Okay. So we should focus on the Northern front. A loss from inaction isn't particularly bad, anyways; we're minor enough that the blame can be put on the army for it. But if our assistance directly helps a large victory north, then we should gain immense recognition for it.
And would balloons really help in the navy that much? We should
consider giving the navy some balloons, but I don't think observation balloons on ships were really that much of a thing. The best thing I can find regarding historical naval usage of balloons is in anti-submarine warfare. Somehow. I don't think that's too relevant.
Aaanyways. Gotta get our monoplane out soon, for that delicious experience and dogfighting capability.
Equilibrium Fighter MonoplaneIt turns out that our former general's business deals to buy
crappy planes GLORIOUS STRONK FEATHERS had the sellers also including some notes on monoplane construction. We found this out in a perfectly innocent way, and
not through raiding the general's confiscated cigar cache.
So, with some basic application of our maneuverability tech (ailerons, elevators, etc.), the good parts of the Feather, like its stability, we can make a functioning monoplane without much of a struggle. It won't be
as stable as the Feather, sure, but we're still fairly confident it'll be more than stable enough. Just not
extremely stable. Pure stability isn't our goal here anyways.
The engine has a small-ish upgrade from a 5-cylinder to a 7-cylinder rotary engine. This, combined with the slightly decreased weight, should contribute to a reasonable increase in speed.
The real innovation is at the front of the cockpit. A Type-11 is put at the hands of the pilot mounted on the front of the cockpit. This was at first dismissed due to the obvious flaw of the bullets hitting the propeller and breaking the plane's only source of propulsion. However, with some
clever synchronization gearing, we can largely dismiss this problem by
"simply" modifying the LMG to fire in such a pattern that the bullets will nearly always pass through gaps in the running propellers; allowing for effective front-firing LMGs through the propeller!
The applications are obvious, and are put to work in the Equilibrium. But, uh, we should probably reinforce the propeller just a
tad so that the
occasional misfire isn't an automatic death guarantee for the promise of flight.
TL;DR: Make a basic 1-seater monoplane using everything good(/that we know) from the Feather, then add a LMG with basic synchronization gears to the front for a fighter. Will be
less (not necessarily
un)stable, but should be faster and more agile and with the ability to shoot down enemy planes and balloons. And maybe strafing runs, if our pilots are feeling particularly bold.
New Designs
4 Dice - Equilibrium Fighter Monoplan [Double-Roll Time] (1): Chiefwaffles
It's a shame we can't pre-emptively advance projects, but it'll be nice to have some dice to properly revise the Equilibrium into a proper fighter plane. Again, name suggestions are appreciated.
Ask the army for a Radio (1): Chiefwaffles
A radio from the army will likely be pretty big, but we can revise it to size or use it as the base for its own project. Helps a lot with aerial superiority and especially our national advantage (teamwork), and we should get it over with now.
Though getting artillery shells or something of the sort to use as primitive bombs could also work, but I don't think it'd be
that effective when jury-rigged onto reconaissance biplanes. And we should focus on air superiority right now -- if we have observation balloons and they don't, that's a
huge advantage for us.
EDIT: Edited as per Ebbor's feedback.
Author
Topic: Knights of the Skies: Kolechia Thread - Early Summer 1916, Production Phase (Read 55551 times)