NationStates Jolt Archive


At long last! Noriker passes RIFC review!

Iansisle
02-06-2004, 08:46
RIFC Accepts Noriker Into Service!
Air Grand Marshal says he is 'satisfied' with the design

LAKERIVERWOOD, Gadsan -- With a rumbling roar, the first XJ-11 Noriker lifted itself from the runway on Graye Aeroflyers’ compound and into the Royal Iansislean Flying Corps.

The race to replace the venerable MPAF-6J Super Colt as Iansisle’s front-line aerofighter has been prolonged and riddled with mistakes, waste, and incompetence. The Noriker’s immediate predecessor, the XJ-10 Andalusian failed to lift off at the end of Graye’s enormous 3,500 yard test runway on three consecutive attempts and was immediately rejected by the review board.

Graye, stung by the embarrassment and a public blast from Air Grand Marshal Sir Timothy Bates, determined to make sure that the next attempt worked. Nearly two years and hundreds of millions of generals were spent developing the new turbojet engine in conjunction with Henderson Rocketry of Copplestone, despite government efforts to acquire the advanced Stockley-Wychwood 1-W-2 ‘Red Bear’ engines from Walmington on Sea.

The result was the Graye-Henderson TJE Mk. IV ‘Quicksilver,’ based largely on de Havilland designs acquired from the United Kingdom, which can develop up to 5,000 pounds of thrust. A single one of these engines was mounted in a rather large and ungainly body and then extensively test flown prior to the official review.

The Noriker, named after a heavy alpine workhorse because of its somewhat portly appearance, soon proved that it exceeded the Flying Corps’ performance floors. The new craft achieved 638 miles per hour in a shallow dive. That was far above the required 600 mph, but still well behind the Walmingtonian Hussar and the Bankfield Apparition, both of which have demonstrated extra-sonic capabilities. Range is still limited, as with most Graye fighter designs, but can be helped by the addition of two 106 or 125 gallon external drop tanks.

Armarment includes four 20mm Galveston cannons, up to twelve Henderson 3” unguided rockets, twelve Henderson 6” anti-tank rockets, or four Henderson 8” anti-ship rockets, or the rekitting of the drop tanks into napalm bombs.

There was a time when Graye Aeroflyers stood at the cutting edge of jet-aeroflyer design. It devised the first jet fighter craft in the world, the Colt, which was promptly sold to Walmington on Sea, stolen by Nazi Germany, and used in theatres of war as far flung as Borneo, Britain, Kenya, North Africa, and Ercolana.

However, the company’s inability to keep up with Walmingtonian, British, Bankfield, and Calarcan development in the post-war world has the government in conniptions. Sir Timothy has expressed his displeasure with Graye several times in a public forum and has gone so far as to threaten to contract new flyers from foreign competition unless the Gadsan-based firm cleaned up its act.

Graye officials have countered with displeasure at the amount of government help received in the development of Iansisle’s jet fighter program. They also claimed that, had the government forced Bankfield to license its high performance and extremely secret ‘Ascension’ turbojet, the design process would have been considerably shorter, less expensive, and more successful. Bankfield authorities countered that their secrets were their own, and Graye had no right to them.

Whatever the debate, the Flying Corps is glad to at last have a replacement for the Colt. Full production on the Norikers is expected to start in twelve months, with the first production batch being delivered to the RIFC in eighteen months.

http://www.biic.de/aviation-museum/planes/country/sweden/images/3.jpg
A publicity shot taken by Graye Aeroflyers during corporate testing
Larkinia
02-06-2004, 08:53
((Ooooooohh!! TAg!! I love Iansislian History!! :D ))
Walmington on Sea
02-06-2004, 09:43
(ooc: Ahh, interesting. Nice to see WoS continuing to make life hard for people despite my recent inactivity, for which I can only apologise to anyone who gives a damn. I shall now have to think up a reason for our refusal to export Red Bear technology, which is nice. WoS history keeps rolling along even if I don't do anything :) And yay, the RWAF is still in the lead!
But if you follow it up with a Drakkenalike we're buying.)

Wychwood House, Kentonshire, WoS

Sir Graham was not wholly pleased, as one may have judged from the bellowing and repeated damnation of various Stockley Motors-associated names. Until a few months ago G.Cuthbert had been a Wychwood Automation board rep, speaking for the company in the office of Air Marshal Pertwee. His work in securing the air force bomber contract for WA saw him get the better of the outgoing chairman's vote of no confidence, and the final product, the JBMkI Partridge was fancy enough to win him a knighthood.

"Damn honour's a... shackles!" He rumbled, as the matron of his new manor timidly sought to impart some sense of restraint.

"No, Gladys, Stockley's bumbling lost us that contract when I... could have been talking to Bates. You know Chaspot's got them (Stockley) in his pocket now, don't you?"

Gladys didn't have a clue.

Swallow Bank House, Walmington Street, Great Walmington, WoS

Mainwaring's red cheeks slowly deflated as he tapped on the latest report from the American war. W£4million in Hussars wrecked by yankee partisans, on a runway in Minnesota. Why we were stationing extrasonic jet interceptors in Minnesota God only knew.

"Mh, come." He said, realising a fourth knock at the oak door.

It was a clerk asking, well, informing the tired PM of a navy assignment to an Iansislian company on some sort of anti-shipping rockets or something. Mainwaring just muttered a yes or two and allowed his hand to twitch by way of a dismissal. As much as he might like to pretend otherwise he had neither stomach nor head for military affairs of any sort. The navy's air command however was quite struck by the idea that something other than shells, torpedoes, or bombs might sink a ship, and wanted to find out more about this Henderson effort with a view to acquiring some of these big rockets. Walmingtonian rocketry was a surprisingly neglected discipline, given the relatively advanced nature of the nation's jet propulsion technology. (Mainwaring had once laughed off rocket artillery on seeing a Chinese museum piece, insisting that the technology had no place on the modern battlefield.)


(EDIT: Oh! More good (old) news! RWAF medium bombers (http://www.nationstates.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=3248732#3248732) can keep pace with Iansislian interceptors! ;) Ah, the things a frustrating war against too-many-people-to-kill will do for an impatient war industry!)
Iansisle
02-06-2004, 10:22
((Well, I don’t know about a Drakken - with the state Graye’s in right now, they’ll be lucky to find their ass with both hands and a flashlight. Maybe Bankfield’ll do it, just to spite them :).

Regarding your recent inactivity, don’t worry about it! Happens to the best of us. I just hope I didn’t take too many liberties with your country / its disposition. I just wasn’t sure what to do about the engine situation.

Eh, come to think about it, a Red Bear would’ve probably been too big and powerful to cram into a Tunn....er, I mean, Noriker!

In other vaguely related news, I received a telegram from DK’s new nation. Apparently, he got internet access somewhere. Dunno if he’ll be able to get DK back, but nice to know he’s still around.))
Walmington on Sea
02-06-2004, 11:59
(Ah, splendid news. And no, don't worry about taking liberties, its what Chaspot's new WoS is all about, after all!

Oh wait... that's not splendid news at all! Not while WoS has several hundred thousand men tied up in North America!)
Imitora
02-06-2004, 14:41
OOC: If I'm reading this right, your saying that WoS has jets. Well, with that knowledge, convince me to not pull some of my ships out of the Celtic Sea (The Royal Navy is all but nonexistant by now anyways) and engage WoS forces in the US?