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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.​
     
    Last edited:
  • Informational
    • So...I just realized there might be a niche plane design (for the military) that we haven't covered: basically a super-light, unarmed recon/scouting plane assigned to a given unit/division, meant for quick tactical recon/scouting. This kind of plane saw a lot of use in WW2, and was very useful.

    The idea is that it's so lightweight (and has such a low stall speed) that it can land and take off from just about any decently level ground, uses little fuel, and can allow the pilot to get a quick look at the nearby area, checking for enemy movement, enemy presence, fortifications (anything from a quickly dug trench to a machine gun position). It's not meant to attack anything--to keep the weight down, it wouldn't carry any armament at all (which also helps keep the cost down). It'd be easy to fly, dirt-cheap (for a plane), and could double as a training plane for new pilots (being very easy to fly, easy to land and take off, relatively slow). It could also double as a short-range messenger of sorts, in cases where there's neither the time nor opportunity to lay phone/communications lines.

    In peacetime, given its characteristics, it could even double as a way for enthusiasts to fly just for fun at relatively low cost.
     
    SaltyWaffles said:
    So...I just realized there might be a niche plane design (for the military) that we haven't covered: basically a super-light, unarmed recon/scouting plane assigned to a given unit/division, meant for quick tactical recon/scouting. This kind of plane saw a lot of use in WW2, and was very useful.

    The idea is that it's so lightweight (and has such a low stall speed) that it can land and take off from just about any decently level ground, uses little fuel, and can allow the pilot to get a quick look at the nearby area, checking for enemy movement, enemy presence, fortifications (anything from a quickly dug trench to a machine gun position). It's not meant to attack anything--to keep the weight down, it wouldn't carry any armament at all (which also helps keep the cost down). It'd be easy to fly, dirt-cheap (for a plane), and could double as a training plane for new pilots (being very easy to fly, easy to land and take off, relatively slow). It could also double as a short-range messenger of sorts, in cases where there's neither the time nor opportunity to lay phone/communications lines.

    In peacetime, given its characteristics, it could even double as a way for enthusiasts to fly just for fun at relatively low cost.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    A Storch/Auster/Grasshopper analogue will probably be useful in a few years as aircraft speeds and weights increase, but right now the highest performance fighters in the world can land in a smallish semi-prepared field and are slow enough and low enough in flight that a little Divisional scout will not escape their notice. Army liaison is a useful role but honestly the best thing to do for it is probably restart Desk production.
     
    Which isn't a thing that can be carried in a very light airplane right now, though they are getting smaller rapidly.

    Akitsukuni has a radio carrier made by your rivals in Okazaki Aeronautics, but it's a two-engine machine with three crew: a pilot, an observer, and a dedicated radio technician.
     
    A recon aircraft is probably always going to be a 2 person or more thing. Mostly so that one can pay attention to flying the aircraft and any others can scan the ground.

    That said, when a radio can be integrated in an aircraft without needing a dedicated technician, that's when aerial recon can really take off.
     
    Ooh, um, Miyoshi for being totally adorable, and I'm looking forward to seeing more of the politics. Also, seeing more of Yuki, because Matsuka encouraging the next generation (whether of enbies or airplane enthusiasists) is super cute to watch.
     
    [X] Plan Investments
    -[X] Build Power Base (Convert 2 Power into 1 Importance. Doubles in cost every time you do it)
    -[X] Invest Wealth into Ohara Airworks (3 Wealth. Gives an Income bonus varying by the health of the Company.)

    Hey, roll me 2d10 real quick? This isn't for anything you did.
     
    Let's roll some dice.
    Edit: Ok, I guess
    Axslashel threw 1 10-faced dice. Reason: Investments Total: 9
    9 9
    Axslashel threw 1 10-faced dice. Reason: Investments Total: 2
    2 2
     
    Last edited:
    I was kinda wondering, since we have trouble with the reed valves on our pulsejet engine; would it be possible to use a Tesla "valve" in place of the reed valves? This would give it better thermal resistance and improve reliability.

    I've been looking into it online, but didn't see too many people try it out.
     
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    10-8: Money & Power
  • Threadmarks
    • The first thing you did was you marched into Mr. Ohara's office the next morning, sat down with him over a customary drink. This was, surprisingly, tea: Your boss had taken to drinking quite heavily over the course of the war, and his doctor had told him that given his age, he was pretty much speeding along to the grave. As a brute-force solution to the problem, he told Satomi to clear out his office as a wedding present.

    "Boss, I need your help, as a friend. I have no idea how to handle money." You said straightforwardly.

    "Spending too much?" He asked.

    "The opposite, I suppose." You said. "I don't know what to do with it, save that I'm pretty sure just leaving it in a bank account isn't the wisest."

    Mr. Ohara smiled. "I see. Yeah, you want to be spending money to make money."

    He then called in his secretary, Motome Hiromu, an older enby who'd be working with him for at least two decades. To be honest, you found them a little intimidating in how perfect they managed: it got a lot harder to maintain your presentation as you got older, something you dreaded.

    "Yes, Mr. Ohara?" They said, perfectly even tone.

    "You've still got records of all my old business partners, right?"

    "Of course, sir."

    "Can you help find Matsura a financial adviser?"

    You shuffled out of your office and to their desk, where the two of you held a brief conversation about your plans while Motome scanned over their contact book. You marveled at the names within, perhaps a little too obviously.

    "Are you surprised? Ohara was a vital part of the war industry, and even before that, he and his brother were important figures in trade companies." Motome said, a little smug.

    "It's hard not to be impressed when you see two Economic Ministers on somebody's contact list." You admitted.

    "There's actually four. Though..." They reached for a pencil and scrawled down a note. "Yoshino passed away last year, didn't he?"

    "Isn't that the guy who got a state funeral?" You mind recalled. You didn't have a head for names, but the event stuck into your mind: the man oversaw the beginning of the largest period of economic growth in your country's history.

    "That's the one. Well, that's alright, his wife is still alive, and she's the one we'd want to talk to anyway." They said, clearly reveling in letting you in on a secret. "Honestly, I don't understand why they keep appointing men to these positions. Speaking of, my first advice is never talk to a man about this sort of thing."

    "Of course." You responded. You weren't much of a fan of any kind of sweeping statement about anyone's gender, but women had generations of handling money on their side, and you didn't know if schools could replicate that kind of experience.

    Motome found the name they were looking for and rang somebody up on the phone, and chatted briefly and professionally so rapid-fire with the person on the other end you could barely understand any part of it save "Oh, excellent" and "They have an opening". You got talking to them about the process, and that lead down a bit of a rabbit hole: Motome knew a lot of women in finance, it seemed.

    Believe it or not, you were directed, of all places, to the First Tokei Bank, run by the Akibara corporation. The reason for this was because Mr. Ohara's business partner's wife had been a classically trained economist, and she had trained several students, and you were about to visit one of the women they trained, who worked a curiously minor post. They had an opening almost immediately, so with Mr. Ohara's permission you punched out early and headed down.

    Finance, you learned from Motome, was undergoing a bit of shift right now. Traditionally, of course, women managed household budgets, be it the pittance of serfs or the coffers of lords. This had continued without much interruption as the country westernized, the caste system was abolished, and the merchant class were suddenly unleashed onto the economy without the restrictions against doing things like owning land and talking to their betters.

    This revealed, in the space of about a decade, that the expected model of power was wrong. The men selling goods got rich, but the women who took that money and hit the stock market or offered credit got crazy rich. Most of that money was effectively their husbands or fathers (women only got the right to individual property and money separate from their families thirteen years ago, though obviously many women found ways around that) but it was not lost on anyone the potential money involved.

    So over the past twenty years, it was men starting to make headway into the women's space of finance. All well and good, except Motome explained this wasn't anything like the women engineers at Ohara working alongside men. No, men were driving women out of finance in their rush to be a part of it, and a huge element was the consolidation of financial services under large monopolies like Akibara, who used every dirty trick in the book to run smaller financial institutions, the ones that had popped up run by single women, widows, and the like, out of business. Increasingly, women found themselves working for these corporations in junior roles, drawing reduced salaries and pitiful commission rates while their bosses skimmed off the top.

    Which is exactly what had happened to Nishiyama Fujiko, formerly of Nishiyama & Arashi Financial Advisers, now Junior Manager of Accounts at First Tokei Bank. According to Motome, she'd made a frankly silly amount of money, spent it like 'kids your age' usually do, and now found herself sitting behind a desk managing the accounts of factory workers and shop owners too scared to risk any investments. Which is probably why she had an opening.

    "So, you're the engineer, huh? What was it, cars or something?" She said, as you sat at her desk, which was in a line of similar desks. Her coworkers turned glance in her direction, but she glared at them sharply. She was the single most angular woman you'd ever seen: everything about her was triangular, from her face to the cut of her clothing to the actual tiny little black triangle pattern of the cloth. Even her earrings.

    "Or something." You responded neutrally. Cars????

    "So, what's the deal? Need a loan to get you through the next week? We've all been there." She said sarcastically. You decided you didn't much like her very much as a person, but that didn't say anything about her financial skills, so you pressed on.

    "Well, no. Actually, the opposite problem. I'm looking to invest some money wisely. Something safe." You said.

    "Let me stop you there. There's no safe investments, okay? I don't care what the banner says." You glanced back to see the giant banner hung in the lobby promising safe investments. "Sometimes, yeah, there is, but right now, fuck no. We're entering a period of post-war inflation because the government needs to pay for a bunch of stuff, doesn't have the money to do it, and has made every Europan power on the planet a little too uneasy to secure large loans."

    "That sounds bad." You said. Why was this woman so vulgar in a professional setting?

    "Nah, it's totally normal. In... I dunno, two years or so, the economy is going to catch up once all the loot from the new territory catches up and that money gets turned into factories, but until then parking your money in some little two-percent return bullshit like fucking textiles is going to lose you money. Not as fast as just keeping it in your account or in a shoebox, but still, not great."

    "So... what do I do?"

    "I dunno. What you got to work with?" She said nonchalantly, lifting a cup of tea to her lips.

    You handed her your notepad with the money you figured was safe to invest.

    She looked at it, finished her tea calmly, and smiled. (You felt a vague sense of disappointment.)

    "Say, Mx. Matsura... you trust me, right?"

    You had absolutely no reason to.

    "Sure." You said.

    "Well..." She started scribbling rapidly on a notepad as she talked. "I think you'll find that the First Bank of Tokei will be the perfect place to make some safe, reliable interest on your money." She said that last part particularly loudly, obviously for the benefit of onlookers, then slide the paper across her desk.

    "Bank rates are theft. I'll manage it at 60% their commission."

    Well, you knew a deal when you saw one. Motome said trust her, so against your better judgement...

    "Of course. Where do I sign?" You said.

    "Right here, of course." She said, sliding you a blank sheet of paper.

    ---

    The next day, you had an off-the-books meeting with her at a noodle shop where you had a very serious talk about where your investments ought to go, and to your surprise, she was the one who brought up Ohara.

    "I actually just finished getting my money out of Ohara." You said, sighing. "A... friend told me I needed to diversify my investments after the war, but I didn't know what that meant, so I was just sitting on cash."

    "Matsura, you genius, that's exactly what you were supposed to do. You cashed out at a high point, right before the low point hit. But do you know what that means?" She said.

    "No..."

    "It means now, Ohara's stocks are dirt. You sell warplanes, there's no war, everyone's taking their money out. Now, do you think the company is in danger of folding?"

    "I don't think so. We sold a lot of airplanes, and we just finished designing this airliner... it's a bit of a gamble how it'll go, but if it works, we'll either have the first heavier-than-air travel company or we'll be selling planes to them. I figure that'll probably be pretty good business. And then there's the Air Warfare report coming later this year, so Ohara will probably be in the running for those contracts, and we have a really good reputation with the Army..."

    "But investors don't know any of that shit. Hell, I didn't know any of that shit, I gotta make some calls myself. So here's what you do. You put that money back into your company, and you wait on it. You won't get any returns right away, of course, you might even lose some money, but then once the airliner is closer to being in the air or the report starts coming out, other investors will start poking around and driving the stock up, and you're on the ground floor."

    "Cool. What then?"

    "Well, if everything works out fine, you ride the payout. But... if things start going badly, you'll be the first to know. Tell me, I'll tell you to get your money out if I think it's a good idea, and we walk away rich while the company collapses."

    "I don't want the company to collapse. I like working there."

    "Matsura, you'll be rich, baby. You just float over to one of the other companies. Point is, you're on the inside, you can react faster than anyone else. It's the safest bet in an economy this volatile."

    "This... feels like it ought to be illegal."

    "Oh, yeah, for sure. It's some bullshit. But until they get around to that, let's get rich!"

    ---

    As the prototype glider was coming together, you found yourself spending a lot of time with your boss. See, the project wasn't exactly in the company plans, which was to conserve as much money as possible for the future until contracts picked up again. So when you showed off the glider to Mr. Ohara, he was skeptical, but allowed you to put together a prototype, while dragging you in periodically to discuss marketing the thing.

    Today, though, he was in a good mood.

    "I might have a client!" He announced as you entered the office.

    "Oh good, who?" You said.

    "Of all people, the Imperial Army of Cathay. I know, right? Turns out they've been investigating buying some Dysklandic scout planes, because Europa is selling everything they have and replacing them with gun carriers, but they're worried they can't really afford training hours with real planes, or replacing those lost in accidents. So... gliders. And we're nearby, so the shipping is a lot cheaper."

    "I would have figured they could produce them domestically. Like, whoever built their racer could do it, though not as well as us."

    "Well... best I can tell, their lead designer fled the country. I think they're actually in Akitsukuni now, actually." He said, wincing. "Our... mutual shady business partners had some comments about that engine of yours."

    "... we should find them and give them a job, sir." You said flatly.

    "Oh, believe me, I'm looking into it. Just... not really too much of a possibility with the... eh, our guests."

    The secret police, right. Mi was already problem enough.

    "Right. Is there anything we can do about that?" You asked.

    "I don't know. Maybe. I've been making some calls but coming from me, it doesn't mean too much, right?"

    "Well, maybe if I talked to them." You said. "I gather I have something of a reputation. If you tell me who to write to, I can appeal to them directly and tell them how the office environment affects our productivity."

    "Well... I dunno about that." He said. "You have to understand, the people behind this don't much care for that, so long as things are under control. But it might be a good idea to get you talking to people. Have you ever been to anything high society-like?"

    "Um... the event after the race, I guess?"

    Mr. Ohara frowned. "That's a no, then. Look, the way that things get done is through personal connection, alright? I think... this company is going to be my legacy, and you're the bedrock of this company, Matsura. There's no way around it. I've got maybe two or three more years behind this desk and then I'm heading south and we'll figure it out from there, but if that's going to work, if my legacy is going to survive, the people who take over need to to be able to leverage those connections."

    "What are you saying, sir?"

    "I'm saying that there's a party this weekend, and you're invited." He said. "Buy some nicer clothes."

    ---

    You wandered back out to the prototyping lab in sort of a daze. Satomi was sitting on one of the toolboxes, chewing an apple and watching as Sakane lead the crew installing the tail drag.

    "Why the long face, Asuka?" She asked cheerily.

    "I hope you don't have plans this Saturday, because apparently we're crashing the party at General Horikoshi's house." You said.

    "Sick. I love that guy." She said with a smile. "So what's next for the glider?"

    ===

    Write In Optimizations​
     
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  • Threadmarks
    • Have we done our free optimizations yet? That'd propably be the place to start.
    I'll admit, amonst the politics I kind of lost track of our current design.
     
    WorldOfHurt said:
    I was kinda wondering, since we have trouble with the reed valves on our pulsejet engine; would it be possible to use a Tesla "valve" in place of the reed valves? This would give it better thermal resistance and improve reliability.

    I've been looking into it online, but didn't see too many people try it out.
    Click to expand...
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    It'd be a very interesting thing to try, definitely. I feel like the Tesla valve will take up more space, be more expensive to manufacture and have worse power generation than a standard reed or poppet valve because they won't full stop flow forwards in the system, only greatly reduce it. On the other hand if they don't need replaced as often then we can start thinking about manned pulsejet aircraft more seriously. The next problem is going to be storing enough fuel to actually fly anywhere.

    open_sketch said:
    "Oh, yeah, for sure. It's some bullshit. But until they get around to that, let's get rich!"
    Click to expand...
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    Fucking yes!

    Potted summary of optimisation effects:
    Wing Design - Nothing
    Streamlining - Retention 5 -> Retention 4
    Lightening - Nothing
    Control - Handling 99 -> 100, Elevators 9 -> 10
    Stability - Stability 0 -> 1, Handling 99 -> 98
    Structure - Toughness 20 -> 25
    Max Strain - Max Strain 40 -> 52
    Reliability/Power - Technically affect aircraft reliability even though it doesn't have an engine, not sure if reliability is rolled for outside of engine cooling off

    We might as well take the free streamlining roll but I don't see any of the others as particularly critical. We've got five stress now and we can't really afford to bump it up in return for making the design (which is already much tougher than a Dragonfly) tougher or mucking about with the handling.

    If we got really cheeky we could use the free lightening roll that we have for the Dove to improve the Dugong airliner again!
     
    FrangibleCover said:
    Potted summary of optimisation effects:
    Wing Design - Nothing
    Streamlining - Retention 5 -> Retention 4
    Lightening - Nothing
    Control - Handling 99 -> 100, Elevators 9 -> 10
    Stability - Stability 0 -> 1, Handling 99 -> 98
    Structure - Toughness 20 -> 25
    Max Strain - Max Strain 40 -> 52
    Reliability/Power - Technically affect aircraft reliability even though it doesn't have an engine, not sure if reliability is rolled for outside of engine cooling off
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    Streamlining and Stability seem worth considering, at least. The former's self-evident, the latter... well, it's in part a trainer. The less prospective pilots crash one, the better.
     
    Nyvis said:
    Whoops, insider trading is a go. That's a pretty sizeable piece of law they're missing here.
    Click to expand...
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    Even we didn't have a universal ban on insider trading until the 2000s.
    It was only banned in the commodities market in response to Trading Places, a fucking Eddie Murphy movie where both the protags and antags meant to exploit that loophole.

    So yeah, makes sense that it wouldn't exist in Akitsukuni at all now.
     
    Hmm. I don't think they're modeled in the system as it stands, but would either "cost reduction" or "reduced level of tooling required to build/repair/maintain" be valid targets for optimization under the circumstances? The latter, particularly.

    Edit: Decided "cost reduction" as a possible optimization is a can of worms I have no desire to open in story as well as being stupid balance. Would be too mandatory on every future build, to the point its existence might as well be "+1 Stress for all designs forever".
     
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    WorldOfHurt said:
    I was kinda wondering, since we have trouble with the reed valves on our pulsejet engine; would it be possible to use a Tesla "valve" in place of the reed valves? This would give it better thermal resistance and improve reliability.

    I've been looking into it online, but didn't see too many people try it out.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    That's one more or less viable approach to valveless pulsejets, but there are other approaches that are simpler to manufacture and just as good.
     
    open_sketch said:
    "Boss, I need your help, as a friend. I have no idea how to handle money." You said straightforwardly.

    "Spending too much?" He asked.

    "The opposite, I suppose." You said. "I don't know what to do with it, save that I'm pretty sure just leaving it in a bank account isn't the wisest."

    Mr. Ohara smiled. "I see. Yeah, you want to be spending money to make money."
    Click to expand...
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    What do you do when you have more money than you know what to do with?

    Clearly you use it to earn even more money you don't know what to do with.
     
    brmj said:
    That's one more or less viable approach to valveless pulsejets, but there are other approaches that are simpler to manufacture and just as good.
    Click to expand...
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    Comparing Intake Valving Systems
    One of the most critical components of a traditional pulsejet engine is the intake valving system.
    The demands placed on the intake valves are amazing.
    They have to open and close several hundred times a second while being exposed to the thermal stresses associated with being alternately blasted by searing hot combustion gases and cold incoming air. At the same time, these thin strips of spring steel must resist metal fatigue and fracture resulting from the high mechanical stresses imposed.
    What's more, they have to do all this while providing a 100 percent seal against combustion gases when closed, and allowing the smooth, unimpeded flow of fresh air when open.
    To make life even harder, the only power available to open them is the tiny difference in pressure between the outside air and the small vacuum created inside the engine by the kadenacy effect of escaping exhaust gases down the tailpipe. (just a few psi).
    It's no wonder therefore, that no aspect of pulsejet design and construction has caused more sleepless nights, scratched heads and frustration than the valving.
    Let's examine the alternatives:
    Petal Valves
    Small engines almost always use a petal-valve. These valves offer the following benefits: 1. simplicity. The valve can be etched or cut from a single piece of spring-steel.
    2. Low cost. As a side effect of their simplicity, petal valves can also be very economical to manufacture – especially when you consider that the valve plate consists of a simple piece of aluminum with a ring of holes drilled in it.
    Unfortunately, the petal valve also has a number of disadvantages: 1. poor aerodynamic performance. Since the air passing through a petal valve must negotiate two near-90 degree bends on its way into the engine, the efficiency of such a system is not particularly high.
    2. low durability. Because the tips of the petals are directly exposed to the hot combustion gases, petal valves often suffer from premature tip cracking or fracture.
    3. High maintenance. Since petal valves are usually made as a single piece, the failure of individual petal requires the replacement of the entire spring-steel valve.
    Despite their drawbacks, petal valves are generally the best option for small pulsejet engines, although I wouldn't recommend them for any engine larger than about 20lbs of thrust.
    The V or multi-V valve
    Generally only seen on larger engines, these valves are generally more efficient than petal valves because they produce less deflection of the airflow when they're in an open position.
    There are two basic methods of constructing such a valve system – one involves the use of two or more flat metal plates with holes in them, joined at an angle (45
    degrees is a good starting point).
    The other method of forming a V valve is the one used in the Argus V1 where a cast or machined spacer with multiple ribs is used to hold the valves in position and limit their movement as in the diagram below:
    V valves provide the following benefits:
    1. Higher efficiency than a simple petal valve. Since the incoming air has a far straighter pathway into the engine, more air is able to flow for a given size of valve opening when compared to a petal-valve.
    2. Lower maintenance costs. Since the individual spring steel valves in a V-valve system can be replaced as/when they fail, maintaining the engine becomes a less expensive task and all valves can be used to the full extent of their lifespan.
    3. Scalability. Unlike the petal-valve, a V-valve can be easily scaled to create the required valve area by simply increasing the length or number of V-valves in the array.
    Of course there are downsides too:
    1. Greater complexity. A V-valve generally requires more machining steps and a higher component count than a petal-valve setup.
    2. Increased expense. As a side effect of this complexity, the production cost for a V-valve system is significantly higher than for a petal-valve. This is another reason why most cheap model engines don't use V-valving.
    Less commonly used valving systems
    Petal and V-valves are not the only systems that have been used on pulsejets but they are by far the most common.
    Perhaps the only other practical valving system for a pulsejet is: The Rotary Valve
    These generally consist of either a spinning disk containing a hole that controls the flow of gas by covering and uncovering a matching hole in the front of the engine, or a spinning butterfly-type valve that alternately blocks and allows the flow of gas.
    Rotary valves can be made very robust and thus have the potential to create very reliable, long-lived pulsejets. Unfortunately however, they are fraught with hidden complexities, not the least of which includes the issue of timing.
    In a conventional pulsejet valving system, the valve timing is automatically controlled by the changing pressure inside the engine. When the internal pressure goes up (because the fuel has ignited) then the valves close. When the pressure falls (due to the Kadenacy effect) then the valves open). This results in a very simple and quite reliable system that automatically compensates for any fluctuations in the engine's operating frequency or phase.
    Rotary valves on the other hand, have no such intrinsic timing control and therefore require a very sophisticated system to control their rotational speed and phase relationship to the engine's basic operating cycle. This immediately negates the pulsejet's two single most endearing qualities – simplicity and low cost.
    Research done in the USA during the 1940s cited engines using the rotary valve as offering
    "very long useful operating periods" along with "good thrust and specific fuel consumption"​
    but also mentioned the complexity associated with driving such a valve in a synchronous manner. Nevertheless, rotary valves are being considered as a viable option for the new generation of pulse detonation engines (PDEs) currently under development. Since these PDEs already require a significant number of ancillary control systems anyway, the overhead of the rotary valve adds little to the cost or complexity of these engines.
    (For reference; from Bruce Simpson's Enthusiast's Guide to Pulsejet Engines, any mangling or disfigurement down to my transcription)
     
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