[RFC] F-101-EZ

[firvulag]

When I was writing the first draft of 'Boarding Action' I started wondering just what the squads escorts were, and I remembered something I'd seen on Discovery a while back.  The XCOR EZ Rocket, a prototype rocket powered aircraft.  Thus was born the idea for the F-101-EZ.  There's a lot that isn't nailed down right now, for instance I'm not entirely certain who'd be the best people to make the things (I have at least one idea), or if the model number's even close to being done the 'correct' way, or if the Fen involved even care about that.
She's a small 'fighter' craft built for OGJ and the Boskone War. The basic chassis is 'Waved from modified Rutan Long-EZ kits based on the XCOR EZ rocket mods.
(As an aside, I wonder what happened to XCOR during the 'Wave?)
I've added some pictures of the EZ Rocket at the bottom.

---

The F-101-EZ:
Purpose:    Space superiority fighter
Manufacturer:  Jointly built by ... / KFD Heavy Industries[?]
Base Hull:    Rutan Long EZ light aircraft w/ XCOR EZ rocket mods.
Armament:

•  belly mounted coil gun
• 2 hard points for missiles, one per wing

Dimensions (from Long-EZ)

•  Wing Span/Area: 26.1 ft (7.9m) / 81.99 ft2 (7.62m2)
•  Canard Span/Area: 11.8 ft (3.6m) / 12.8 ft2 (1.19m2)
•  Total Wing Area: 94.8 ft2 (8.81m2)
•  Length: 201.4 in (5.12m)
•  Height: 94.5 in (2.4m)
•  Cockpit Width: 23 in (0.58m)

Performance:    Speed drive.  A Long-EZs empty wieght is 345 kg for comparison: curb wieghts of some subcompacts

•  MINI cooper Mk I    - 1132 kg
•  Fiesta Mk6             - 1096-1178 kg
•  Peugeot 206            - 1025-1145 kg

Say it's a little better than a subcompact.  Most trucks and cars in  Fenspace seem to have a max V of about 0.1c, so  call it 0.12c or so, or  just give them a better acceleration profile.  The EZ-Rocket was made  for speed.
 The F-101-EZ has no FTL drive
Lifesupport:   An F-101-EZ typically has a life system that will support an  adult human for 2[?] days without external help.
Class quirks

• Go Speed Racer, Go!  The EZ-Rocket was a racer, and that's how the builders of the F-EZig  thought of her.  The F-EZigs like to go fast and they like to fly, one that's been in the hanger too long will give  every impression of sulking.
• [should there be more class quirks, or should we leave them  for the individual ships?]

Non-wave quirks:

• For historical reasons the throttles have specific labels for max thrust and engines off (loud and quiet).  [These are the EZ Rocket's only actual  throttle settings]

---

And the pics, one reason I'd like to do something with the EZ rocket is it just looks really cool.




F
--
"It doesn't have to make sense, it just has to look good" -- Damian Conway

[Bob Schroeck]

Works for me. The base hull has enough Rule of Cool points to cover a multitude of sins, in my opinion.

"F-EZig", though? What, are we going to launch every one?
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[robkelk]

Well, any string of alphanumerics ending in "EZ" reminds me of a tax form... the "EZig" ending is better than that - the "For Great
Justice" connotations are gravy.
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[M Fnord]

Hell. Yes.

If Fenspace has room for anything, it's Scaled Composites brand Cool Airplanes. %)
Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery

FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information

"I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"

[Ebony]

Bob Schroeck wrote:

---

Works for me. The base hull has enough Rule of Cool points to cover a multitude of sins, in my opinion.




"F-EZig", though? What, are we going to launch every one?

I just envision them with thick European accents, coining impromptu rhymes with their pilots. One of the squadrons could be nicknamed "The Brute
Squad."
"Okay. We'll do it your way."

"What's my way?"

"We fly in really fast, outnumber them 3 to 1, and shoot them all to hell."

"Oh. My way's not very sporting."
Ebony the Black Dragon
http://ebony14.livejournal.com

"Good night, and may the Good Lord take a Viking to you."

[firvulag]

In my grand tradition of taking forever to reply to anything:

I was originally thinking that the F-EZig would be a nickname, but then I remembered we're talking about Fen. So yeah, lets call it the F-EZig. And
Rob, I never noticed the Operation Great Justice connotations, no sir (If you believe that I've some wonderful waterfront property for sale, it's
cheap).

I think I'll give the class a typical max V of 0.12c and a plot dependant, but rather decent acceleration curve.

If the Boskone War starts with the SOS-con in May 2012 and Fen built major combatants start entering the war around 2013 (per the Ptichka's writeup on
the Wiki) I figure the first F-EZigs should be available around, say November/December 2012 with noticeable numbers (assuming anyone wants them) available in
March/April

2013 depending on the availability of Long EZ kits to convert and 'wave.

I'll leave a single class quirk for the moment, and individual F-EZigs can have as many personal quirks as the author wants to mention.




F


--


The program I just wrote 1) compiled the first time without any errors


and 2) worked like it was supposed to. I don't know whether to be proud


or scared to death -- bash.org/?17271

[KJ]

Just as an FYI, Long EZs kind of predated the "kit" movement in homebuilts. What were available were blueprints and instructions. They're
actually made from foam that's hot wire cut (for some of the profiles, the trick is to cut out copies of some of the cross-sections and sand do that
contour) and covered in fiberglass. Of course in modern times, this could be cut down considerably with automated machine tools - it's fantastically simple
to make a computer controlled cutter to shape foam.

[Black Aeronaut]

Geeze, I really need to keep better track of things here...

Okay, anyhow... Ben is supposed to be the SOS-dan's primary fighter-jock and the Magnificent Midnight, the handwaviumized SR-71 Blackbird, is soon to become his primary vehicle. So, it occurs to me that the F-EZigs would be small enough for us to dock four of them to the Midnight's primary fuselage, two on top and two on bottom. Maybe more if we got creative about it. This makes Midnight into an idea strike-carrier as she'll be able to bring in a couple of wings of F-EZigs and then be able to hold her own. She oughta, she's packing two coil guns, much more capacity for missiles, a couple of Vulcans for point defense, and some very sharp edges.

And before you ask if the Midnight would be slighted having some smaller ships tacked onto her like that, I say nay. The F-EZigs are kindred spirits of speed. Hell, the F-EZigs might even revere her as some sort of Goddess of Speed.

[firvulag]

Well, if you can fit them onto the Midnight there's no reason why they can't be carried.  They do have limited life support though and aren't someplace you'd want to live for a long time.  The cockpit isn't very big.
F-EZigs aren't necessarily awake/AIs.  A stock F-EZig has the bare minimum of equipment needed to do its job.  I'm not saying they can't wake up, or that there aren't modified and awake F-EZigs though.  The main reason for this is that two of my friend who I based the characters who run KFD Heavy Industries (I must finish writing this up) don't think an AI can be anything but completely alien to a human, no exceptions[0], and the third doesn't think a real, sophont AIs are possible.  Hence the stuff they build doesn't tend to have AIs or awaken.
To sum up, 'cause that was a little tangenty, awake F-EZigs can feel any way they (read, the author) wants about Midnight, but yeah, they like speed, so they'll probably like Midnight.  And any given F-EZig's status as Awake/equipment is also plot dependent.
Also the fenwiki writeup.
[0]  I don't agree with this.  At least some AIish research is being done by cognitive scientists trying to model the human brain.  If they were to succeed and the mind didn't think in anyway like a human mind, they'd not have succeeded.
--
 A doctor can bury his mistakes but an architect can only advise his
clients to plant vines.                          -- Frank Lloyd Wright

[Black Aeronaut]

Oh, no no no...

I meant for the F-EZigs to be docked externally. The pilots wouldn't be in the cockpits any longer than a real life fighter pilot would. Missions would start out at the main base (position to be determined at this point in time) where they would lock and load - they'd 'ride' the Midnight for the duration of the trip, have some action, then come back home.

And I never really meant that the F-EZigs were awake (except for maybe a few outstanding cases). What I mean is that with all Handwaved craft they have a personality all their own that doesn't necessitate having an AI at all. As far as I know this is a well understood phenomenon in Fenspace.

[firvulag]

I understood that you were talking about carrying the F-EZigs externally, I was just saying that unless they've got somewhere else to live the pilots
probably won't enjoy or be able to perform missions longer than the life systems will last.

Sorry about the awake/non-awake thing. I took the 'revere' in your original post to mean that there was an active intelligence doing the reverencing,
even if only in a little sister to big sister way. As I've left the individual quirks wide open (I haven't been able to come up with any more decent
class quirks) the ones that work with the Midnight can certainly get quirky about it.

Given how 'waved stuff is described as acting, the line between awakened and really quirky equipment is kind of fuzzy anyway. It probably doesn't help
that my natural inclination when someone anthopomorphizes a Fenship is to assume it is or has an AI (or two).

-

A reply comes back, from a... errm... it

doesn't sound A and it doesn't sound I.

Must be a human.

-- Dima, in a.s.r

[Black Aeronaut]

Oh, okay. In that case, the pilots live on the base that Ben will be having constructed... It's gonna be a rather interesting place.