ORANGE I
Manufacturer: Embraer
First Flight: October 8, 1963
Crew: 12
Length: 61 m
Wingspan: 166 m
Height: 20 m
Empty: 900,000 kg
Loaded: 1,600,000 kg
Max Takeoff: 1,700,000 kg
Payload to service ceiling: 480,000 kg
Powerplant: 16x Blanko R-208K turbofans in twin pylon mounts, 68kN each
Max Speed: 800 kmh
Cruise Speed: 600 kmh
Max Range: 3,000 km
Service Ceiling: 26,000 m
The IBAD's Orange series of heavy-lift aircraft were and remain the most massive aircraft ever flown, with the modern Orange III averaging takeoff weights of more than two thousand metric tons. When they were first introduced to the world, no one had ever seen - and only a few had even dreamed - that a plane like that could exist. With nearly nine-tenths of the plane's internal volume held within the broad, gently swept wing, and the control surfaces mounted on twin trailing booms, the cockpit and fuselage seemed almost afterthoughts, as did the tall and unprecedentedly intricate landing gear. These oddities quickly vanished, however, as soon as even the faintest sense of the aircraft's scale began to penetrate - the wheels that seemed so tiny in comparison stood taller than a tall man, and its tail surfaces rose higher than many buildings.
Trivia
- The Orange's four landing gear assemblies carry a total of sixty-four wheels between them. The design was chosen as a direct response to the problems experienced by the American Convair B-36.
- The Orange's carrying capacity has been taken advantage of in numerous publicity stunts, including airlifting a pair of live humpback whales and accompanying seawater from their previous home at the San Francisco Bay Aquarium to a new facility in Toronto.
- Despite its size, the aircraft's flight characteristics are said to be extremely forgiving.
- For the first seven years of its service life, every Orange flight took off and landed on a single runway with a prepared surface only three meters wider than its wheelbase.
- In 1978, a lightened Orange II carrying external fuel tanks in place of payload became the first aircraft to circumnavigate the globe in a single, unrefuelled flight.
- Despite considerable early fears about its potential as a bomber, no Orange has ever flown a deliberate combat mission or delivered an entirely military cargo.
- In 1973, an Argentinian Liberation Force Mirage IIIC intercepted ORANGE I Hull No. 104 Menina de Sao Paulo while it was returning from an orbital launch operation. Four of five missiles launched by the fighter hit, with the last misfiring due to poor maintenence, and both cannon ran out of ammunition before the attacker was driven away by scrambled Imperial Brazilian interceptors. Menina de Sao Paulo landed safely on five remaining engines, was fully repaired, and continues in service to this day.
*headdesk*
Time frame!
My inspiration for starting this was... well, originally, it was Rocket Girls, but some of the websurfing done as a result of that led me to discover the existence of a very old computer game that just seemed, well, neat.
So, anyway, because of that, I'd pictured 'game start' as being in 1960, when OTL's Vostok and Mercury were still in early stages. Shuttle didn't fly 'till the late 70s.
Ja, -n
===============================================
"I'm terribly sorry, but I have to kill you quite horribly now."
Manufacturer: Embraer
First Flight: October 8, 1963
Crew: 12
Length: 61 m
Wingspan: 166 m
Height: 20 m
Empty: 900,000 kg
Loaded: 1,600,000 kg
Max Takeoff: 1,700,000 kg
Payload to service ceiling: 480,000 kg
Powerplant: 16x Blanko R-208K turbofans in twin pylon mounts, 68kN each
Max Speed: 800 kmh
Cruise Speed: 600 kmh
Max Range: 3,000 km
Service Ceiling: 26,000 m
The IBAD's Orange series of heavy-lift aircraft were and remain the most massive aircraft ever flown, with the modern Orange III averaging takeoff weights of more than two thousand metric tons. When they were first introduced to the world, no one had ever seen - and only a few had even dreamed - that a plane like that could exist. With nearly nine-tenths of the plane's internal volume held within the broad, gently swept wing, and the control surfaces mounted on twin trailing booms, the cockpit and fuselage seemed almost afterthoughts, as did the tall and unprecedentedly intricate landing gear. These oddities quickly vanished, however, as soon as even the faintest sense of the aircraft's scale began to penetrate - the wheels that seemed so tiny in comparison stood taller than a tall man, and its tail surfaces rose higher than many buildings.
Trivia
- The Orange's four landing gear assemblies carry a total of sixty-four wheels between them. The design was chosen as a direct response to the problems experienced by the American Convair B-36.
- The Orange's carrying capacity has been taken advantage of in numerous publicity stunts, including airlifting a pair of live humpback whales and accompanying seawater from their previous home at the San Francisco Bay Aquarium to a new facility in Toronto.
- Despite its size, the aircraft's flight characteristics are said to be extremely forgiving.
- For the first seven years of its service life, every Orange flight took off and landed on a single runway with a prepared surface only three meters wider than its wheelbase.
- In 1978, a lightened Orange II carrying external fuel tanks in place of payload became the first aircraft to circumnavigate the globe in a single, unrefuelled flight.
- Despite considerable early fears about its potential as a bomber, no Orange has ever flown a deliberate combat mission or delivered an entirely military cargo.
- In 1973, an Argentinian Liberation Force Mirage IIIC intercepted ORANGE I Hull No. 104 Menina de Sao Paulo while it was returning from an orbital launch operation. Four of five missiles launched by the fighter hit, with the last misfiring due to poor maintenence, and both cannon ran out of ammunition before the attacker was driven away by scrambled Imperial Brazilian interceptors. Menina de Sao Paulo landed safely on five remaining engines, was fully repaired, and continues in service to this day.
*headdesk*
Time frame!
My inspiration for starting this was... well, originally, it was Rocket Girls, but some of the websurfing done as a result of that led me to discover the existence of a very old computer game that just seemed, well, neat.
So, anyway, because of that, I'd pictured 'game start' as being in 1960, when OTL's Vostok and Mercury were still in early stages. Shuttle didn't fly 'till the late 70s.
Ja, -n
===============================================
"I'm terribly sorry, but I have to kill you quite horribly now."