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[Gazetteer/Teaser] A bit from the Soviet Air Force entry - M Fnord - 09-24-2007
Been poking at this most of the weekend, might even be done with it by Monday or Tuesday. Here's a short bit from a much longer file (forgive wiki markup, etc.):
==== Motif ====
Soviet Air Force hardware tends to fall into one of three categories:
- USSR/Warsaw Pact aircraft.
- Experimental aerospacecraft.
- Custom-built spacecraft.
Very few of the vehicles used by the VVS are of original manufacture, particularly the Soviet-era warplanes. Most of the really interesting Soviet hardware devolved onto the satellite states when the USSR collapsed, and since none of the satellites had the infrastructure or money necessary to keep them in anything resembling flightworthy shape, a lot of impressive technology was sent to the breakers or simply corroded away in abandoned hangars. This is not to say none of this stuff is available, mind; the VVS managed to purchase three Tu-95 bombers in good condition from the Ukranian Navy. However, in many cases the VVS purchases the blueprints from the appropriate design bureau and (since 2012) manufactures the airframes themselves at their Gagarin Crater, Luna facility.
The same is true for the experimental Space Race gear the VVS likes to experiment with. In most cases, the original hardware (when it still exists) are all one-off pieces, usually housed in a museum with curators with no sense of humor about the whole thing. While this can sometimes be overcome, as was the case with the VVS' most famous (and infamous) acquistion //Ptichka//, generally it is again easier for the VVS to simply purchase the plans for the necessary equipment, then build it themselves or farm the construction out to another Fenspace firm like Artemis, Hephaestus or Utopia Planitia.
VVS custom designed ships are (to date) mostly exercises intended to keep the Central Committee's minds sharp during long interplanetary or interstellar transits. A "standard" custom design will take an existing concept (either a mundane or genre vehicle) and then modify it - often quite extensively - to fit parameters. So far, only one VVS design, the Gagarin class, has translated from drawing board to reality.
The Soviet Air Force also employs a handful of one-off fenships, mostly craft intended to fill a specific role while production lines were built and brought online. These one-offs tend to be surplus airliners bought from transport companies or boneyards, usually because the aircraft could be easily converted but sometimes because the aircraft triggered the Central Committee's sense of humor. A good example of the latter is the //Xenu Express//, a heavily-modified DC-8-71 bought by the VVS in 2012 //solely// because it would annoy the Scientologists who had moved into a nearby compound.---
Mr. Fnord
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