and ammunition.
7) A pulsejet or pulsejet-augmented aircraft provides this capability, as pulsejets provide a higher power to weight ratio than existing Akitsukuni piston engines. This higher power to weight ratio means that for the same overall takeoff weight, a pulsejet powered aircraft can fly faster than a comparably sized piston engine aircraft. The inverse is also true: a pulsejet powered aircraft can be heavier than a comparably performing piston engine aircraft without any loss in capability.
8) A major limitation of pulsejets is their endurance, and more specifically their tendency to wear out in less than 1 hour of operation.
9) However, applications of pulsejets to interceptor aircraft obviate this limitation, as engagements lasting in excess of one hour for the aforeproposed concept of operations are unlikely.
10) As a result, pulsejets potentially provide an ideal propulsion system to interceptor aircraft intended to operate out of forward airbases and focused principally on speed, in order to keep up with and destroy enemy bomber fleets.

---

But, that's 10 logical steps. I feel pretty worried about 10 logical steps here. Notice how I had to invent a whole new way of the Akitsukuni military running its air fleet? It might even work, but there are many problems that I haven't thought of that probably exist, and that's leaving aside any issues with convincing the military that this is a good idea. Consider the astronomical cost that would go into revamping your fleet-composition, and what would happen if you just were wrong?

But maybe it's a good idea at the same time to be thinking about such a CONOPS and have a few designs kicking around a cabinet somewhere, just in case. It's not like Matsura doesn't just yeet planes into existence as a hobby anyway.

Click to shrink...

A few notes here:

Pulsejets have absolutely abysmal specific fuel consumption, especially the relatively primitive ones we are working with. Any use case for them based on a mass reduction relative to piston engines is a bit questionable if range matters very much.

Assuming otherwise adequate design and metallurgy, the big limit on the lifespan of a valved pulsejet is the valves themselves, which wear out fairly quickly almost unavoidably because an awful lot is being asked of the springs. When they wear out is fairly consistent, so it is possible to plan around the expected lifetime of the valves reasonably well. The springs themselves are a very cheap part. A valved pulsejet designed for rapid reusability might be designed such that the entire valve assembly can be easily replaced and then refurbished with new springs and other maintenance.

I'm not sure where your idea about tying a pulsejet into a piston engine's exhaust system is coming from. If this is just about using that as a source of pressure to start it in flight, you should be aware that ram air pressure should be enough with a forward facing intake while flying at a reasonable speed.

Finally, there is one really big advantage of pulsejets that you are missing, or at least that doesn't factor into your plan. Pulsejets are comparatively dirt cheep and can be manufactured out of sheet metal (ideally stainless, if you want to use it more than once!) with relatively cheap and common tools and a workforce without specialized skills beyond basic metalworking. In a time and place where engine production is a (perhaps the) major bottleneck on aircraft production, that has the potential to be a really big deal, either for low cost aircraft now or for vastly increasing production in the event of another war.

 

[Crasian01]

I'm not sure where your idea about tying a pulsejet into a piston engine's exhaust system is coming from. If this is just about using that as a source of pressure to start it in flight, you should be aware that ram air pressure should be enough with a forward facing intake while flying at a reasonable speed.

Click to shrink...

The exhaust thing is more just that I know how an afterburner works and a pulsejet looks vaguely like an afterburner if I squint. I don't really think the whole thing with the exhaust really makes that much sense now that I think about it though.

The springs themselves are a very cheap part. A valved pulsejet designed for rapid reusability might be designed such that the entire valve assembly can be easily replaced and then refurbished with new springs and other maintenance.

Click to shrink...

I mean I think you have to do this for any pulsejet to even be practical. I don't know how to make that happen and frankly I suspect you'd need to swap out the entire damn combustion chamber, which makes me :thinking:

Finally, there is one really big advantage of pulsejets that you are missing, or at least that doesn't factor into your plan. Pulsejets are comparatively dirt cheep and can be manufactured out of sheet metal (ideally stainless, if you want to use it more than once!) with relatively cheap and common tools and a workforce without specialized skills beyond basic metalworking. In a time and place where engine production is a (perhaps the) major bottleneck on aircraft production, that has the potential to be a really big deal, either for low cost aircraft now or for vastly increasing production in the event of another war.

Click to shrink...

The real problem for me is that I can't see any use for that advantage if we can't overcome the "falls apart after an hour" problem. It seems plausible to me that you could find a niche for them that involves getting up high and fast as quickly as possible, and the only thing that I can think of "interceptor to kill waves and waves of bombers", which is basically a Komet. Except, in this case, we consider the possibility of a reusable Komet, which doesn't kill the pilot, and possibly can actually stick around and do something plausible.

 

[10ebbor10]

I want to meet whatever Cathay genius built the thing."

"Me too." You said. That was impressive, considering the general industrial base over there.

Click to shrink...

Given that we asked the Yakuza to procure one of these for us, it may be better if we don't .We don't really know how they got these examples.

Finally, there is one really big advantage of pulsejets that you are missing, or at least that doesn't factor into your plan. Pulsejets are comparatively dirt cheep and can be manufactured out of sheet metal (ideally stainless, if you want to use it more than once!) with relatively cheap and common tools and a workforce without specialized skills beyond basic metalworking. In a time and place where engine production is a (perhaps the) major bottleneck on aircraft production, that has the potential to be a really big deal, either for low cost aircraft now or for vastly increasing production in the event of another war.

Click to shrink...

The problem with having dirt cheap disposable planes is that you also need dirt cheap disposable pilots.

 

[brmj]

The exhaust thing is more just that I know how an afterburner works and a pulsejet looks vaguely like an afterburner if I squint. I don't really think the whole thing with the exhaust really makes that much sense now that I think about it though.



I mean I think you have to do this for any pulsejet to even be practical. I don't know how to make that happen and frankly I suspect you'd need to swap out the entire damn combustion chamber, which makes me :thinking:



The real problem for me is that I can't see any use for that advantage if we can't overcome the "falls apart after an hour" problem. It seems plausible to me that you could find a niche for them that involves getting up high and fast as quickly as possible, and the only thing that I can think of "interceptor to kill waves and waves of bombers", which is basically a Komet. Except, in this case, we consider the possibility of a reusable Komet, which doesn't kill the pilot, and possibly can actually stick around and do something plausible.

Click to shrink...

It's entirely possible to make a valve assembly that just bolts onto the front or something, at least if you can address the issues that the vibration and high temperatures might pose for your fasteners. I've seen hobbyist designs that work that way. Not sure how the valvegrid was affixed on the v-1's engine and those modeled after it, though. And I will note that valved pulsejets without this feature can be quite practical, if you don't intend to reuse it. It's a pretty good way to do a cruise missile or target drone on the cheap, at least before turbojet technology really matured.

Really, though, what it comes down to is that valved pulsejets aren't a terribly practical engine and have fairly niche applications any time being really cheap and simple isn't the overriding concern. To do something practical (and reusable) with pulsejets, I think moving towards valveless is the way to go. You generally take a small performance hit, and it is much harder to design a good valveless engine from scratch than a valved one, but it completely does away with the valve failure problem. With no moving parts, they tend to be extremely reliable if they are kept cool enough for the metal to hold up. Fuel is still a big limiting factor, but that's a lot easier to do something about or plan around than sudden engine failures within an hour.

 

[FrangibleCover]

Sadly I'm away from my spreadsheets this weekend so I can't do it myself, but can someone please put together the highest Power pulsejet with Mass/Cost 1 and then bolt it to the Dove with some aluminium sheeting where necessary. The inherent structural soundness of the design should make it the best of our gliders for a Motorglider approach. Remember, you can always pull the Roll Bar off if you need to keep it to MP1 because paper and pulsejets is near-suicidally dangerous anyway!

 

[Hazard]

How plausible is the team designing an all wood (except the engine) flying bomb that can be launched from floatplane catapults?

Because that sounds to me like a recipe for very basic and early cruise missile port strikes.

 

[Nyvis]

I wonder if we could put a small one in the gliders.

You know, so the pilots have power steering on landing, or something.

Click to shrink...

Couldn't we use it for takeoff too? So you have a glider that can get itself up and turn the engine off.

 

[Axslashel]

Couldn't we use it for takeoff too? So you have a glider that can get itself up and turn the engine off.

Click to shrink...

Lets make disposable JATO's (Jet Assisted Take-Off).

 

[SirKaid]

The problem with having dirt cheap disposable planes is that you also need dirt cheap disposable pilots.

Click to shrink...

Given how there are two kinds of fighter pilots: aces and useless trash, we're already there.

(I know that's callous of me, but statistically speaking the people who get in dogfights either A) win a lot or B) die pretty much immediately. Most fighter pilots effectively are disposable.)

 

[Gnarker]

(I know that's callous of me, but statistically speaking the people who get in dogfights either A) win a lot or B) die pretty much immediately. Most fighter pilots effectively are disposable.)

Click to shrink...

The problem is distinguishing between the two before said dogfight, I'd think. Otherwise you could simply keep the latter on the ground in the first place and save yourself the cost of outfitting them with planes.


Anyway, speaking of the Komet: What are the possibility of two (propably valveless) pulsejets on a single interceptor plane, a boost engine tuned for performance, and a cruise engine tuned for (relative) efficiency?