Promotional material for my proposals.
8. Mallard Escort seaplane
Firstly, we do not have any immediate need of a new fighter aircraft, seeing Sparrow III should have treated most of the design's problems. Secondly, the Ospreys and the Albatrosses are doing alright. Thirdly, as a few of us wanted a bi-engine fighter or bomber, the Mallard should provide an answer. It is a seaplane, meaning it should remain useful at the attack of Moldovian mainland; It can double as an escort fighter, so if the enemy keep up with the Albatrosses, we have a way to fight back; It packs two pairs of guns mainly because it is not that good at moving itself into position, so it need higher firepower to compensate the lack of firing time. It is also designed to be a patrol bomber, so it should also excel at ASW duties.
It is understandable that its drawbacks are poor handling and extremely high sophistication (plus being a two-manned fighter), and thus leading to a high cost. However, if it is correctly designed, it would provide us with an excellent platform to move forward and build on.
B: The Sparrow is a very maneuverable aircraft, so moving into a firing position, especially in a turn and burn situation, is pretty easy. The removal of the extra guns should increase performance by a bit; if needed instead provide with bigger magazines. IIbs are no brainers, if we have the time that is.
C: ebbor mentioned numerous times that as we are not building the Sovjet designs they aren't selling us more. Lets build a few prototypes to see how these designs fare in the first place.
D: Our fuel situation is so dire that making more fuel is a no-brainer.
The ravens will all be retired soon, let them carry out one major assault before they go.
The question is not whether it's acceptable to lose the Ravens, but whether it's acceptable to lose the pilots.
Now, there are a few things I'd like to do this turn.
- Since we have a gun engineer, I'd like to do a proposal for refining the 30mm gun.
- Instead of Proposal 8's twin-fuselage seaplane, I'd like a twin-engined flying boat with a nose turret and possibly additional defensive armament. Roles would be commercial harassment, naval reconnaissance and possibly resupply missions. The changes should allow more room for later cargo and/or improvements.
- I would switch all Sparrow production to the Mk. III, either with only two guns or with full four.
Thoughts on any of that?
Oh, and lastly:
The great white variant should have about 21MW of power available, while the Annihilator should have 7.5MW for cruise and 37.5MW total for combat usage.
I have no objections to it (well, having a twin mustang seaplane is probably more useful as a catalyst for a better design), but I would suggest that this seaplane should be designed with ASW in mind, since we should not rely on ospreys at this role.
Another question: is it too early for a helicopter or autogyro?