NationStates Jolt Archive

Union aerospace design bureau, report A1, on the AMSFP (Advanced mobility star fighter project)

This is john harridan reporting in on the fighter project, as of 1550 hours today it’s a wall… no new progress has been made on it since yesterday, we have been going over the specs and model in our lab but so far nothing, the thing works.. barely… if that… the moving parts are to much for us to engineer on an original starfury design, its only working because of hopes and prayers, and its held together by duct tape and razor wire , a star fury body wasn’t intended to house that much equipment, nor designed to house that type of equipment let alone maneuver like that.
The high mobility engine design was a flooke mainly because the power relays at the base of the thruster arms kept burning out, due to an un even design and un even distribution in the power couplings in the center.
Billions of federal dollars later, we might need to scrap this entire design and start from scratch I doubt we’ll get any place else with this…. Unless there is one more hope we could attempt to contact the Celestial Republic portion of tannleron for assistance.. it’s a long shot but if we can pull this off it might mean a whole new doctrine for federation fighter warfare.. (end)
The older researcher planted his rough wrinkly hand on to the holo console shutting the recorder off , he sighed as he swiveled in his chair his blue eyes peering over the specs , he started to write a letter in his head , it was sent to the machine then sent out.

***Altagswissen, Offices of the DCSEC [Divine Celestial Scientifist/Engineering Combine]***

"Henzig, did you receive the incoming communique?" Scientist Dering asked the grizzled engineer. "Aye, I did, and none too pleased about it, even if we wanted to do something about it we couldnt, considering our..allies." Dering responded. "Well high command has been pushing us to design a replacement to the Faust, and up until now all we have really produced is variable frames and high maneuver frames. Anything we help them with could be useful to us as well, it could save us time and resources."

Dering sighed slumping his shoulders. "Politics my boy, they will bite you every time..but there is something we could do, Heafstag Dalen owes me a few favours." The knight-Engineer stopped and cupped his chin in thought. "Call Ironhold, tell them we may have a job for them. The price will be one point six billion work hours in resources, labour, luxuries and adjustments for their units." Dering laughed softly and walked away. Let the feddies pend the money, let the Mercenaries perfect it and let the Celestial Republic reap the rewards.

***Planet Sohjin, UTF space***

The Glorious Radiance formerly of the DCN jumped in system in a rather leisurely fashion, no weapons armed nor knight-field raised. Its colour scheme, white with gold trimmings clearly marked it as part of no Tannelornian national navy. Captain Hadiger opened a comm link to the nearest listening post. "This is the Glorious Radiance, Independent operator requesting permission to land to meet with a Mister John Harridan of a certain Union aerospace design bureau, to discuss a technical venture." The Captain swept back his long blonde hair and waited for a response.

all right he said as he got the message that some one was looking for him, john got up from his desk, he was wondering who it was, he was about to pull the plug on the entire programe, when a message arrived.

He walked over and turned on the holo screen surprised that it was a Tannelornian ship, this was huge, and confusing but he replied.

"You may dock and come see me in my office"

Heafstaag Dalen entered John Harridans office with the same stark military posturing he took in all walks of life. Simply put, the man treated each day like a new and utterly crucial mission. This would put most people off, however his comrades were used to it, in fact many had his exact attitude. That was the way, of course he preferred it. Unmarried, he threw his life in to his work as if it were his lover. Needless to say Mr Harridan would be more then pleased with the attention this man would take towards fulfilling his contract.

He was dressed in silver, plated armour and a long fur cape, taken from a beast of lost mars. The old kingdom had been a cavern so massive it had its own weather patterns, deep under the southern polar ice. Old as he was, he had once hunted beasts with the other Knights in the foothills surrounding the old capital. This was a token, and a memory of times that would never return.

"John Harridan, I am Heafstaag Dalen of Ironhold, I was sent to offer you technical assistance on a program in return for obtaining schematics of the unit in question for our own use. Payment has already been recieved in full and our technical team will be at your full disposal for the duration of the development of this new fighter design."

John looked up to the man, he had a lab coat on, with a buttoned down blue federation unfiorm me raised an eyebrow and nodded motioning them to a mainframe computer, its holo console already active .

"Over there is were you can get access to every thing, pleasure to meet you sir by the way"

Heafstaag and his entourage nodded and went through the door. They entered the main testing area, immediately starting to work absorbing the relevent information, through datapads and mark one eyeball through the fedrals own screens. The very letter of efficiency they rummaged and ransacked as much data as they could. Within fourty five minutes they presented Heafstaag all of the information on the project, as well as thousands of suggestions on how to improve the design. Heafstaag's hands ran over the datapads keys fast as lightning, the screens changing fast enough to give most unaltered humans an epileptic seizure. Within minutes he stopped, seemingly lost in thought. In fact he was using total recall to piece together every possible angle of the project. In his minds eye a design was forming, years of practice made his mind as efficient as most AI supercomputers in processing information and running simulations.

Within an hour of their arrival, a Knight-engineer re-entered John Harridans private office. "John Harridan, your presence is requested by Master Dalen." he turned and left. It might surprise the fedral scientist how quickly a working design schematic had been constructed. However this design was already seventy five percent complete, the Tannelornians simply had to fill in the gaps in the Fedral's own technical knowledge to complete the design.

he raised an eyebrow got up from his chair, his lips parched as he licked over them, he went out of the room towards the main frame.

"some thing wrong?"

"Nothing is wrong, John Harridan, follow me if you would please." the young engineer turned and walked briskly over to Dalen. "Welcome John Harridan, we have just finished preliminary schematics on the changes necessary to upgrade your starfuries. I will warn you the changes are rather extensive, but as an upgrade kit to an existing fighter it would prove signifigantly cheaper then building them. However I would suggest a production run of newer frames as well as the upgrades, to extend service lives." The Knight engineer paused for a moment.

"We kept the original frame but removed the cockpit, instead placing a larger powerplant and engines, as well as shield generator inside. With the technical assistance provided by your technicians we were able to design it within perfectly reasonable parameters for your factories and technology." he turned activating a hololith. "For crew constraints we decided on adding a secondary hull, to mount not only a cockpit but weaponry. In this configuration it can mimic a torso, adding much more range of movement to the gun arms, as well as signifigantly improved AMBAC capabilities. Though it is no mobile suit, I guarantee it will possess maneuverability hitherto unknown to your starfighters." he grinned.

"The ability to change facing without using reaction mass or engine power is rather useful in a dogfight, and can mean the difference between defeat and victory. Though a high maneuver frame has large range of motion, and can change facings in a much less extreme manner, as well as more extreme, this upgrade lies somewhere in the middle. In the tradeoff it still retains the fixed form fighter traits of greater reaction mass and internal space for weaponry, though not quite as much."

"If you would please turn your attention here, is the basic design schematic were are working on. We have already taken the liberty of having your technicians help us start to prepare the first prototype, it should be complete within a few days." he turned his head to the holo screen, a picture suddenly appeared of a fighter radically different then the one that was currently being worked on in the engineering bay.

"Here is your new fighter, John Harridan" he smiled and presented the design to the fedral engineer. http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o133/Conan2525/techspecII.jpg?t=1205128682
http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o133/Conan2525/techspec.jpg?t=1205128792
http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o133/Conan2525/techspecIII.jpg?t=1205128826

A few days had passed before Dalen again summoned John Harridan. As the Fedral scientist entered the testing room he was greeted by the sight of the first prototype, suspended in midair between two magnetic rails, as technicians from both nations put the finishing touches on the design. "John Harridan, allow me to present to you the SA-44 Dragonfly , the name was chosen by your own staff, they found it bore a resemblence to the ancient earth insect, on examination of the insect in question, we agreed it was rather fitting." He handed the Fedral Scientist a datapad with the full technical schematics of the new design.

"For your viewing while we await the test pilot, we have chosen one of your own pilots to put it through its paces, as the systems were designed with Fedral persons in mind, they are incompatible with our control systems. We also thought it only fitting a fedral pilot have the honour of being the first to fly her."

John looked up, he nodded slightly crossing his arms and planting a few hands on a holographic console, he was setting a time and date. He responded to foreigner as he took the pad placing it in to an interface slot.

“All right, Thank you I think we should have... an exercise... with one of your fighters perhaps? Say a maneuverability test? Maybe some thing more depending on what you are willing to do”

He said this in a diplomatic tone, his hands running across multiple holographic interface's along immersive console.

"Several tests will need to be performed, first in the lab, those will be completed tommorow. I suggest an entire series of tests, culminating in multiple simulated combat situations before approving this design, John Harridan." Dalen pondered a moment. "Set up an arena, we shall provide several of our own pilots and mecha to assist in this endeavor." Dalen then resumed his work while waiting for Harridan to respond.