Quote:The first spacecraft wholly built on 77 Frigga, the Gr-02 Havoc is unusual in that it is based off of a helicopter frame. It originated partly as a Friday project of Jet Jaguar’s, with the original intent being to save money over buying fully-capable combat craft for Frigga’s OpFor. Outright speed and combat range weren’t an issue when it was launching off the asteroid it was designed to attack.

The Gr-02 began with the Gr-01 testbed, a waved Mi-24 picked up cheap from somewhere in Ukraine where it had been left sitting in a field slowly decaying for about 35 years. It was still mildly radioactive when it arrived. The testbed was successful, if slow, but was much harder to control than the average Fencraft. Nevertheless it proved itself rugged enough to handle tough test flights, despite the tendency to phosphoresce in low-light conditions. Compared to background solar radiation, it’s negligible.

The Havoc built on the Gr-01, using a rotating, variable drive field to power it through space with the rotors themselves being essentially a massively upscaled variant of the lifting drives on a motoroid. This arrangement gives the spacecraft an almost unparalleled maneuverability at the expense of outright speed and range. A secondary tail rotor generating a second drive field counteracts the torque the rotary field generates, and keeps the Havoc from spinning like a top as it flies. The Havoc flies and maneuvers by varying the strength and direction of both drive fields, at the command of the pilot.

The Havoc is designed with ruggedness and ease of maintenance and repair in mind. The cockpit and main systems are armoured, with the cockpit windows being made from laminated transparent carbon. Most main systems have some form of onboard redundancy, or the ability to fail gracefully and tolerate damage. Outside the bought-in weapon controls and radar, the Havoc lacks complex computers. There is no onboard AI assistance, just a basic course-following auto-pilot. Switchgear and controls are heavy but positive in action. Instruments are a mix of analogue gauges and glass-cockpit displays where needed. No touchscreens are fitted.

The Havocs have the ability to mount some heavy anti-shipping missiles, and are capable of engaging other light attack spacecraft with a chin-mounted autocannon. In general, the Havocs only mount simulated weaponry for OpFor operations, but in a pinch can be reloaded with live munitions. Each one is fitted with a grab handle on the landing struts, allowing it to be transported by the Dragon Wagon II as a parasite.

The Havoc takes it’s name from the NATO reporting name for the Mi-28, which it was deliberately designed to mimic the external appearance of. Like it’s parent, it takes up to two crew, a pilot and a gunner/navigator. It can be flown singularly, provided the pilot can handle the workload.

The Havocs have been described as being something of precision-machined battleaxes.

Currently, there are two, both Frigga-built. Jet is trying to hire a flight crew for them, and find somewhere that'll put together another pair of them for a reasonable price because it takes ages using the 'basic' tooling on Frigga.

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“Fly like a Dragonfly” The Havocs are amazing maneuverable, even for a fencraft. They can spin on a pinhead, translate along any axis at near full speed, and generally pull off some spectacular aerobatics in the hand of a skilled pilot.

“Sting like a Hornet“ Havocs can mount a heavy armament for something their size. Guided missiles, rockets, guns are all available.

“Take a punch like a brick wall” Havocs are tough, capable of shrugging off hits that would knock out similar-sized spacecraft.

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Havocs are short-legged. The huge power-sapping distortions put out by the rotor make for an inefficient drive, making it difficult to get them up to any sort of speed while simultaneously guzzling fuel. They have trouble breaking .065C, or going beyond 2 AU. Although hyper-maneuverable, they’re generally too slow to be much use in a dogfight.

Havocs tend to whip up debris as it gets caught in the field wash coming off the rotors, picking it up and flinging it around before it drops out. They also disrupt the drive fields of any fencraft getting close(10-20meters), especially those above and below the craft, and craft that are similar sized. It tends to repel both spacecraft from each other.... not hard enough to stop a determined collision, but enough to make formation flying a fine art.

These things are not easy to fly. They require a pilot with skill, experience, coordination, and excellent spatial awareness.

Quote:"I can tell you, never try to give these things a normal parking slot like most other Fencrafts. But our greenhorn at traffic control just did it. That damned helicopter pushed around three freight chests, pushed over two motorcycles and threw up enough dirt that we got a complaint for twelve car drivers that argued their craft hadn't been that dirty. Well, a few hours of cleaning and they will be able to look through their car windows again."
- heard in a bar near the traffic control office of Helium.

Star Ranger4 Wrote:In fact, now that I think about it there was a (mostly thrown away) line in the Airwolf pilot episode(s) about the rotors effectively being disengaged above Mach 1 and the hull being basically a lifting body. In addition there was at least one case where they had to wait while they slowed down before they could engage the rotors and deploy weapons. Ergo, one could say that an Airwolf type craft exiting the atmosphere effectively did so in 'turbo' and would remain in said mode until certain conditions were met.