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Natural Born Soviet Airwoman - Airplanes vs Aliens

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Character Sheet
  • Informational
    • Kilesso Kristina Vsevolodovna
    (Kilesso is her surname, Kristina is her first name, and her friends call her Tina.)
    Pilot for the VVS

    Hard​
    Calm​
    Keen​
    Daring​
    -2​
    0​
    +3​
    +1​
    Institutional Move

    Positive Heroism: Ongoing while a Soviet pilot operates under 3000 meters, they ignore 1 Injury Penalty and up to 2 G-force penalty. This is for the purposes of rolls only.

    Mastery - Slipstream
    - Tables have Turned: In Dogfight! you can use Keen to turn the tables on your attacker, and Daring to go on the offensive. When you Draw a Bead, you can opt to take G-force equal to Speed factor rather than a Hard Move.

    I-16 Type 13


    Modifications
    - Gun Harmonics (and electric firing triggers)
    - Upgrade to x2 Heavy Machine Guns, x2 Machine Guns
     
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  • Informational
    • And let us see what other terrible things occur.

    Oh fun. A SECRET assault on the portal at night. This is going to suck. But someone needs to do it, so fire up those engines.
    samdamandias threw 1 10-faced dice. Total: 6
    6 6
     
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    DaLintyGuy said:
    What makes this a complication?
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    well, firstly there's the fact that you have to be careful where you shoot because the bullets keep going even if you miss. Tina would probably get pretty bent up if she put a dozen green tracers into a school. secondly, if you have to fly low, or worse, crash land, there's not a lot of safe areas to do that. finally, Brit ack-ack fire might not be super discriminate in the middle of a swirling battle.
     
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    open_sketch said:
    well, firstly there's the fact that you have to be careful where you shoot because the bullets keep going even if you miss. Tina would probably get pretty bent up if she put a dozen green tracers into a school. secondly, if you have to fly low, or worse, crash land, there's not a lot of safe areas to do that. finally, Brit ack-ack fire might not be super discriminate in the middle of a swirling battle.
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    For that matter, if you do shoot down a plane... where's that plane going to land?
     
    UbeOne said:
    They meant radar, right?

    So, night flying? We're gonna need some of those carrots. :p
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    10ebbor10 said:
    That's what they want you to think. It's actually these guys.
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    The 'Carrots' schtick was used as a cover story for early Airborne Interception radars fitted to night fighters during the Blitz, the RAF pilots have actually been remarkably indiscreet in their linking of carrots to the Chain Home system which I'm fairly sure most competent espionage agencies would have worked out the purpose of by 1939 given that the country was sprouting forests of hundred metre tall transmission towers. The Luftwaffe certainly figured out that they had to bomb them to degrade British fighter capabilities and fascist intelligence gathering was absolutely abysmal.

    Ebbor's suggestion of audio detection equipment is a good one, if the pilots were clever they'd have talked about the acoustic mirror system that the RAF attempted to use in the early 1930s.

    Claim that you've got a clever way of building a super sensitive microphone or something and people will be chasing their tails for months.
     
    Nice carrot reference.

    Cuddles! Cuddles are excellent civilisation. *insert sex is good but meme*

    Oho. A secret complication hey? Sounds like a bunch of fun to be had.

    Why are people talking about a night assault for the 10? I can't see how they got that.

    Oh, it's a 1 roll not a 10. Can't read.
     
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    Shouldn't a night battle be a good thing, in this instance, since the enemies glow in the dark? Spotting should be easier than normal.
     
    So how long (not sure if it should be hours or minutes) from the time Tina is in the UK before she sparks a big diplomatic brouhaha?
     
    Yay! New friend! Cait seems pretty cool, hope we see more of her in the future!

    Will we have to stay in the UK for the next mission or just get on boat --> go into portal --> back to glorious homeland with alien scraps of planes?
     
    Alright peeps, I drew a thing:



    Joint Trans-Atmospheric Fighter
    THUNDERBIRD
    ​
    Requirements
    • High top speed in order to quickly close with enemy storm portals.
    • Protection for the pilot from pressure differentials encountered in storm transits.
    • Low drag in order to maximize speed in the high-density enemy atmosphere.
    • Engine suitable for use in standard Earth atmosphere, and the dense alien atmosphere.
    • Armament suitable for engaging enemy fighters and bombers.

    The linear relationship between drag and atmospheric density, and as well as between lift and atmospheric density, means that a given airframe will require proportionally less lifting area when flying in the alien atmosphere, than when flying in Earth's atmosphere, as well as thinner airfoils better suited to cutting through the soupy air. This severely limits us in how much internal bracing we can mount inside a wing, curtailing the maximum wingspan. To offset this, the Thunderbird uses a tandem wing. With the use of outboard rudders mounted on the rear wing doubling as housings for the rear landing wheels.

    To match and exceed the speed of alien fighters on their home turf, the Thunderbird requires a tremendous amount of power in the most streamlined package possible – and as such mounts it's two engines in a push pull configuration in order to minimize drag. The engines themselves are designed to inhabit a sweet spot: powerful enough to let the craft lift off on Earth, but large enough to provide enough power to outmaneuver enemy aircraft in an alien atmosphere without becoming so large that they require liquid cooling under those conditions. To achieve this they are fitted with toggled turbochargers – these are required to boost inlet pressure while operating in a standard Earth atmosphere, but will switch off once transitioned into the higher-pressure alien air where engine power will jump up. This has the unfortunate trade-off that when operating in Earth's atmosphere, the engine has a tendency to overheat, and the plane's ability to climb is extremely poor – through it's aerodynamic shaping allows it to go very fast indeed should it get up to speed.

    Armament is four medium machine guns mounted on each side of the cockpit and fire through the forward propeller with the aid of an interrupter gear. The guns are air cooled, and as such prone to overheating when fired in Earth's atmosphere. A hopper collects spent casings so that they do not strike the rear propeller when ejected.
    In order to protect pilots from the effects of decompression sickness when crossing back into Earth's atmosphere, the Thunderbird is equipped with an oxygen face mask. Inhalation of 100% oxygen followed by immediate recompression in a hyperbaric chamber upon landing will in most cases result in no long-term injury.

    edit: This thing is about equal parts Beck-Mahoney Sorceress and Dornier Do 335, with a dash of P51 around the cockpit.
     
    Last edited:
    Crazy Tom said:
    Alright peeps, I drew a thing:



    Joint Trans-Atmospheric Fighter
    THUNDERBIRD
    ​
    Requirements
    • High top speed in order to quickly close with enemy storm portals.
    • Protection for the pilot from pressure differentials encountered in storm transits.
    • Low drag in order to maximize speed in the high-density enemy atmosphere.
    • Engine suitable for use in standard Earth atmosphere, and the dense alien atmosphere.
    • Armament suitable for engaging enemy fighters and bombers.

    The linear relationship between drag and atmospheric density, and as well as between lift and atmospheric density, means that a given airframe will require proportionally less lifting area when flying in the alien atmosphere, than when flying in Earth's atmosphere, as well as thinner airfoils better suited to cutting through the soupy air. This severely limits us in how much internal bracing we can mount inside a wing, curtailing the maximum wingspan. To offset this, the Thunderbird uses a tandem wing. With the use of outboard rudders mounted on the rear wing doubling as housings for the rear landing wheels.

    To match and exceed the speed of alien fighters on their home turf, the Thunderbird requires a tremendous amount of power in the most streamlined package possible – and as such mounts it's two engines in a push pull configuration in order to minimize drag. The engines themselves are designed to inhabit a sweet spot: powerful enough to let the craft lift off on Earth, but large enough to provide enough power to outmaneuver enemy aircraft in an alien atmosphere without becoming so large that they require liquid cooling under those conditions. To achieve this they are fitted with toggled turbochargers – these are required to boost inlet pressure while operating in a standard Earth atmosphere, but will switch off once transitioned into the higher-pressure alien air where engine power will jump up. This has the unfortunate trade-off that when operating in Earth's atmosphere, the engine has a tendency to overheat, and the plane's ability to climb is extremely poor – through it's aerodynamic shaping allows it to go very fast indeed should it get up to speed.

    Armament is four medium machine guns mounted on each side of the cockpit and fire through the forward propeller with the aid of an interrupter gear. The guns are air cooled, and as such prone to overheating when fired in Earth's atmosphere. A hopper collects spent casings so that they do not strike the rear propeller when ejected.
    In order to protect pilots from the effects of decompression sickness when crossing back into Earth's atmosphere, the Thunderbird is equipped with an oxygen face mask. Inhalation of 100% oxygen followed by immediate recompression in a hyperbaric chamber upon landing will in most cases result in no long-term injury.

    edit: This thing is about equal parts Beck-Mahoney Sorceress and Dornier Do 335, with a dash of P51 around the cockpit.
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    Very nice. Someone should go see about building it in this system.
     
    Himmelhand said:
    Shouldn't a night battle be a good thing, in this instance, since the enemies glow in the dark? Spotting should be easier than normal.
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    Keeping in mind that in this era its going to be "Up is black with specks of stars, down is black with specks of lights, and across is black with specks of glowing UFOs, while your friends are in the same airspace and you don't know where they are"
    Extremely disorienting because if it comes to a dogfight you don't have a lot of time to get your bearings in split second decisions. It'd probably HELP if theres a city or a bright moon, if only to be sure where up is when you're diving and spinning around.
     
    Crazy Tom's Joint Fighter:

    Boulton Paul-Yermolayev Thunderbird/Burevestnik

    BoostHandlingStall
    Full Load88019
    Half Load98217
    Empty98316

    Max Speed 83, Dropoff 58, Overspeed 84, Altitude 6
    Max Strain 57, Toughness 50
    Retention -2, Sustain 6
    Stability -4, Visibility 2, Reliability 2, Fuel 6
    Escape 0, Crash 0, Stress 3

    3x Synchronised Browning MMG, 1x Spinner Browning MMG

    This thing is dummy fast. Like, this is not only the fastest aircraft in the world as of 1939, if this were built and worked as advertised it would be the fastest aircraft in the world until 1941 and the fastest prop in the world until 1989. It is also a superb boom and zoom fighter, with extremely efficient performance at the bottom of the dive as the low drag lets it pull out of the dive without major speed loss and 2100hp of Franco-Soviet fury lofts it back into the stratosphere. Probably better not to take it into a turnfight but it's not that it's bad at it, it's just that it'll give the other guy a chance to shoot at it occasionally. However, the use of twin tails is really hurting it badly and I don't like the armament so I'm going to have my own go. I'm also making a tradeoff and only including a single cooling intake to cover both engines, reduced mass but decreased survivability.

    FrangibleCover's Highly Derivative Joint Fighter:

    Boulton Paul-Yermolayev Thunderbird/Burevestnik

    BoostHandlingStall
    Full Load88118
    Half Load98316
    Empty98415

    Max Speed 90, Dropoff 63, Overspeed 105, Altitude 6
    Max Strain 58, Toughness 49
    Retention -2, Sustain 5
    Stability -4, Visibility 2, Reliability 0, Fuel 6
    Escape 0, Crash 0, Stress 2

    2x Synchronised Browning MMG, 1x Spinner ShVAK Light Cannon

    This aircraft cuts it really close on all the margins: 2 Mass and 1 Drag away from the next Point, the next Mass Point would add that 1 Drag and also add a flight stress. Anyway, improvements:
    • The aircraft is now the fastest propeller aircraft ever built. Ever. It's probably not actually possible to get a propeller powered aircraft to Mach 0.73 in level flight and it's certainly not advisable but Flying Circus has never been much concerned with advisable.
    • The armament is more suitable for short bursts in a high speed engagement. It's also cheaper because of the reduced amount of synchronisation and accessibility gear required.
    • Slightly better handling and better Sustain keep the aircraft more competitive in a turnfight, although the best thing to do in a turnfight remains exiting it as quickly as possible.
    • Flights Stress 2, for your comfort and convenience.
    This thing is a monster, no doubt. Only problem is that the asking price is 266Th, 269Th for my modified one. For that you could probably have three LaGG-3s or Hurricanes and in this sort of situation I think I'd prefer three good-enough fighter to one invincible megafighter.
     
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    FrangibleCover said:
    Crazy Tom's Joint Fighter:

    Boulton Paul-Yermolayev Thunderbird/Burevestnik

    BoostHandlingStall
    Full Load88019
    Half Load98217
    Empty98316

    Max Speed 83, Dropoff 58, Overspeed 84, Altitude 6
    Max Strain 57, Toughness 50
    Retention -2, Sustain 6
    Stability -4, Visibility 2, Reliability 2, Fuel 6
    Escape 0, Crash 0, Stress 3

    3x Synchronised Browning MMG, 1x Spinner Browning MMG

    This thing is dummy fast. Like, this is not only the fastest aircraft in the world as of 1939, if this were built and worked as advertised it would be the fastest aircraft in the world until 1941 and the fastest prop in the world until 1989. It is also a superb boom and zoom fighter, with extremely efficient performance at the bottom of the dive as the low drag lets it pull out of the dive without major speed loss and 2100hp of Franco-Soviet fury lofts it back into the stratosphere. Probably better not to take it into a turnfight but it's not that it's bad at it, it's just that it'll give the other guy a chance to shoot at it occasionally. However, the use of twin tails is really hurting it badly and I don't like the armament so I'm going to have my own go. I'm also making a tradeoff and only including a single cooling intake to cover both engines, reduced mass but decreased survivability.

    FrangibleCover's Highly Derivative Joint Fighter:

    Boulton Paul-Yermolayev Thunderbird/Burevestnik

    BoostHandlingStall
    Full Load88118
    Half Load98316
    Empty98415

    Max Speed 90, Dropoff 63, Overspeed 105, Altitude 6
    Max Strain 58, Toughness 49
    Retention -2, Sustain 5
    Stability -4, Visibility 2, Reliability 0, Fuel 6
    Escape 0, Crash 0, Stress 2

    2x Synchronised Browning MMG, 1x Spinner ShVAK Light Cannon

    This aircraft cuts it really close on all the margins: 2 Mass and 1 Drag away from the next Point, the next Mass Point would add that 1 Drag and also add a flight stress. Anyway, improvements:
    • The aircraft is now the fastest propeller aircraft ever built. Ever. It's probably not actually possible to get a propeller powered aircraft to Mach 0.73 in level flight and it's certainly not advisable but Flying Circus has never been much concerned with advisable.
    • The armament is more suitable for short bursts in a high speed engagement. It's also cheaper. because
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    Click to shrink...

    OK, not for the million dollar question: what happens when you multiply all the drag values by... @open_sketch, how much thicker is the alien atmosphere compared to Earth's?
     
    FrangibleCover said:
    Crazy Tom's Joint Fighter:

    Boulton Paul-Yermolayev Thunderbird/Burevestnik

    BoostHandlingStall
    Full Load88019
    Half Load98217
    Empty98316

    Max Speed 83, Dropoff 58, Overspeed 84, Altitude 6
    Max Strain 57, Toughness 50
    Retention -2, Sustain 6
    Stability -4, Visibility 2, Reliability 2, Fuel 6
    Escape 0, Crash 0, Stress 3

    3x Synchronised Browning MMG, 1x Spinner Browning MMG

    This thing is dummy fast. Like, this is not only the fastest aircraft in the world as of 1939, if this were built and worked as advertised it would be the fastest aircraft in the world until 1941 and the fastest prop in the world until 1989. It is also a superb boom and zoom fighter, with extremely efficient performance at the bottom of the dive as the low drag lets it pull out of the dive without major speed loss and 2100hp of Franco-Soviet fury lofts it back into the stratosphere. Probably better not to take it into a turnfight but it's not that it's bad at it, it's just that it'll give the other guy a chance to shoot at it occasionally. However, the use of twin tails is really hurting it badly and I don't like the armament so I'm going to have my own go. I'm also making a tradeoff and only including a single cooling intake to cover both engines, reduced mass but decreased survivability.

    FrangibleCover's Highly Derivative Joint Fighter:

    Boulton Paul-Yermolayev Thunderbird/Burevestnik

    BoostHandlingStall
    Full Load88118
    Half Load98316
    Empty98415

    Max Speed 90, Dropoff 63, Overspeed 105, Altitude 6
    Max Strain 58, Toughness 49
    Retention -2, Sustain 5
    Stability -4, Visibility 2, Reliability 0, Fuel 6
    Escape 0, Crash 0, Stress 2

    2x Synchronised Browning MMG, 1x Spinner ShVAK Light Cannon

    This aircraft cuts it really close on all the margins: 2 Mass and 1 Drag away from the next Point, the next Mass Point would add that 1 Drag and also add a flight stress. Anyway, improvements:
    • The aircraft is now the fastest propeller aircraft ever built. Ever. It's probably not actually possible to get a propeller powered aircraft to Mach 0.73 in level flight and it's certainly not advisable but Flying Circus has never been much concerned with advisable.
    • The armament is more suitable for short bursts in a high speed engagement. It's also cheaper. because
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    Click to shrink...
    There is only one propeller plane in existence that I know can reach that speed. The TU-95 "Bear" (or specifically the maritime patrol version TU-142) but that one is cheating by using turboprops.
     
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    Axslashel said:
    There is only one propeller plane in existence that I know can reach that speed. The TU-95 "Bear" but that one is cheating by using turboprops.
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    There are a couple of stripped down superprops that people use in air racing that can get to 850kph or so, but honestly this thing is still Sufficiently fast. My modification was more to try to get the better guns and handling, the speed and drop-off increase was a nice bonus.
     
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