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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
    • Gnarker said:
    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?
    Click to expand...
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    It would be better to do a variable geometry pulsejet that allows you to adjust the pipe diameter/length/both based on flight conditions and desired performance. How to do this without a computer, I have no idea.

    brmj said:
    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.
    Click to expand...
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    Well, fair, but then do we have a valveless pulsejet engine available to us?
     
    If propane is extant in a commercially available form, it might be more practical to try to develop the gluhareff pressure jet's operating principles for a plane, rather than try to make a pulserplane.
     
    Crasian01 said:
    It would be better to do a variable geometry pulsejet that allows you to adjust the pipe diameter/length/both based on flight conditions and desired performance. How to do this without a computer, I have no idea.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    Me neither. To say nothing of the needed materials and engineering to make the heat-resistant mechanics likely necessary work. Meaning, don't. Simplicity is a virtue. A VGP would be ideal, but two basic specialized pulsejets seem like they should be firmly 'good enough'.
     
    Gnarker said:
    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?
    Click to expand...
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    It's worth noting that a lot of the ways to increase pulsejet efficiency are really just ways to produce more thrust while burning the same amount of fuel, which then lets you use a smaller engine for the same performance, and that the other obvious improvement that comes to mind (timed fuel injection) doesn't really have significant performance implications beyond the efficiency.

    The real interesting tradeoff for a situation like this, if your aircraft has a sufficiently high top speed, is about thrust augmenters and tailpipe geometry. Basically, there are ways of getting the exhaust to interact with more air from outside of the engine that can massively increase static thrust (and thus efficiency for a given targeted thrust), but they add some drag and become less and less useful at higher speeds, eventually getting to the point where you are better off without them if you go fast enough. Maybe you want a really extreme thrust augmenter for takeoff and low speed flight, and a less extreme one to maximize top speed? Since they are behind the engine itself, messing around with variable geometry or even mechanical systems that swap them out gets a lot easier. Their temperature tolerance can also be a bit lower, though they do still have to stand up to the exhaust.
     
    With all the talk of Pulsejet powered interceptors, I want to see how viable a RATO-assisted Pulsejet powered version of the Me 163 Komet would be.
     
    Hazard said:
    Come back in 30ish (in game) years.
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    I think we could do something similar to that in spirit now. It would just be more dangerous to the pilot than anyone else and would probably look pretty terrifying.

    I'm imagining some heavilly reinforced stubby little thing with the pulsejet on top and and the most primative possible gunpowder rockets stuck in the back.
     
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    brmj said:
    [thread=ThreadId]Title[/thread]
    I think we could do something similar to that in spirit now. It would just be more dangerous to the pilot than anyone else and would probably look pretty terrifying.

    I'm imagining some heavilly reinforced stubby little thing with the pulsejet on top and and the most primative possible gunpowder rockets stuck in the back.
    Click to expand...
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    Actually, by this time liquid fueled rockets are a thing, so there's another terrifying possibility. Don't think there's industrial scale production of some of the more interesting rocket fuels yet though, so that's only slightly less terrifying.

    I mean, IIRC the Komet used hypergollic fuel and was build in such a way it was rather touchy about landing if you didn't want to explode in a fireball.
     
    Ooh, this is fun. The actual first airplane built in Japan, 1910. Do note that flight is 3 years ahead of schedule in ADCQ, though.



    I'm working on the next update now.
     
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    10-3: Be Prepared
  • Threadmarks
    • You were late to come home that night, having spent about an hour at the office's new favourite haunt, a bar that had opened a few streets over. It was a lot like Miss Yukaku's in layout, but it was... well, it wasn't a brothel.

    The office had sort of mellowed out a bit over the course of the war.

    "I'm home!" You announced, throwing your hat at the hook you'd installed on the wall. Once again, you missed, the felt cap clattering to the ground. With a sigh, you ran over and grab it, hanging it back up. "How were the scouts?"

    "Little bastards, every one of them!" Yachi called back. As you entered, you saw him with your writing desk, surrounded by papers. "Also, like... it's a little freaky seeing a bunch of ten year olds in little uniforms."

    "I think they look adorable." You said. Scouting had been brought to the country by the ambassador to Albia a few years ago, and was taking off in the middle class in Tokei. You had a whole generation of young parents who grew up in rural villages, moved to cities, and had kids, and were worried what urban living was doing to them, so a chance to sign them up for an organization that would take them hiking and camping was huge. Adachi's kid Yuki had just joined the youngest tier of the Guides, the girl's version of the organization, but that was a lot less popular. You'd heard there were only two groups in the city. They wore little green uniforms and floppy hats, like tiny Albian colonial troops, and the ones here wore blue and white neckerchiefs.

    "I dunno. It feels... grim."

    You put on the kettle, drumming your hands impatiently against the counter as it slowly began to boil. "They aren't soldiers, Yachi. They just go camping and stuff."

    "It feels weird to have a kid tell me he wants to be like me when he grows up." Yachi said flatly.

    "He could have worse role models, you know. At least they didn't send Nashio." You replied. Yachi had made his feelings about Major Nashio quite clear, and you in no way disagreed with his assessment.

    Sometimes you wondered what happened to that girl.

    "At least. I think he's in Albia right now, actually. Showing off the Dragonfly. Teshima said something about it."

    "Huh. I hope they buy some. Mr. Ohara would kill for a good contract, or at least the licensing fees. We're taking a big risk, you know." The airliner was flying, in theory, in two days. You were incredibly excited, even as Mr. Ohara agonized over the budgets.

    "Yeah. It'd be nice though."

    Finally, the water boiled, and you poured out some tea for the both of you and headed over to sit next to him. "What you working on? More reports?"

    "Nah. I dunno, it's nothing." Yachi deflected, but you craned your head and stared at the shaky characters.

    "Poetry?" You asked. Army guys were into that.

    "No. It's... I dunno. There's a magazine..."

    "You're writing a story!" You said, a smile on your face. "What's it about?"

    "Nothing, yet." He said glumly. "I thought maybe I could write something about piloting, you know? What it's really like, head off all the people getting it wrong."

    "And?" You asked eagerly.

    "Well, the words are coming easily enough, I guess." That didn't surprise you: Yachi was a born storyteller. "But..."

    Your eye wandered off the page to Yachi's pen, vibrating in his hand. The ink-splattered pages and smudged characters told another story, one of the battle against his own nerves.

    "Oh. Have you tried with a pencil?" You asked. Trying to be helpful, trying to problem-solve.

    "Not yet. That'll be tomorrow's problem. So, how's the glider going?" He asked, pushing the desk away.

    You smiled, opened your briefcase, and placed the latest sketches in front of him. "I've got some more ideas. What do you think?"

    ===

    Tomorrow I close glider entries and we'll vote. Mini-chapter this time!​
     
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  • Threadmarks
    • Okay on the one hand, I see where Yachi is coming from.

    On the other hand, small children in military cosplay will never stop being adorable to me. I once stumbled across some kids in Kancolle cosplay on twitter and died. Oh my god they are so cute aaaaaaaaaaa.

    That's when I realized I wasn't actually asexual and really wanted to have kids >.>
     
    There are at least 3 things I can fore sure come up with for the Pulse jets:
    • Short range, high maneuvering AA Missile( unlikely but possible, actually, @open_sketchbook whats the state of RC in-universe? Is it the same as IRL or somewhat ahead?
    • medium-ish range ground missile ( most likely but we need to figure out Gyro-stab for it)
    • pseudo sea skimmer using ekranoplan-esk lifting body( least likely of all but an interesting thought experiment)

    open_sketchbook said:
    Ooh, this is fun. The actual first airplane built in Japan, 1910. Do note that flight is 3 years ahead of schedule in ADCQ, though.

    Click to expand...
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    Some twigs, an engine and a several dozen prayers

    Funnily enough, Japan actually had some good research on heat seeking tech early in the war, but where out paced by the Germans later on. The only Japanese weapon to equip a seeker head was the Ke-Go anti shipping bomb the tech in it for target acquisition was amazing but the bomb suffered from shoddy QC and only 6 of the 60 prototypes actually hit the target, by the time the improved seekers where ready Japan had surrendered.
     
    Crasian01 said:
    I once stumbled across some kids in Kancolle cosplay on twitter and died. Oh my god they are so cute aaaaaaaaaaa.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...


    open_sketchbook said:
    Same as IRL, maybe a tiny bit better.
    Click to expand...
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    *Meanwhile, somewhere in Albion a man(?) is going to make a plane fly without a pilot*
    OK so the missile is somewhat possible but at least the other two(barring the likelihood of the sea skimmer even working aerodynamically) are far more possible.
     
    Changes have been made to the Deluxe:
    • Adjusted wing position and size, to increase strain and decrease stability, while retaining near-identical performance.
    • Stability now +3, Handling 106
    • Flight Stress 0
    • Replaced canvass seats with leather-covered wicker
    • Added option to remove control flaps for the budget conscious.
    • Added cupholders.
     
    Motor glider I guess.

    We still need to get those numbers for a pulsejet pod.
    Like, I would have liked a light one with two fuel.
    One to get into the air, and the other one for if your landing is wonky.
     
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    open_sketchbook said:
    "I'm home!" You announced, throwing your hat at the hook you'd installed on the wall. Once again, you missed, the felt cap clattering to the ground. With a sigh, you ran over and grab it, hanging it back up. "How were the scouts?"

    "Little bastards, every one of them!" Yachi called back. As you entered, you saw him with your writing desk, surrounded by papers. "Also, like... it's a little freaky seeing a bunch of ten year olds in little uniforms."

    "I think they look adorable." You said. Scouting had been brought to the country by the ambassador to Albia a few years ago, and was taking off in the middle class in Tokei. You had a whole generation of young parents who grew up in rural villages, moved to cities, and had kids, and were worried what urban living was doing to them, so a chance to sign them up for an organization that would take them hiking and camping was huge.
    Click to expand...
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    Yachi has a point. Scouting at the time was, ultimately, a way for youth to be trained in outdoorsmanship... for the purpose of later military service. Given Imperial Japan handed much of their educational system over to the military, that influence is going to be even more explicit.
    open_sketchbook said:
    "I dunno. It feels... grim."

    You put on the kettle, drumming your hands impatiently against the counter as it slowly began to boil. "They aren't soldiers, Yachi. They just go camping and stuff."

    "It feels weird to have a kid tell me he wants to be like me when he grows up." Yachi said flatly.
    Click to expand...
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    *has All Quiet On The Western Front flashbacks*
    This is only going to go south for poor Yachi.
    open_sketchbook said:
    "No. It's... I dunno. There's a magazine..."

    "You're writing a story!" You said, a smile on your face. "What's it about?"

    "Nothing, yet." He said glumly. "I thought maybe I could write something about piloting, you know? What it's really like, head off all the people getting it wrong."

    "And?" You asked eagerly.

    "Well, the words are coming easily enough, I guess." That didn't surprise you: Yachi was a born storyteller.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    That said, I eagerly await Yachi's book and wish I could buy it.
    open_sketchbook said:
    "But..."

    Your eye wandered off the page to Yachi's pen, vibrating in his hand. The ink-splattered pages and smudged characters told another story, one of the battle against his own nerves.

    "Oh. Have you tried with a pencil?" You asked. Trying to be helpful, trying to problem-solve.

    "Not yet. That'll be tomorrow's problem.
    Click to expand...
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    Hm. He doesn't have much hope it'll work either. Maybe he'd be open to dictation, but that'd mean finding a trusted third he'd talk openly with.
    Fakku said:
    Short range, high maneuvering AA Missile( unlikely but possible, actually, @open_sketchbook whats the state of RC in-universe? Is it the same as IRL or somewhat ahead?
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    open_sketchbook said:
    Same as IRL, maybe a tiny bit better.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    Fakku said:
    *Meanwhile, somewhere in Albion a man(?) is going to make a plane fly without a pilot*
    OK so the missile is somewhat possible but at least the other two(barring the likelihood of the sea skimmer even working aerodynamically) are far more possible.
    Click to expand...
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    The Kettering Bug is basically what we're looking at then. Which means, given the pulsejet, we'd still be making a V-1 a little over a decade early... which makes me worry about the accuracy and reliability. We can tweak the missile's payload all we like, whether making the warhead bigger or fitting a battleship's AP cone on it, but if it's just going to wizz off into the next county, or worse into friendly lines, then it's a waste.
     
    I don't think there's much point in fitting an AP head, we're never going to hit anything Battleship sized. In terms of accuracy I think I've actually come up with a way to do it using current technology: Aircraft with Stability 10 or above are uncontrollable because it's impossible to exert enough force to make them change course. With appropriate launch preparations and a clear, still day a jet-bomb with stability above 10 should achieve an acceptable level of accuracy for strategic bombing. Just make sure you know the wind won't pick up...
     
    Cute update... Do Akitsukuni typewriters exist yet? And could we get one for Yachi? I think they'd help with the legibility problem.
     
    Always Late said:
    Yachi has a point. Scouting at the time was, ultimately, a way for youth to be trained in outdoorsmanship... for the purpose of later military service. Given Imperial Japan handed much of their educational system over to the military, that influence is going to be even more explicit.
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    This, and while it isn't much discussed these days, the scouting movement began from explicitly military ideals.

    See, the British Lord Robert Baden-Powell who is essentially the father of the Boy Scout movement, was fighting in southern Africa in 1900.
    A few years later he wrote his handbook, 'Aiding Scouting' or something like that, as a military manual for future commanders.
    However, turn out the lessons in tracking and observation were great fun for teens and children who used those skills for games and playing.

    So, Lord B-P smells opportunity to make sure the next generation of British children don't use their time for mischief or crime, but instead grow up to be morally upstanding patriotic citizens, skilled in scouting and outdoormanship.

    The first Jamboree (camp/gathering trip) is a major success, and the Scouting organization is soon after officially founded and explodes with numbers: The first jamboree had 21 children. Two years later, there are 60 000 registered Boy Scouts.

    Soon, this movement goes global and the core of skills and philosophy being taught remain. Skills, which were heavily based on what a scouting force of the British Army would have found useful in the early 1900s: Working as small groups, outdoormanship, woodcraft, camping and survival, tracking, observation.

    They are useful for many other things as well, and a philosophy that is about being morally upstanding person who doesn't lie, cheat, or steal is hardly the worst thing ever, but it cannot be denied that the origin of the scouting movement is rooted in military.
     
    SakSak said:
    See, the British Lord Robert Baden-Powell who is essentially the father of the Boy Scout movement, was fighting in southern Africa in 1900.
    A few years later he wrote his handbook, 'Aiding Scouting' or something like that, as a military manual for future commanders.
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    Just tacking on a bit more info for others: Partially because the whole 'independent, self-sufficient outdoorsman' was still a valued ideal. And partially because the tours he was on had scouts low in numbers and skill, leading to predictable difficulties.
     
    also keeping boys outdoors and in tents with one another would keep them from 'self-abuse', of course.

    eyeroll.emoji

    ancusohm said:
    Cute update... Do Akitsukuni typewriters exist yet? And could we get one for Yachi? I think they'd help with the legibility problem.
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    they do. Aiko's other brother, the political student, uses one in Castles of Steel.
     
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