102 Peace through Superior Firepower (1/2)
Sawtooth Mountain Pass, Marine Support Base
The concrete hangar doors laid open and Lieutenant Commander Tommy walked past the parked Valkyries undergoing maintenance by a crew of techs. He paused to admire the squat hunching ragged look of the birds and walked towards the office at the end of the hangar.
He entered the side office and found Captain Blake and Chief Matt had already gathered around the office desk. ”Sir!” He quickly gave a salute.
”At ease, Commander. Here, take a seat,” Blake gestured Tommy to an empty chair while pouring a bottle of whiskey into a glass and passing to him.
”Since this is an unofficial meeting, so I brought some drinks,” Blake grinned and the three of them toasted. ”Cheers!”
”So what's the meeting about, Sir?” Tommy asked after taking a swig of the whiskey.
”Well, it's about the formation of the Air Force of course,” Blake replied as he took out a tiny display stand and placed it on the desk before switching it on.
A holographic 3D model of a biplane appeared, slowly rotating above the circular display stand. ”This is a World War One British Aircon DH 2 biplane model,” Blake said. ”Designed by Sir Geoffrey de Havilland who later formed the De Havilland Aircraft Company which built and designed one of the most successful multi-role combat aircraft of World War Two, the de Havilland DH 98 Mosquito which frame is built almost entirely out of wood and they also built the first commercial jet airliner in the world.”
”I abit of a history buff and I got a hobby of 3D holo kit modeling old planes,” Blake explained. ”I am thinking of using this as the base design for our first aircraft here. The DH 2 runs on a pusher configuration and its design is very maneuverable and relatively easy to fly. Historically, its engine is prone to stalling but we should be able to fix its stalling issues.”
”Isn't it too primitive?” Tommy raised his eyebrows as he took a sip of the whiskey. ”It looks flimsy, won't a monoplane tracer design be better?”
”Well compared to everything we have, yup very primitive,” Blake agreed, as he poured another round of whiskey. ”But considering the technical knowledge and resources we have, this is a good learning and starting point for our people to learn how to build and design aircraft.”
Chief Matt nodded, ”Cap, has a point here, we know how to maintain the Spacebus turned Valkyries and UAVs due to that was what was taught and we have the manuals. But straight up building an aircraft? Well, frankly I doubt anyone has the proper expertise on building one. Not to mention knowing the Cap, he plans to build our aircraft using metal-wood and metal-metal bonding techniques.”
”Even me, if you ask me about building you a car, I could still wing it, but a whole aircraft? It's gonna be hard,” Chief Matt admitted, ”This design here at least looks similar to ultralights which some of my boys have some experience on, it will be a good learning lesson for everything on this project.”
Tommy nodded, and picked up the holo kit, examining the plane. ”So the wings are made out of some kind of fabric?”
”Well, for the frame we can use wood and nano carbon tubes while the wings we can opt for using our limited salvage stock of carbon fiber polymer or even treated leather,” Blake said. ”Matt will work with his guys in coming out a way to use wood as the main material to replace metals such as aluminum and other advanced materials which we have no way to produce.”
”The elves appear to be quite proficient with woodworking techniques and hopefully we can work something out,” Matt grinned next. ”If not, we try magic. The aircraft will be a twin seater pusher engine design. With a wind resistance and weight reduction runes, and at least a 200 horsepower engine, it will be more than enough for our current needs.”
”I plan to have the aircraft with a proper canopy instead of an open-air top, the forward gunner will be more like a ball turret carrying dual heavy machine guns while the aircraft primarily carry cannon or rocket pods,” Blake said. ”But of course only after we get a prototype up and flying than we see what we can do to upgrade it to more modern standards.”
”And with fixed wheel carriage, we won't even need a proper runway for them to take off and land, as long the field is flat and without any foreign objects and debris littering the field,” Blake grinned.
”Sir, that is a lot of guesswork and ifs,” Tommy pointed out, ”We don't even have a combustion engine yet!”
”Haha, I know, that's why we are drinking now!” Blake joked before looking serious, ” Look, Chief Matt here already have plans and designs for a nine-cylinder air-cooled radial engine rated around 200 horsepower.”
”We already successfully built a prototype five-cylinder air-cooled radial engine, roughly rated at 100 horsepower and tested it,” Chief Matt said next, ”We used methane and ethanol fermented from potatoes as fuel for the prototype and it somewhat worked,”
”What we lacked was a sustainable fuel source as using potatoes currently just to make fuel will dip into our food stocks greatly,” Chief Matt continued, ”But now we found out that Dragonite crystals are similar to our fossil fuels, and it is more efficient and cheaper to produce compared to using and producing methane or ethanol.”
”So now the more powerful nine-cylinder engine can go into testing phrase once the fuel has been refined and tested,” Blake finished.
”Well I chose the DH 2 is also because it can be built by hobbyists in their own garage,” Blake smiled, ”I got the exact specifications and plans, that came along with the holo model kit.”
”I want you in this project not only because your the Air Force Commanding Officer, but also due to your previous experience in flying monoplanes,” Blake asked, ”How're the dragons?”
”I see,” Tommy nodded, he had some prior experience in flying monoplanes in the past. ”I am currently coming out a doctrine for dragon combat with Blue Thunder and a training manual for integrating dragons into the whole combined arms doctrine.”
”From what we know of the Empire dragon tactics are they group 20 middleweights and two heavyweights into a unit or Corps as Blue Thunder explained to me,” Tommy explained, ”The heavyweights are the anvil while the middleweight worked as the hammer.”