"In the nick of time, a hero arose:
A funny looking vargr with a big black nose..."
A lot of people complain about COACC. I kinda like it in some
ways. But one problem is that it can't handle TL 5 aircraft.
There is only one engine available at TL5, and it is about
twice the full weight of most of the aircraft in the period. So,
I thought I'd introduce the Rotary engine. The best aircraft
engine of its day.
Back in World War I, the best engine available for aircraft was
the rotary engine. It had the best thrust to weight ratio of all
aircraft engines of the time. These are the engines you see on
the Sopwith Camel, and the Fokker Triplane, the DH-2, Fokker
Eindecker, etc. etc.
Very interesting engine. They had trouble cooling normal radials
and in-lines so they hit upon an interesting solution: rather
than bolt the prop to the crank case and the engine to the
firewall, they did it the other way around. Thus, with the
engine bolted to the prop, the entire engine rotates with the
prop when running.
This leads to some interesting problems with maneuvering. The
engine is rotating with a considerable angular momentum. The
action is one of a gyroscope, and when the aircraft turns, the
gyro precesses. When you turn right, the gyro precesses throwing
the nose up in the air and slowing the plane down. When you turn
left, the nose will precess down, making the plane accelerate.
Thus the plane will turn faster to the left than it will to the
right. Also, you can not turn right on take off (Pilots: This
may be the origin of the left handed traffic pattern) Howard
Hughes nearly killed himself attempting to turn right on take
off. He was injured so severely that he spent the rest of his
life addicted to pain killers.
Thus in a left turn, an aircraft's agility will be higher than it
is in a right turn.
Another problem with the engine is that it has a centrifugal fuel
feed. As such, throttleing the engine is not possible. The
engine has only an On-Off switch. ("Switch off!") This makes
landings difficult as the only way to slow down the plane is to
turn the engine on and off at intervals. (You may have heard
this sound in WWI movies. This is the "Brrr... Brrr... Brrr...
Brrr..." sound you hear as the planes are taxiing and when in the
approach to landing.) With no throttle there is no cruise speed,
only the top speed of the aircraft. Another difficulty is that
the engines must be hand cranked. (Watch your FINGERS!)
Rotary engine:
..1 tons, 1.5ton thrust, Fuel=22 liters per hour, Cost=5000 Cr
Agility=+1 when turning left, -1 when turning right. Twin engine
planes may avoid this difficulty by having contra-rotating props.
It is also possible to have your engine rotating in the opposite
direction, thus making it a right hand turn that would be faster,
but (at least on Earth) it was done this way.
These low tech open cockpit aricraft are popular among Vargr.
They were made popular by a Vargr folk hero on the planet Peanutz
when he single handedly defeated a legendary human aristocrat
pilot. The battle is celebrated in song...
"Now Snoopy had sworn that he'd get that man,
so he asked Yaskodray for a new battle plan
He challenged the human to a real dog fight
while the Baron was laughing,
he got him in his sights!"
CraftID: Fokker Triplane, TL5, Cr 17000
Hull: (2/5) Disp=2, Airframe=SimpleSTOL
Unloaded=.43, Loaded=.5
Loco: (1/1) Rotary Propeller=1.5t Dur=3hrs
Min=45Kph, Top=300Kph
Agility=(6 left turn) (4 right turn) else=5
Off/Def: MMG*2 (100 rnds each)
Control: Simple
Accom: Crew=1 (Simple Cockpit)
Other: Fuel=.065kl, EMLevel=Mod, ObjSize=Small
CraftID: Vargr Sopwith Camel, TL 5 Cr 16100
Hull: (2/5) Disp=2, Airframe=SimpleSTOL
Unloaded=.33, Loaded=.4
Loco: (1/1) Rotary Propeller=1.5t, Dur=3hrs
Min=57, Top=300, (with bombs: Top=294)
Agility=(6 left turn) (4 right turn) else=5
(with bombs all agilities minus 2)
Off/Def: MMG*2, (100 rnds each)
Outboard Hpts *2, (max external load=140 kg)
Control: Simple
Accom: Crew=1 (simple cockpit)
Other: Fuel=.065kl, EMLevel=Mod, ObjSize=Small
Rarely carries bombs
Scott "2G" Kellogg