NationStates Jolt Archive

"Control tower, I'm feeling some really heavy vibrations right now."

"Roger that, Talon One. Throttle down a bit."

Screaming through the sky, the new Sistani fighter prototype was little more than a dot and a contrail from the ground. In the plane, the pilot of the single seat jet was being shaken around quite a bit. Ignoring the vibrations, the pilot decreased the throttle and banked sharply for a turn.

"Ok, she's calmed down. Resuming the test."

"Roger, Talon One. Ascend to altitude Four Two Zero and await further instructions."

"Roger wilco tower."

Climbing sharply, the prototype shot towards the midday sun. After hitting forty two thousand feet, the pilot leveled out the aircraft. So far, it was handling very well.

"Talon One, throttle up and head for orbit."

Not one to argue, the pilot shoved the throttle as far forward as it would go and pulled back on the stick. In response, the plane's intakes gasped for air with an undying hunger as the afterburners shot the aircraft into the sky at an alarming rate. Though it seemed like it would go on forever, the oxygen starved engine began to lose power quickly as the fighter sailed upwards and beyond seventy thousand feet. As inertia ran out, the plane slowed. At seventy thousand feet, the last inertia was gone and the plane stalled, falling back towards the ground. Dropping through the sky like an aerodynamic rock, the needles on plane's altimeter spun like the pattern on a child's top.

Once the aircraft descended back into thicker air, the pilot began to try to work the plane back into a workable angle of attack and restarted the engine. With tens of thousands of pounds of thrust once again shooting out of the fighter's backside, the plane shot towards the ground even faster. Air was now flowing over the wings and control surfaces again, and the pilot started to pull out of the steep dive.

"Pulling back into level flight, but the vibrations are very heavy. It feels like the plane is going to tear itself apart!"

"We can't do anything about that right now. Keep doing what you're doing and we'll have the mechanics take a look at the airframe later."

By this point, the vibrations were stronger than ever. Fortunately, the plane was level again and though still descending quickly, starting to slow as the nose angled up, canards, aft control surfaces, forward swept wings, and thrust vectoring nozzle aiding in the work. The prototype was built for maneuverability above all other traits, and previous tests had shown that well. Unfortunately, the maneuverability came at a price. Forward swept wings put high stress on the airframe and tended to flex to the point of failure if not properly constructed.

"I'm not sure the plane can handle this. Requesting permission to eject."

"Negative, Talon One. That plane is expensive, and you'd be killed at that angle and speed. You'll be fine if you just keep working."

"Roger, tower. Will comply."

"Good luck, Talon One."

"Oh shi-"

Talon One became aware of the price of failure immediately as the stress ripped the wings right off of the fuselage. Fuel stored in the wings sprayed everywhere as they disintegrated, igniting upon contact with the hot gasses rushing from the tailpipe. The pilot tried to eject, but the effort was in vain. The burning plane slammed into the ground at well beyond the speed of sound, looking like a meteorite to any observers in the area. At the impact point, a wreckage strewn crater billowed thick black smoke while fires burned in the date grove surrounding the crater. Needless to say, the pilot was killed instantly.

After the crash of Talon One, investigation crews worked for days to piece the destroyed flight data recorder back together. When they managed to get the FDR working, it was clear what the problem was. Forward swept wings are very prone to twisting at the wingtips, and so much stronger materials were needed for the Talon's wings and airframe. For Talon Two, special carbon-fiber composites were created. The engine mounts were also upgraded, a change that would hopefuly fix the vibration problems that Talon One reported.

The first flight of Talon Two was only a few weeks after the crash of Talon One, but the results were very different. The aircraft flew flawlessly, meeting and exceeding most of the engineers' expectations. Unfortunately, Talon Two's career came to an unexpected and tragic end when a bird strike disabled the engine and forced an emergency landing on a busy highway. Though most of the traffic was avoided, enough was not that the destruction of the plane was caused.

A new prototype would have to be constructed for weapons and combat testing. They would have to build Talon Three.

The Talon Three prototype was essentially a copy of Talon Two, but with debris guards added to the jet intakes, a brand new avionics package, and hardpoints. With a limited production run of eight aircraft, all combat ready, the Talon Three prototypes were given the designation F2M1 Talon. Weeks of testing showed that the F2M1 was a superb combat aircraft on par with or exceeding any other light combat aircraft in the world, including the Saab JAS-39 Gripen, EF-2000 Eurofighter Typhoon, and F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. With results meeting and exceeding expectations, an order for two dozen F2M1s was submitted to the manufacturer, Mansur Aerospace, for further testing.

The expanded testing, including several sorties on the front lines of the war, showed a few deficiencies with the design stemming from the common loadout of two droptanks that took up two of the fighter's six underwing hardpoints. To remedy the situation, a new version of the Talon, the F2M2, was pulled together. The F2M2 had an extra hardpoint on the fuselage capable of carrying the same fuel load as the two wing hardpoints previously used for droptanks. Another addition was a pair of small ventral fins below the vertical stabilizers. With these new additions, the F2M2 showed much better results than the F2M1 and so was slated for mass production. Soon squadrons on the front lines would be receiving the new aircraft.