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Aircraft Design Company- Matsura's Planes Are Always Fastest!

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Character Sheet
  • Informational


    • ​
    Stress
    0​
    Office Stress
    0​
    XP
    5​

    Matsura Asuka
    Head Designer for Ohara Airworks
    Age 24 (Legally 25)
    Year 12 AF (After Flight)

    Design Stats
    Aerodynamics Engineering - +2
    Structural Engineering - +2
    Chemical Engineering - +1
    Mechanical Engineering - +1
    Ballistics Engineering - +1
    Electrical Engineering - 0

    Personal/Political Stats
    Social Skills - 0
    Politics Skills - 0
    Importance - 2
    Income - 1
    Investments - Ohara

    Resources
    Power - 0
    Wealth - 2

    Designs
    Type 1 Series - Military Variation (Designated T1M1)
    Type 2 Racer (World Speed Record October 1910-April 1911, 180kph)
    Model 2 Scout (Designated T1M2)
    Navy Scout Prototype (Drowned Rat)
    Dive Bomber B1M1 "Duck"
    Machine Gun Carrier R1A "Dragonfly" (World Speed Record May-July 1911, 200kph)
    Naval Rescue Water-Landing Supply Plane NR1M0 "Dolphin" (World speed record 240kph)
    Rhino Demon Train Hunter
    The world's first airliner
    The world's first pulsejet airplane

    Assets
    Slide Rule
    Computator (1 Reroll per Routine)

    Languages
    Albian
    Gallian

    Familiar Vices
    Drinking
    Prostitutes
    Dancing

    Family Life
    - Engaged to Arita Yachi, formerly the leading Ace in the Imperial Army. Designated #1 Cutest Army Boy, he's having some serious problems with PTSD right now.
    - Taking a second try at dating Mikami Kiho, ex-dockerwork from the south.

    Upgrades
    - 3 XP to upgrade a stat.

    Ohara Airworks
    Start Up, Imperial Capital, Akitsukuni

    Owner
    - Mr. Ohara, Rich. Aircraft Enthusiast. Business guy.

    Engineers

    Kibe Koume, 26, Office Manager
    Tiny & angry, Kibe went to school in Albia, picking up the language, the religion, and a fuckload of swear words. Speaks Albian.
    Mechanical +2, Ballistics +1
    Office Manager: If Kibe is not assigned to a team, the Office Stress is reduced by 1.

    Sakane Jun, 26, Second Team Leader
    A soured patriot, Sakane is married and has a young child being raised gender-neutrally. His two brothers who fought in the war.
    Structural +2, Aerodynamics +1
    Team Leader: If there are any additional projects, Sakane will lead them.
    Joinery: Sakane has training in the traditional Akitsukuni carpentry art of joinery, creating complex self-supporting joints with no fasteners or glue. When working with non-monocoque wooden spars or ribs, +1 Structural.

    Tezuka Kenji, ???
    A stoner with occasional flashes of insight. Nobody really knows what he does, but he's probably useful?
    Aerodynamics +2, Chemical +1
    Flashes of Brilliance: Each natural 10 rolled by any team Tezuka is assigned to gives +1 forward to the next research roll.

    Hasegawa Morio, 26
    A hopeless nerd with a photography habit, mostly on account of developing his own film, Hasegawa seems to do nothing but work and stack card houses, but somehow has an incredible attractive boyfriend. Speaks Gallian.
    Chemical +2, Ballistic +1
    Silent Workhorse: Hasegawa can work on two different projects at once for no cost to Office Stress, providing they use different stats.

    Kawamura Yosai, 25.
    Serially successful womanizer and incredibly attractive, Kawamura doesn't seem to have much of a personality outside of seducing women. Well, except for that time he seduced Asuka, which nobody talks about. Speaks Dyske.
    Structural +2, Electrical +1, Social +1
    Easily Distracted: If Kawamura is working on the same team as a female or non-binary employee, the team is at -1d10.

    Koide Hatsu, 24.
    One of the few female graduates of an Akitsukuni engineering school, Koide is brilliant and incredibly driven, but her first job at Akibara was both humiliating and exposed her to an abusive coworker. Her father is a rich businessman with factories in Joseon, and she's engaged to Ken from Castles of Steel. Speaks Joseon.
    Mechanical +2, Structural +1
    No Sleep: If you let her, Koide will work herself to death. She can work a second project for no Office Stress, but all her stats will be reduced to 1 for the routine.

    Kobayashi Ayao, ???
    Disowned heiress of the Kobayashi family, all Kobayashi wanted was a career and to be a modern woman. For her trouble, a cousin threw acid on her, scarring her face, neck, much of her torso, and her left arm. Despite appearing serene and above it all, she's actually an avowed communist activist and baseball player.
    Aerodynamics +2, Social +2

    Adachi Ren, 24
    Adachi learned chemistry from her father, one of the most famous chemical engineers in the country, rather than through formal schooling. She's married, has a kid, and takes spirituality very seriously. Yes, you did the math right, she had Yuki when she was 17. It's 1912, folks.
    Chemical +2, Electrical +1
    Young Mother: Adachi will cause double Office Stress if she has to work multiple tasks.

    Uyeno Sei, Ballistics Engineer, 31.
    The oldest member of the crew, this is Uyeno's second career. Her first was as an officer in the Imperial Navy with specialized technical training: her very promising career was cut short by her transition. Her work in a naval arsenal on machine-guns landed her the job here. Briefly dated Satomi (the age range is a bit creepy but again, 1912), she's missing a piece of her ear and is deaf on that side, from an exploding cannon. Recently returned from Varnmark from experimental surgery, she's known for her skill navigating gendered bureaucracy.
    Ballistic +3

    Mi Kyung-Jae, 23
    A recent graduate of the Imperial College of Heijo, Mi is from the recently annexed territory of Joseon. For those keeping track at home, that means he's a Korean national living in Imperial Japan in 1912. We haven't seen much of his personality because he's rightfully terrified of everything around him. He has a specialty in endurance engine design and modification. Speaks Joseon.
    Mechanical +1, Chemical +1
    Endurance Engines: Mi has an excellent understanding of metallurgy and tolerances. Any engine he works on gains +1 Reliability if a 16+ is rolled.
    Pulsejet Wizard: Mi is now one of the world's leading experts on the pulsejet engine. He can be given his own project to custom-craft pulsejet engines, and he gives +1 to any pulsejet-related project.
    Joseon National: Mi does not have security clearance to work on any top-secret projects.

    Miyoshi Shigeri, 23.
    A non-binary person and admirer of Asuka's work, they were in an support role in the Army before joining the company.
    Structural +1, Mechanical +1, Aerodynamic +1
    Mechanic: Miyoshi has some experience repairing and refurbishing aircraft. They get +1 if assigned on the clean-up phase.


    Other Employees
    - Ohara Satomi, 22, Mr. Ohara's niece and the company test pilot, Ohara is a general lesbian disaster. She's good at flying planes, driving cars, and kissing girls. She's bad at being patient, being respectable, and sticking to literally anyones conceptions of gender roles. Deeply in lesbians with Coralie D'Amboise.
    - Fujkikawa Sotatsu, old, modelmaker. He's an old man and toymaker and we don't see much of him because he locks himself in his workshop a lot. He's friends with Kawamura?

    Assets
    - Engine Test Rig (Allows engine tweaking and optimization.
    - Wind Tunnel (+1 Aerodynamics)
    - Rapid Prototype Lab (+1 Clean Up)
    Expanded Cast

    Akitsukuni Industry
    - Homura Mohoko: Head Engine Designer for Kobayashi. First female engineer in the country. A lot of sex appeal.
    - Okumura: Head of Akibara aircraft design.
    - Yamanaka Hajime: Kobayashi engineer. Young and eager.
    - Igarashi Masazumi: Kobayashi engineer. Reserved and experienced.
    - Admiral Akibara Toru: Imperial Navy Admiral. Maximum nepotism. Maximum douchebag.
    - Lt.Cmnd Akibara Shinzo: The above's son. A hottie but very forward.



    Character Families
    - Matsura(?) Mizuko: Asuka's sister. Was paralyzed in an accident in Asuka's first flight. Lives Elsewhere and is married now. Can't forgive Asuka, even though she's tried.
    - Adachi Motoki: Adachi's husband, an accountant. Legally blind.
    - Adachi Yuki: Adachi's 7 year old daughter and wannabe pilot. Very adorable.
    - Yachi's Brother: Exists.
    - Sakane's Wife: Exists. Drives him a bit crazy, but he loves her.
    - Yachi's Brother's Wife: Exists. Is statistically likely to be pregnant.
    - Lt. Coralie D'Amboise: Gallian pilot in exile. Satomi's girlfriend. 25. Accomplished bisexual duelist. She flew in the war for a single day, and for her troubles got a hole blown in her cheek and had her left arm paralyzed.

    Akisukuni Army & Ex-Army
    - Lt. Torio Tanaka: Yachi's former observer as an enlisted man. Was jumped up to fly Ducks and lost a leg on his first mission. A trained painter, married to Torio Saya.
    - Captain Amari Shiro: A Dragonfly pilot who ended up flying as Yachi's partner. Kind of delightfully twinky. They sorta slept together at one point, which wasn't great. He lost his previous boyfriend in the April Offensive and turned his plane into a shrine. He was shot in the gut and is still recovering.
    - Major Izuhara: Logistics officer, Imperial Army, this bespectled officer stood up to the Caspian Crown Prince and accidentally kicked off the Akitsikuni-Caspian War. The guilt was so much that, after almost a year of running Army procurement, he shot himself in a phone both.
    - Captain Nakai Sekien: Army scout pilot. First person to drop a bomb from an airplane, later head of the Duck Squadrons.
    - Captain Teshima: A Desk pilot that fought with Yachi. Lost an arm in the process, took over for Major Izuhara after his death. Seems cheery despite it all.
    - Captain Nashio: A real piece of shit dude and probably a rapist, he's also a war hero as the second-highest scoring ace on the Akitsukuni side. He was a young shitty kid in way over his head but it's no excuse.
    - Lt. Kinjo: Kind of a dumb lump and Nashio's friend, one of the desk pilots. Dead at 19.
    - Lt. Okazaki: Yachi's friend from before the war and pilot, he died in a spin in his dragonfly. His death probably hit Yachi the hardest.

    Westerners
    - Rose & Antoinette Sears: Pioneers of flight. Sisters. Black in 1910s not!America. Yikes.
    - Timina Guasti: Famous aircraft designer from Otrusia. Likes big planes and green.
    - Prince Protasov Vasilyevich: Crown Prince of Great Caspia. Real dick. You gotta hand it to him though, a decent flier.
    - Count von Zeppelin: Invented rigid airships. Runs a successful airline business. Damned impressive.
    - Bennhold: Aircraft Engineer. Experimenting with metal aircraft.
    - Aileen Middlemiss: Albian reporter for the Artimis Times. Well meaning and oblivious.
    Available Tech
    • Materials: Wood, Duralumin, Molded Wood, Wood & Silk Composite, etc
    • All engine mounts
    • All wing types
    • Basic reinforcement
    • Wing warping and ailerons
    • Basic water radiators
    • Flying Wings
    • Semi-Monocoque design (requires at least half the slots have frame pieces)
    • Valved pulsejets
    • Basic weapon mounts and turrets
    Tech not Yet Developed
    • Custom engines
    • Monocoque construction
    • Cantilever Wings and associated tech
    • V and T tails
    • Tailless designs
    • Aluminum and titanium
    • Cellulose surfacing
    • Any kind of radar
    • Weapon accessability mods
    • Interruptor gear
    • Geared propellers
    • And Maybe Other Stuff
    Akitsukuni
    Island Nation

    Government
    Constitutional Monarchy
    - The democratic portions of the government are dubiously legitimate.
    - The head of state is the Empress of Akitsukuni. She gives her blessing to newly formed governments.
    - The Navy and a small number of families have undue influence on politics.

    Economy
    Developing Mixed Market
    - Most industry is controlled by a small number of wealthy, family-owned companies.
    - The state provides most contracts to industry. Consumer good market is anemic.
    - Exports are few, mostly cultural.
    - Imports are raw minerals, food, oil, and expertise.
    - Currently suffering an economic crash after the last war.

    Politics
    The Diet is currently ruled by a Constitutional Nationalist government. It has a system of nonlocal proportional representation, with representatives appointed by the party in accordance to their share of the vote.
    - Constitutional Nationalists: 50%
    - Purity Club: 9%
    - New Independents: 26%
    - Fairness Association: 11%
    - United Communist League: 2%
    - Monarchists: 1%
    - Assorted Fringe Parties: 5%

    Demographics
    Akitsukuni is mostly very ethnically homogeneous. Around 5% of the population are various minorities, most from nearby countries. Roughly .1% are westerners here for business or in advisory positions.
    - Population: 55 Million
    - Religion: Mostly Kodo. Roughly 2% of the population follows western religions.
    - Wealth: Most wealth is concentrated in the top 5% of the country. Nearly 20% of the population lives in conditions indistinguishable from peasantry.
    - Urbanization: Heavily urbanized for a small economy: 35% and rapidly growing.

    Military
    At Peace
    - Imperial Akitsukuni Navy (IAN): The 6th largest in the world, and the most experienced.
    - Imperial Akitsukuni Army (IAA): 150,000 highly experienced soldiers, and a considerable reserve.

    Aspects
    - Poor Resources: Aluminum costs +1.
    - Damn Akitsukuni Engines!: Engines have -1 Reliability.



    The Main Character Of This Quest Is Nonbinary And Uses They/Them Pronouns.

    I Am Putting This Here Because The Next Person To Misgender Them Is Getting Yeeted Into The Trash

    Also here's the Gayaverse TV Tropes page, because why not.​
     
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  • Informational
    • I quite like how this turned out, honestly. The right didn't get completely trounced, but they took a beating, and the useless transphobic liberal party didn't get a real victory either. The shenanigans basically failed and annoyed the empress in the process. The actual results, however, aren't even anything the right can easilly fearmonger about. We aren't out of danger yet because of the SHP and the navy, but the far right is pretty clearly on the back foot. Without anyone even having been seen to defeat them in particular, even, just a generalized rejection by the country as a whole. They've got to be confused. I don't buy this being the intended result or they'd at least have done a bit better.
     
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    [x] Build a next-generation racing plane.
    As much as I would love to design the Duck's successor I would rather play around with the Pulse Jets. Hey @open_sketch can we make cantilevers or are we still waiting on Gunkers?
     
    [X] Build a next-generation racing plane.

    In order to break the 300 kph barrier, we need one of three things:
    1) An engine able to withstand extreme speeds in the driveshaft
    2) Inventing gearing so that the engine doesn't over-torque at speed
    3) A pulsejet, since they actually get better the faster you go and don't need to worry about overtorque
    Hazard said:
    No vehicle we could build would be able to take the strain of a pulsejet engine.
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    Strain isn't an issue, heat is. The Cathayan racer had a pulsejet, and didn't tear itself apart. It did catch on fire at the first fueling stop.
    KhazintheDark said:
    Altitude
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    Unless we can twincharge an engine, the (apocryphal) Kometa is going to hold that record for a good long while. Ten klicks is no joke.
     
    I've essentially been writing the Akitsukuni anti-democratic factions (in minor form as the conservatives and their ballot-restriction, and in major form as the SHP and the Purity Club) as believing themselves to represent the true will and spirit of the country, to the continued detriment of their actual performance in democratic elections. Meiji-era Japanese politics was incredibly volatile, with most parties lucky to make it a decade and quite a few failing to last out a year, and an aspect of that was a tendency to split, merge, and dissolve at the drop of a hat because, quite frankly, a lot of these early parties were incredibly mercenary and didn't actually believe much of anything. Akitsukuni politics are a bit simpler just so that we can actually like, believe in things, and so I can use them to show different directions the country might be heading in.

    10ebbor10 said:
    @open_sketch Do we know what the general opinion of the West is on this issue. After all, they pushed democracy on Akitsukini, IIRC.
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    Condescension, mostly.

    Democracy wasn't forced onto Akitsukuni, it was adapted as an alternative to the historical norm of military dictatorship because the dictators were doing a shit job. It was part of the general rush to modernize (which often meant westernize), creating a constitutional monarchy that was not unlike a lot of Western ones. In a way, the Purity Club represents the first stirrings of a backlash against these things.

    Fun historical fact: Japan actually had like, multiple brushes with fascism (and fascism-like ideologies) before it stuck. The Purity Club is based on several real world organizations and parties that self-destructed nearly as spectacularly, and these organizations had a tendency to fragment, reform inside other organizations, and try again.
     
    I think this election result might actually be good for Matsura. It sounds like the government will just tread water until the next election, and people may be fed up enough to accept dramatic political change.

    If we could get a few of the minor parties to merge, they might get big enough to extract real concessions from either CN or NI.
     
    [X] Build a next-generation racing plane.
    Let's make those not-dutch guys and their donderstag eat our exhaust fumes
     
    If we build a racing plane with the pulse jet, I propose we call it the Dizzy, because that's what the pilot will be after their brains have been mulched from the jet noise.
     
    Our current pulsejet very likely kind of sucks, and there are some serious low-hanging-fruit improvements we could get if we threw some engineer time at it, even if more fundamental design improvements are likely harder. Get someone to invent either thrust augmentation or timed fuel injectors, and we can do a lot more with it. A good valveless design is unfortunately a much harder jump to make.

    My worry with it as is is that the fuel efficiency will be so bad that getting enough range even for a reasonable race may be a challenge, depending on how punishing Sketch decided to be with the fuel consumption. A primative pulsejet uses an astonishing ammount of fuel.
     
    Is there even a race we can participate in.

    There's a difference between a racing plane, and a headline grabbing plane. The latter doesn't need to be practical, just fly long enough to do the timing.
     
    10ebbor10 said:
    Is there even a race we can participate in.

    There's a difference between a racing plane, and a headline grabbing plane. The latter doesn't need to be practical, just fly long enough to do the timing.
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    That, we can do. Worst case, tow it into the air before starting the engibe to save fuel, though I don't think it would be necessary.
     
    This is probably daftness of the highest order, but could we do a mixed powerplant design to challenge for the height and speed records? Light piston engine to get as high as possible economically, then use the reduced drag high up to do a blisteringly quick run on the pulsejets and the prop, then stick it vertical and trade speed for height to try to get above 10km with the last of our fuel before a glided landing. Think X-15 except we don't need a BUFF to get us up there.
     
    FrangibleCover said:
    This is probably daftness of the highest order, but could we do a mixed powerplant design to challenge for the height and speed records? Light piston engine to get as high as possible economically, then use the reduced drag high up to do a blisteringly quick run on the pulsejets and the prop, then stick it vertical and trade speed for height to try to get above 10km with the last of our fuel before a glided landing. Think X-15 except we don't need a BUFF to get us up there.
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    Problem with that is I'm not sure we have portable oxygen yet.
     
    FrangibleCover said:
    This is probably daftness of the highest order, but could we do a mixed powerplant design to challenge for the height and speed records? Light piston engine to get as high as possible economically, then use the reduced drag high up to do a blisteringly quick run on the pulsejets and the prop, then stick it vertical and trade speed for height to try to get above 10km with the last of our fuel before a glided landing. Think X-15 except we don't need a BUFF to get us up there.
    Click to expand...
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    I was thinking of how we might implement a disposable pulsejet booster. Probably a little too crazy though.

    Also, for reals: if we want to break 300 kph, we need cantilever wing spars. About 270-290 at sea level before optimization is the highest I have been able to build an externally reinforced plane to, assuming that we have engines that can go that fast without becoming confetti.

    Other things we need to figure out but are less critical: retractable gear, high speed engine gearing.
     
    FrangibleCover said:
    I'm sympathetic to this argument, but I don't think that starting work on the Duck replacement makes sense right now and neither do I think it's what Asuka would want to build right now. They're in a bit of a mood over the gliders going to the Cathayans, they're not going to want to send more Akitsukuni men into combat.
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    I totally agree with you on that, but I couldn't think of a civilian plane with complex trade-offs to propose instead. I don't things airplanes are cheap enough yet to do things like commercial bush planes, crop dusters, or dedicated airmail. Although going for the range record might make a decent airmail plane and an endurance record might make a decent observer.
     
    For that matter, we might not have the structural strength and lift capacity on the body and wings to support this sort of arrangement. Most examples I know of aircraft carrying more than one form of propulsion have the secondary propulsion system as part of a parasite craft, like the X series of experimental rocket propelled planes.

    someplaneguy said:
    I totally agree with you on that, but I couldn't think of a civilian plane with complex trade-offs to propose instead. I don't things airplanes are cheap enough yet to do things like commercial bush planes, crop dusters, or dedicated airmail. Although going for the range record might make a decent airmail plane and an endurance record might make a decent observer.
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    Air mail is at least pretty simple; take the longest range bomber you've got and shove sacks of mail into the hold instead of bombs. The airplane doesn't really care about the different traits of the cargo unless the cargo shifts so long as it's not overweight. You just usually don't try this with anything other than mail early on because there's no reason to due to cost.
     
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