From: "R.Celestia" (solcompassio@nlr.fen)
To: Military Fen ML (recipient list supressed)
Subject: RE: Elephant Sightings #24. Spotted on Mars
Date: 31 July 2017
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Thank you for putting this out on the interweave. Several of my analysts brought this to my attention earlier today, and I believe I may be able to shed at least some light on the design lineage and potential reasons for its development. Given recent developments in fenspace between the New Lunar Republic and other factions, I believe this may be a testbed to attempt to copy the hull plan of our line fighters. Given our recent break into the hull production field of industry, someone may be throwing some resources at attempting to copy our hull designs to see what advantage we receive from the Mk2 hull family. In particular would be the short-range heavy fighter we have under development at the Crystal Dome. No, I can assure you that this vessel is not ours, both from the design of what is presumably the cockpit section, and from the fact that the wings from our vessel are both missing as the primary major differences. Given the hull materials, the missing portions of the design, and such, this may be a sensor reflection mockup to test how stealthy our craft might be, or this may be a similar case of the similarities between the F-22 and the T-50, or between the F-35 and the chinese J-31/F-60.
![[Image: TCn6N3k.png]](http://i.imgur.com/TCn6N3k.png)
Our own design, currently labeled the XF-2, has been spotted by our competitors several times over the past six months as we have put the test craft through a rather vigorous test regime, giving them ample time to put test-beds into production to test the general characteristics of our design choices. The photo I have supplied is our own prototype rounding the Earth on the way back to our landing strips near our dome. There are numerous differences, of course. Primarily the removed (or never-intended) wings on the test article in the article, and particularly the engines. We use a twin-cycle engine much like the SABER design from Britain, along with-*Ahem*. I must apologize, I almost gave away a state secret as to the performance we gain from our design. To continue on, there is also the upper hull level. Ours mirrors on top and bottom to form an oval cross section, while one might notice the rather odd upper cross section of this test piece. My analysts suggest it may be a manufacturer-specific design idiosyncrasy much like the european love of canards or our own love of delta wings. However, I do believe this may be a finalized design, and this no more than a concept test bed, much like the American's 'X-Plane' program.
To: Military Fen ML (recipient list supressed)
Subject: RE: Elephant Sightings #24. Spotted on Mars
Date: 31 July 2017
-------------------------------------
Thank you for putting this out on the interweave. Several of my analysts brought this to my attention earlier today, and I believe I may be able to shed at least some light on the design lineage and potential reasons for its development. Given recent developments in fenspace between the New Lunar Republic and other factions, I believe this may be a testbed to attempt to copy the hull plan of our line fighters. Given our recent break into the hull production field of industry, someone may be throwing some resources at attempting to copy our hull designs to see what advantage we receive from the Mk2 hull family. In particular would be the short-range heavy fighter we have under development at the Crystal Dome. No, I can assure you that this vessel is not ours, both from the design of what is presumably the cockpit section, and from the fact that the wings from our vessel are both missing as the primary major differences. Given the hull materials, the missing portions of the design, and such, this may be a sensor reflection mockup to test how stealthy our craft might be, or this may be a similar case of the similarities between the F-22 and the T-50, or between the F-35 and the chinese J-31/F-60.
Our own design, currently labeled the XF-2, has been spotted by our competitors several times over the past six months as we have put the test craft through a rather vigorous test regime, giving them ample time to put test-beds into production to test the general characteristics of our design choices. The photo I have supplied is our own prototype rounding the Earth on the way back to our landing strips near our dome. There are numerous differences, of course. Primarily the removed (or never-intended) wings on the test article in the article, and particularly the engines. We use a twin-cycle engine much like the SABER design from Britain, along with-*Ahem*. I must apologize, I almost gave away a state secret as to the performance we gain from our design. To continue on, there is also the upper hull level. Ours mirrors on top and bottom to form an oval cross section, while one might notice the rather odd upper cross section of this test piece. My analysts suggest it may be a manufacturer-specific design idiosyncrasy much like the european love of canards or our own love of delta wings. However, I do believe this may be a finalized design, and this no more than a concept test bed, much like the American's 'X-Plane' program.