Design Phase, Early Winter 1915
There is a new ace, Tabbart Friedrich Fuchs, in Gold Geschwader.
The Navy is celebrating their victory and is pleased with the Luftjäger, even if we didn't directly give the orders to keep the balloons away.
The General in charge of the advance onto Bont Gwyn, now turned defense of Nachtburg, is concerned with the bombing that the Pren Gwyn's are doing and requests more aircraft to keep them away. Likewise, the General in charge of the defense of Hochrotes Schloss requests something to counter the effect of the enemies balloons.
The General in charge of the Defense of Sprungburg is ecstatic over the new radio using Adderbolt, and would love to have more of them along with more traditional recon. Meanwhile, the general defending Dunklerfelsen is demanding you send a lot more aircraft to push back before that damned general takes Dunklerfelsen before the snow falls and makes advancing a nightmare.
High command has increased your budget by 2 PP, as the country devotes more factories to war.
Planes:
-BzL 1 Motte Biplane: A unarmed, single seater biplane bought from the start up Beham zivile Luft. The aircraft is stable in flight and the five-cylinder rotary engine powering the thing to a respectable speed doesn't cause any noticeable vibrations unless damaged making it easy to fly, with a wooden fuselage keeping it cheap. However, it is woefully inadequate for anything other than scouting or training. True to its name however, it is lightweight, and cheap. Cost 3/1
--BzL 1 Motte-SMT Biplane: A Motte variant powered by the AVD Motors Dehnert SMT 915 engine in place of the smaller five-cylinder one it originally had. Noticeably faster then the normal everyday Motte and replaces the old version of the craft.
-AvDD.I Adderbolt: A singe-seater tandem wing aircraft that instead of canvas and wood is purely made of wood with a Monocoque design and powered by the Dehnert 9C engine in the pusher configuration. The Adderbolt mounts two GL-12 Luftblitzkanone machineguns in front of the pilot for easy unjamming and aiming. It's quite fast and maneuverable due to its small size. Claiming the the aircraft should be or was made out of high quality ebony for moral and patriotism is a surefire way to get a pay cut. Cost 5/1.
--Dehnert Adderbolt SBD.I: A Adderbolt that has been modified quite a bit to be much more aerodynamic than its predecessor by making most of the structural parts placed inside instead the aircraft's frame instead of outside, also comes with the Blitz engine if you forgot. All future adderbolts will be of the SSD.I verity.
Equipment:
-GL-12 Luftblitzkanone: A fairly advanced open bolt air cooled machine gun that fires 7.62mm rounds at about 1000 per minute with ease. Costs 1 PP
- FEiV-12M: An radio based on the IluM-12M that weighs the same 32 kilograms with the battery and 20 without that can use the power of an engine instead of a battery and because of the availability of power, uses more. It uses a spark gap transmitter and crystal receiver for Morse code at frequency's of 300 to 450 kHz. Costs 1 PP to buy and another one to mount onto an airframe.
-M-08-45KG "Selbstmord-Hülse": A shell that true to its nickname tends to explode, violently, at even the most minor of disturbance. Still, its a 45KG artillery shell, so there is that...Costs 1 PP
Pilots:
-Diligent: Quality beats Quantity! Schwarzes Holz ground crews work round the clock and hard to make sure aircraft are in tip top shape before entering combat, and the pilots know their aircrafts limits.
-Uniforms: Stylish black with white and gold stripes and the Luftjager insignia on the back. Pilots of rank are issued two hats, a fancier warm one and the traditional one. Also comes with basic navigation equipment and winter/high altitude clothing.
Technology:
-Basic biplane design
-Basic monoplane design
-Basic tandem wing design
-Basic pusher configuration design
-Wooden frame construction
-Simple Monocoque construction
-Simple Cantilever
-Rudimentary dive bombing sight
-Prototype retractable landing gear
-Basic control surfaces: ailerons, elevator and rudder
-Basic Radial Engine design
-Fördern Mount technology
-Basic crystal receivers, Morse code
-Basic spark-gap transmitter, Morse code
-Tracer ammunition
Resources:
-1 Basic Pilot Training School: Teaches new pilots what roll, yaw, and pitch is along with what the flight stick and rudder peddles are for. How to actually use this knowledge to take off is the final test.
-1 Prototype Airfield: The place where new aircraft and other air-related equipment are made and tested. Produces five dice worth of progress every turn.
-16 Production Points Base
Schurk Geschwader | AvDD.I Adderbolt SBD.I | FEiV-12M | Aerial Reconnaissance/Artillery spotting | Neophyte | No Aces | Maintenance Cost 1
Currently assigned to observe enemy troop movements and aid artillery near Gwag du
Rote Geschwader | AvDD.I Adderbolt SBD.I | None | Aerial Superiority Reconnaissance | Neophyte | Nicholas von Rheinbach | Maintenance Cost 1
Currently assigned to observe enemy shore defenses and shoot down any balloons sighted.
Gold Geschwader | AvDD.I Adderbolt SBD.I | None | Aerial Superiority | Neophyte | Tabbart Friedrich Fuchs | Maintenance Cost 1
Currently assigned to shoot down anything sighted over the central front.
Rudel Geschwader | None | None | Grounded | Neophyte | No Aces | Maintenance Cost 0
Currently grounded
Angesehen Geschwader | AvDD.I Adderbolt SBD.I | None | Aerial Superiority Reconnaissance | Rookie | No Aces | Maintenance Cost 1
Currently assigned to observe enemy shore defenses and shoot down any balloons sighted.
1 GL-11b Luftdonnerkanone
2 IluM-12M
Prestige: Little “Have you seen Überkanonen Nicholas von Rheinbach in his fancy Adderbolt at the airshows!”
Status: Auxiliary Service
Army Relations: Lukewarm “Those planes might be able to help fund the war, if anything else.”
Navy Relations: Lukewarm “If they can keep those balloons down and harass the decks of ships, they might prove somewhat useful.”
Production Points: 18
Total Maintenance: 4
All in all, this was a good turn for us. While we didn't advance, we have vastly superior aircraft, and only didn't blitz them because we assigned our squadrons in opposing ways, and the bulk of our airforces missed each other. This turn we have enough funds to buy a lot more Adderbolts, and we can get a number of things done to increase their effectiveness a lot.
What's more... this turn we begin a truly revolutionary project, if all goes well. It's time to unveil the Teufel.
ZhS-8A "Teufel" (20.18 L D75/15) | Roheshmiede-Dehnert "Teufel" | Project Teufel 201815 | Rohesde Teufel 20LD75.R4+2Following the work on Dehnert 9, resulting in the penultimate Blitz 230, the AvD Motor Company has chosen to develop a new engine utilizing a more efficient thermodynamic process for the combustion cycle, wherein two opposed pistons operate under different work cycles. Due to the innovative nature of this engine, they have chosen to enter collaboration with an industrial giant known for their unique and precise work in the heavy machine industry, Roheshmiede Schwerindustrie, so as to bring a revolutionary engine design into the hands of the Schwarzes Holz Kaiserliche Luftjäger - with the goal of giving out enough power to change the way work is done around aircraft within it and in the empire as a whole.
After several weeks of brainstorming with his engineers would not bear any fruit, Andreas found himself awake at night, trying to envision in what way he could lead the motor industry forwards. Having worked with motorcycle engines before, he pondered two-stroke radial engines. He required more power from his engines, but was reluctant to convert his Dehnert series to two-stroke variants to avoid their poor filling ratio, fuel inefficiency and lack of effective lubrication generally associated with them. Then again, cranking the RPM of his present radial engines would almost equally shorten their lifespan and introduce issues with air management, while raising the chance of engine knocking… Then it hit him. He could combine the two in a configuration he had seen before in the Gobron-Brillié series of cars from 1900 - an opposed piston engine, but with a continuous burn cycle, working within a single combustion cylinder. That same morning, he raced to his workshop to begin work on a prototype.
The design was not only able to work, but had, in the test case, exibited some very promising effects. As he put it: “This engine configuration proved advantageous in more ways than I could even dream of”. The pistons made it possible to do away with the heavy cylinder heads of conventional engines, thus lightening the entire assembly. It’s thermal efficiency was closer to steam engines - more than twice that of the best internal combustion engines on the market at the time, meaning more power could be transfered directly into useful work, and heat management was easier. This made the engine more reliable and powerful in one - approaching twice the power-to-displacement, than even their testbed, a heavily modified Blitz 230 - a staggering number of 31.22 horsepowers per liter of fuel expended was extrapolated from the one cylinder test bed. Indeed, the prolonged stroke expansion which resulted from this continuous burn could be taken as a reason alongside the lack of a cylinder head, but what really touched Andreas as an engineer were two possibilities which the engine had demonstrated. It allowed the user to modify the compression ratio on the fly, while the engine was still in operation, enabling the pilot to put the engine into a low-stress state if it is damaged, and a higher performance state for military needs, acting as a kind of ‘military overdrive’ for short periods of time, and the smooth, responsive control of the throttle. As the burn was continuous, throttle response manifested directly into power output practically the moment an order was issued. The test bed, however, used a rather complex power transfer system from the ‘outer’, two-stroke pistons, raising the complexity of manufacture and making the machine heavier than what it would optimally allow. To fix this, Stefan had proposed they sign a contract with a heavy industry company for the joint development of the engine, and put the matter of power transfer from the outer pistons into their hands, as well as potential changes to the cooling system, should they come up with a lighter method by any chance.
In the end, the engine was turned inside out, putting the unstable 4 stroke cylinders on the outside to allow for a skipless firing cycle and an arbitrary number of pistons. Complicated gear assemblies previously wider than the engine were shrunk down to only slightly larger than a standard radial crankwheel by using a set of smaller planetary gears to time and draw power from the outer pistons through thin armatures pulling the end of the outer pistons inwards. A set of rails on the rear of the pistons stabilize the armatures, preventing any twisting or bending inside the cylinder. Reduced waste space tightened the center of the engine, allowing better cylinder dimensions.
After several blueprint reworks, endless bickering over the design’s name, the number of cylinders, the stroke and bore, the working speed and various methods of power transfer and airflow, the two had come to an agreement. The design, once drawn out and finalized, called for an 8 cylinder, 20.18 L beast of an engine, with an estimated power output of 630 hp and a diameter somewhat larger than the Dehnert Blitz 230 at 756.5 mm to it’s 547 mm. While the two had their differences, there was no dispute over the fact that the power transmission system developed by Roheshmiede Schwerindustrie proved ideal for the application, and was very much appreciated by the AvD Motor Company, and Andreas personally. Despite the airflow being enough to cool the engine down, Andreas insisted a secondary water cooling unit was installed, with veins going between the cylinders and back in a U curve. This would serve to increase the engine’s reliability with a minimal amount of weight added compared to the primarily water cooled Dehnert 9 series of engines, and would allow for further upgrades to be done later on.
The companies, through collaboration, designed a simple form of direct fuel injection so as to replace the carburattors used on the D9 series and provide potentially better performance in the future. This is done through the usage of a plunger pump, which is actuated by an engine driven lever timed with relation to the engine cycle and which terminates the period of injection by providing a non-return relief valve. This valve is opened by direct contact of the plunger pump towards the end of the delivery stroke, and suddenly interrupts the effective discharge stroke of the plunger. The quantity of fuel delivered is controlled by an adjustable stop arranged to determine the discharge stroke matching the engine cycle, so that it follows the cycle speed curve of the engine and doesn’t hinder throttle performance or cause other complications with fuel feeding. The relief valve thus ensures the time of injection is always at the same point no matter the position on the engine speed curve, load conditions on the engine and sudden changes, such that the injection of fuel at low velocities, resulting in poor combustion, is avoided. This mechanism, thus, allows the engine to be much more compact and makes full use of it’s nature so as to sustain the combustion more reliably.
The one downside of the engine is that as the expansion phase is so lengthened, the air intake and exhaust phases are collapsed into a single stroke, necessitating a source of compressed air to overcome exhaust pressures and properly cycle the oxygen mixture. Fortunately, though, this is an aircraft engine, and wind is a plentiful resource. To capture the wind, two small trumpets are to be extended outside the fuselage of the plane, where funneling will continuously feed the engine’s pressure tank sufficiently pressurized air to operate even at high altitudes where the atmosphere thins. When readying to launch, a small hand pump in the cockpit may be used to pre-fill the air-tank to run the plane up to speeds at which it can replenish itself.
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Topic: They Who Dare: The Empire of Schwarzes Holz - Kaiserliche Luftjäger (Read 22568 times)