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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:
    Because of the rotation? Use two that counterrotate. For example at both edges of a somewhat wide lifting body, for a big and heavy-duty transport or bomber.
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    Not sure why you leap from two engines to lifting body. A more conventional (or differently unconventional) design can do that just fine. In fact, the V-173 (perhaps the closest analog I can think of, even if that's more a very narrow and unusually shaped flying wing) had to put the engines in the center and use long horizontal propeller shafts to make it fit right. I have nothing against the V-173 and would be enthusiastic about the prospect of us building something like that if we needed a fast STOL plane with a really sturdy frame, but it's not the easiest approach to a twin engine aircraft.
     
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    @open_sketchbook, would it be possible to commission a smaller electric engine? Something like: Wisp Electric: 1円, 2hp, 0 mass. Air cooled.

    edit: Or even something that's 1 hp.
     
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    brmj said:
    Not sure why you leap from two engines to lifting body. A more conventional (or differently unconventional) design can do that just fine. In fact, the V-173 (perhaps the closest analog I can think of, even if that's more a very narrow and unusually shaped flying wing) had to put the engines in the center and use long horizontal propeller shafts to make it fit right.
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    I'm not leaping to anything, I just thought that they were both innovations we recently got access to that would benefit a heavy-duty airplane; The lifting body has a nice wide and reasonably boxy shape to hold lots of cargo, extra wing area to lift it, and enough room to house two propellers to pull it without extra nacelles creating drag. If the rotary engines need to be outside the fuselage to get the full cooling benefit, they can be housed in circular extensions to the front. The hull form I'm thinking of is more Burnelli RB-1 camper-van-with-wings than the V-173's flat flying wing.
     
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    Gnarker said:
    I'm not leaping to anything, I just thought that they were both innovations we recently got access to that would benefit a heavy-duty airplane; The lifting body has a nice wide and reasonably boxy shape to hold lots of cargo, extra wing area to lift it, and enough room to house two propellers to pull it without extra nacelles creating drag. If the rotary engines need to be outside the fuselage to get the full cooling benefit, they can be housed in circular extensions to the front. The hull form I'm thinking of is more Burnelli RB-1 camper-van-with-wings than the V-173's flat flying wing.
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    Okay, that makes a lot more sense. I was envisioning lifting body with little other lift, something like one of the NASA lifting body experimental aircraft, but somehow stretched to accommodate a pair of propellers. Hence the extreme confusion.
     
    I have been struck by inspiration:


    Green - Electric engines.
    Red - Rotary engine.
    Yellow - Generator assembly.
    Golden-Brown - Fuel tanks.
    Blue - Cockpit.

    Yes, it's a hybrid-electric distributed propulsion flying wing with outboard tails and two vertically mounted counter rotating rotary engines for power.

    Is it genius, or madness? We may never know.

    This is why I asked about the miniature electric engines.
     
    @Crazy Tom

    Electric motors have not reached that level of development in history, and that configuration has been investigated numerous times in the professional literature and determined to be seriously problematic. Also hybrid-electric distributed propulsion isn't actually proven to be doable due to losses in the generator and inability to miniaturize generators to have sufficient power-to-weight ratio.
     
    Crasian01 said:
    @Crazy Tom

    Electric motors have not reached that level of development in history, and that configuration has been investigated numerous times in the professional literature and determined to be seriously problematic. Also hybrid-electric distributed propulsion isn't actually proven to be doable due to losses in the generator and inability to miniaturize generators to have sufficient power-to-weight ratio.
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    The reason I ask is because according to the game rules, the electric motor is a 0 mass engine yet capable of fairly high horsepower. And if the motor is that good, the generator should be as well. I was wondering if the Schizo Tech of the setting allowed for it.
     
    Crazy Tom said:
    The reason I ask is because according to the game rules, the electric motor is a 0 mass engine yet capable of fairly high horsepower. And if the motor is that good, the generator should be as well. I was wondering if the Schizo Tech of the setting allowed for it.
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    Well, it's sort of questionable, since designing a generator does have different considerations than designing a motor. While in principle a generator is just an electric motor spinning backwards, in actuality it ends up being a lot harder than you would expect. You have issues with rectification of the current coming out of the generator and need to make sure your batteries and your wiring can handle all of that, which usually ends up costing you weight. Obviously the GM has final say, but at least from a Real Life practical standpoint it's a nontrivial problem. Keep in mind also that batteries do not have that much charge in the setting, and they have a much lower power-to-weight ratio than fuel.

    Personally, I'd say your odds are better using an HQ-40 style layout:


    Note also that your actual petrol engines need to have a certain power to weight before even a single-engine helicopter becomes feasible, and I don't think the setting has that yet.
     
    Crazy Tom said:
    The reason I ask is because according to the game rules, the electric motor is a 0 mass engine yet capable of fairly high horsepower. And if the motor is that good, the generator should be as well. I was wondering if the Schizo Tech of the setting allowed for it.
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    But why though? If you actually want to use the generator then you need to carry fuel for it, which kinda defeats the point of the electric engine. And you also need to have batteries too.
    I mean, unless you just want a gas-electric powerplant, but in that case why? I mean, maybe if you wanted to get clever with shifting about the engines while only having a single large powerplant I guess you could do that, but I don't really see the point. It would be better to just have a bunch of Goblin engines and run fuel lines to all of them. Better redundancy and reliability too.
    If you want to generate electricity, just hook up an alternator to all the engines and then you would have more than enough to run the plane's electrics, or even enough to provide for boosted control surfaces.

    On another note. Contrarotating propellers.
    Pretty cool huh?
     
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    Ramble said:
    I mean, unless you just want a gas-electric powerplant, but in that case why?
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    Well the biggest advantage here is that in theory, you can boost the power to weight ratio by having a single generator run a multitude of engines. Electric motors (again theoretically) and generators can all get better efficiencies than gasoline engines, because a gasoline engine only has one RPM where it has minimum fuel consumption, whereas electric motors don't care about RPM and generators only need to run at one RPM anyway.

    In practice, making this actually work is.... hard. There's a reason why the Aerospace industry hasn't tossed this technology onto everything.

    Also contrarotating propellers are cool and also freakishly hard to manufacture. Concentric shafts, mmmm.....

    Well, they're relatively straightforward, actually, and quite doable, it's just that you really need to get everything exactly correct, or else the vibration will cause everything to explode.
     
    Ramble said:
    But why though? If you actually want to use the generator then you need to carry fuel for it, which kinda defeats the point of the electric engine. And you also need to have batteries too.
    I mean, unless you just want a gas-electric powerplant, but in that case why? I mean, maybe if you wanted to get clever with shifting about the engines while only having a single large powerplant I guess you could do that, but I don't really see the point. It would be better to just have a bunch of Goblin engines and run fuel lines to all of them. Better redundancy and reliability too.
    If you want to generate electricity, just hook up an alternator to all the engines and then you would have more than enough to run the plane's electrics, or even enough to provide for boosted control surfaces.

    On another note. Contrarotating propellers.
    Pretty cool huh?
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    Primarily it's so you can have a bunch of smaller engines blowing air over the majority of your wing, increasing lift and mitigating issues with stall.
    It also allows you to put the engine at the back where fire won't blow into the pilots face, and where it can protect the pilot from fire from behind.
    And there's safety in the higher redundancy multiple motors bring.
    Plus, you can run your generator at it's optimal rmp, increasing fuel efficiency.

    I think I read something about electric lifters as a viable type of special wing in the game doc, so I through I should ask.
     
    At some point in the distant (ish) future, when we are the eccentric chief engineer of Not! Imperial Japan's applied science division, then we get to break out the whacky Command and Conquer designs. Not before.
     
    Crazy Tom said:
    Primarily it's so you can have a bunch of smaller engines blowing air over the majority of your wing, increasing lift and mitigating issues with stall.
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    Yeah so, you're not going to get this effect unless you do a hell of a lot of seriously advanced aerodynamics that haven't been invented in this universe. I've looked into it for my research and boy howdy it is not fun.
     
    Crazy Tom said:
    Red - Rotary engine.
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    AUGH!
    You have the rotary engines positioned where they can't get good airflow, which is very bad for air-cooled engines. You need rotary engines mounted so that the driveshaft is parallel to the direction of flight so that you get maximum airflow over the engine.

    I did design a diesel electric in a previous iteration, but that was mainly having a tiny diesel generator trickle-charge the batteries to extend flight time, but that doesn't work any more due to how micro-tanks work. On the other hand, micro-tanks always give one charge of fuel, so very large and thirsty engines can get more out of a bunch of micro-tanks than the equivalent mass of regular fuel tanks.
    Crasian01 said:
    Note also that your actual petrol engines need to have a certain power to weight before even a single-engine helicopter becomes feasible, and I don't think the setting has that yet.
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    Last time I checked, the rules for powered rotors and autogyros hadn't actually been implemented.

    Because I really want to make an autogyro. (and if we go crazy, strap a pulsejet to it :V )
     
    @samdamandias

    Autogyros... *shudder*

    Look man, just make a low-wing loading aircraft and invent flaps. Flaps aren't even that hard to invent, all they do is change the camber of the wing temporarily.

    --

    On a completely unrelated note: Pulsejet Assisted Take Off? PATO!
     
    Himmelhand said:
    I'll do you one better:

    Pulsejet Outboard Thruster Assisted Take Off

    POTATO.
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    So I imagine that it would be some sort of pulsejet sled with an extremely limited amount of fuel. You strap it onto a fighter with an overloaded strike package and light of the pulsejets. When the pulsejets run out of fuel, they declamp and glide safely to the ground on a parachute so that the sled can be recovered to launch another airplane.
     
    rabbles rabidly

    I always miss the rolls... Sketch is on to me.
     
    Himmelhand said:
    I wouldn't use the Model 2 as a bomber as-is. The unusually high stall speed will cause problems for accurate bombing, and the lack of a margin between Vmax and DNE means that you're not going to want to put it in a dive if you can help it.
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    There's a reason I specifically mentioned a debugging phase, though I didn't mention ALL the plane's problems.

    That said, I can think of the Model 2 as being sort of prototypical of the concept of a strategic bomber- long range, high speed, sizeable payload even if we'd have to trade off fuel for payload.
     
    I'm not sure the weight penalty and cost would be worth it, to tell the truth. Among other things because manufacturing is at a relatively low, almost 19th century, level for obvious reasons. Precisely made parts and manufactured engines aren't disposable as scrap material, and lugging around ironmongery you won't use during flight cuts into payload pretty sharply.

    Plus, small planes generally don't need assisted takeoff, and very large planes that need it run into other problems in our era.
     
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