Make it Go
07-14 May 2024
--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?
07-14 May 2024
Quote:Vessel: K.M. Lun________________________________
Registry: Phobos - MD - 160
Origin: Kaspysk, Dagestan, Russian Federation. Alekseev Design Bureau.
Listed Owner: Ford Sierra. 77 Frigga.
Type Listing: Reconstructed Prototype Spaceship with Re-Entry and Landing Capability.
Base Hull: Lun-class Ekranoplan prototype.
Weight Class: 3A. - Space Ships with Gross Mass less than 750,001 kilograms
Size Class: SS-1A - Space Ships Incompatible with Class 2 docking bay.
Armament Class: PEPPER Class II Limited. - Light Self Defence
Propulsion: Axial-compression Helium Fusion-based. 8 main engines. Max Registered Velocity 0.04C
Crew Class: 4A: - 10-20
Primary Use: Bounty Hunting. Equipment transport. General Utility.
Reconstruction log summary from 07 May 2023.
07/05/23:
Original engines removed. Signal cabling removed where possible. Original flight instruments removed. Most of the cockpit has been stripped back to bare metal. Primary hydraulics drained. Belly cut for Cargo Bay installation.
It took longer to perform the cut than expected by three hours. Worked late to complete today's schedule. Preparations for airlock installation tomorrow completed. Begun stripping of all interior fittings.
First pressure test in three days.
Begun construction of temporary underwing landing gear.
08/05/23
Stripping of interior fittings completed. 5 hour delay on installation of overwing airlocks. Sections had to be cut from the hull to allow it to fit. X-ray testing on welds ordered for tomorrow. Bare metals checked for corrosion. 17 patches required. Less than the 24 budgeted for. Cockpit windows removed. Fuselage window removal incomplete.
Shipment of transparent carbon windows expected to arrive tomorrow.
Holes cut in wing-top skin and wing spares for fusion fuel tanks. Conduits prepared for fuel lines to main engines and secondary generators.
Four hours behind schedule.
09/05/23
Fuel tanks and fuel lines installed. Pressure test finds three leaks which are fixable on schedule. Installation of replacement windows complete. Removal of tail outer skin and radome structure completed.
Installation of main engines begun. Installation of primary avionics in cockpit begun. Cargo bay doors completed 2 hours ahead of schedule. Hull ready for tomorrow's pressure test.
Outer skin panels removed on tailplane underside in preparation for radiator install.
Temporary landing gear bolted in place.
Interior fittings begun. Bunks added in forward compartment. Galley appliances added.
Main generator startup scheduled for two days.
One hour behind schedule.
11/05/23
First pressure test fails due to faulty locking catch on cockpit escape hatch. Hatch burst at .8atm standard pressure, leading to damage to 2 interior monitors. No crew injuries. All exterior hatches will be inspected and mounting structures reinforced. Damaged hatch will be replaced.
No time for additional measures. Crew will wear emergency pressure suits for the duration of the flight.
Airlock pressure test is a success. Installation of ventilation, life-support and air-condition postponed.
Damage from the failed test has placed us 12 hours behind schedule. Will require all-night work to meet deadline.
12/05/23
Generator test postponed until successful pressurisation achieved. Repaired hatch holds. numerous small leaks identified around cable penetrations leading to missile interfaces. Temporary patches applied. Final pressurisation test rescheduled for tomorrow.
Replacement of wing structure completed. Fuel tanks sealed in place. Final engines installed. Final wiring will be completed on schedule. Heat-exchanger elements and ventilation ducting fitted. DCV installation begun.
Hydraulic fluids refilled. Circuits tested and bled. RCS thruster assembly installation begun in tail, wingtip pontoons and nose. RCS tank installation postponed until tomorrow.
13/05/23
Reinstallation of flight deck completed. Installation of crew fittings begun. Final Pressurisation test successfully completed. Final avionics installation will take place overnight. Test flight cancelled. Departure set of 15:00 tomorrow.
Generator runup succesful. Lun now operating on internal power only. Battery banks charging.
Engine runup test fail on 2, 5 and 8 due to faulty igniter modules. Will be replaced overnight. Oil pressure fluctuations in engine 4 traced to leaking seal. Discovered Quirk: Engines will not start unless a running camera is fitted to the top of the instrument panel looking out.
DCV Install completed. Refrigerant tanks pressurised. Solar shades installed. Photovoltaic panels installed on engine nacelles, wing and tailplane skin for auxiliary power.
14/05/23
All night work. Preperation for first flight. Last fittings for crew cabins. Final instrumentation tests and checks. Deviations in navigation program corrected. Deviations in autopiliot not corrected - disabled for now.
Discovered Quirk: Advancing Corrosion treated with Salt Water
Final internal system checks. Clean, Grey and Blackwater check. Lifesupport check. Air conditioning plant check.
Stripping of tail sections and preparations for installation of sensor array finished.
Preparations of Fire control computer will be completed en-route.
RCS block test complete.
Maiden flight scheduled for 16:00
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The cockpit of Lun wasn't that different from that of a conventional airliner. It had two seats up front for both pilots, with a third station on the aft bulkhead belonging to the flight engineer. A ladder led to a single hatchway in the ceiling, barely wide enough for an ordinary human to fit through.
The outer bulkheads were covered in padded fabric, some of it having been torn free to reveal the bare metal underneath when the old hatch burst open under pressure test. It was filled with the humm of new electronics, with the occasional chirp as systems came on or offline. The air was blowing cool from the overhead vents.
There was just enough headroom for an ordinary human to stand comfortably. Jet Jaguar was not an ordinary human. "We're an hour behind schedule already," she said, focused on getting the last few thruster controls online.
"Guidance computer Is still drifting. It won't lock the destination," growled Daryl, punching at a keypad on the control panel in front of her. Sat in the Pilot's seat with her helmet resting on centre-console, she was reading from a datapad buckled to her thigh. "Piece of shit. I have to enter the orbitals manually."
Jet turned away from the flight-engineers panel. "It's the INS. We never calibrated it."
Daryl slapped the panel in front of her."That'll take hours!" She exhaled a deep sigh. "It's not like we needed autopilot anyway. It's only a 36 hour trip."
She rested back into the brown leather pilot's seat, taking a few moments to scan the instruments. The old gauges had mostly been replaced with a few flat-screen displays, offering readouts of the engine outputs. They were all at zero.
Annunciator lights glowed in red and orange hues, singnalling the ship's systems were ready to go. For a definition of ready. Outside was the cavernous landing bay, main door open to space. Stars could be seen through the cockpit windows ahead.
Jet stood with her hands on the engine controls. "I was going to go ahead. But I'll fly a leg if you need rest."
"Sure," answered Daryl, sounding unenthusiastic about the prospect of a 36 hour flight. She took her racing helmet - still bearing the number 73 in silver paint - and slipped it over the head, the compressive collar vacuum sealing it.
It pressurised with a hiss, a tingle across her skin. She flexed her polymer-covered hands on the controls for a moment, trying to remember what it should've felt like while cursing the person responsible for it.
It boiled her blood to be forced to wait for the gears of due process to grind around. She forced it to the back of her mind with a grimace, testing the controls. Tailplane and ailerons groaned, responding stiffly to her input.
"Alright, let's see if this thing flies."
"Starting engines!" Jet announced. This was the fun part.
Fuelled by energy from the generators the first engine began to spool up. Electric currents formed magnetic fields looping around compressor blades, guiding injected helium gas towards the engine core, it's own rotational inertia compressing it harder and harder until it reached the engine core. Fusion cans crackled with white hot energy as laser fired, igniting a burning plasma contained within the can for the briefest of moments by its own inertia before being accelerated out the back. Less than one percent of the fuel ever underwent fusion - the rest merely served to bulk out and give mass to the plasma, to act as an energy transfer medium.
Hot plasma shot backwards, charged with glowing power. It raced over magnetised turbine blades, Lorentz forces accelerating the turbine and driving the magnetic compressor in a self-sustaining cycle of helium fusion. Exhaust gases accelerated out the back of the engine, tracing magnetic field lines before arcing through the impulse generators.
Swirls of rust began to rise from the steel-lined floor of the cargo bay as Lun's drive field gained energy. It roared to idle, a hot blue torch of plasma exhausting back over the wing, fanning out in vacuum to nothing. Field guides in the wings and tail gave shape to the inertia-reducing field, warping it around the hull. Control surfaces energised, twisting it over aileron, flap and elevator to give some form of control.
The second and third engines roared to life, fed by the first. The Caspian monster groaned under the buiding strain, weight shifting on it's cobbled together landing gear. The effective mass had already dropped to less than one percent of it's actual mass.
Four, five and six joined the plasma fuelled chorus. Power coursed through the ship's structure, metal frames shuddering as gravity fields redistributed stresses.
Seven and eight came in late. Exhaust gases roared, filling the interior of the ship with a deep, hollow rumble. Including the auxiliary generators, ten fusion engines were now burning. Loose panels and doors vibrated and rattled. Indicators on the control panel registered all engines running.
Engine nozzles shifted position, angling the exhaust down under the wings. All eight drive-engines screamed to full power. Burning blue plasma curled around the wing, rendering the drive field lines momentarily visible as the nose rose up off the ground.
Energy rolled over the wing-flaps before coiling around the tips of the wings. It flatted as it met the ground, repulsive forces pushing the wing up into the air, raising the Ekranoplan gently up off the ground. Swirls of dust rolled aftwards, rising along the drivefields before falling out and drifting down to the bay floor.
Slowly, Lun began to accelerate towards the cargo door. Five hundred tons of alumiunium with an effective mass of less than five grams began to steadily gain velocity, moving out into the great black void of space under its own power for the very first time.
It passed over the threshold of the landing bay door with no more ceremony than a single radio message announcing that they'd done so.
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--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?