[RFC] Kickstarter

[Dartz]

I had a slow day in work.

2022, The Choppers
2023 Cosmo Dragoon, Judy (Bahamode)
2024 (Planned), This thing

Something every year should be sustainable on some level...

Project: Asagiri RF - 047. SU-47 'Berkut' Mouldline Replica

*Who are We?

We're calling ourselves Asagiri. We're a bunch of enthusiasts who live on 77 Frigga who like to go fast. We're Jet Jaguar, Mackie Jaguar and Daryl Haur. We have motorsports experience beforehand. We have experience tuning BAT engines. We have experience racing. We're enthusiasts looking to do something just that bit different.

And we have an idea.

*What are we doing?

The 'warbirds' class is one of the most popular and spectacular events on the Asteroid racing circuit. Short of full-on prototype racing it's also one of the most expensive. Consider the cost of a new Valkyrie, Viper, Blackbird or Talon, then add in all the race preparation required. Even with dedicated 'budget' homologation versions, the warbirds are still hampered by the compromises of their origins. The rules require that a warbird retain most of its primary weapons systems and struture.

In the last couple of years however, we noticed that orders of the JF-21 series through or HAP had increased up to an average of about 1 or 2 a month. We found out that they were being bought by racers in need of cheap speed, and didn't mind the lack of advanced hardware or controls. Out of that, grew the idea for a dedicated racer, built to be Great Justice compliant. Something that would offer the performance of a dedicated race-design.

Essentially, we're building a homologation special, a spacecraft designed from the ground up to race, then adding the bare minimum in armament and equipment to meet Part L

Put succinctly, the aim of this Kickstarter project is to construct a spacecraft compliant with Great Justice Part-L requirements, that can be purchased as a 'turn-key' racer which will be competitive in the 'warbirds' class against craft that may have cost much more money to purchase race-prepare. Especially if they have been purchased from new.

We're calling it the RF-047.

*The Bird:
We've been working on this for over a year already, ever since we finished the Hokum chopper. We'd been hoping to have something finished in time for the recent convention but funding fell behind. The current project schedule has our official first-flight in six months, with a public demonstration of the prototype in time for Greencon.

Basic framing will use a mix of Lunar Titanium and waved Carbotanium, with forward canards, an aft stabilator and a forward swept fixed-wing giving a larger control surface area and ideal maneuvering thruster positioning around the centre of mass for maximum authority.

Control is handled by our first fly-by-wire system, allowing the use of relaxed stability techniques in the spaceframe to ensure peak responsiveness and maneuverability. This allows us to use Pilot-centric maneuvering by coordinating the control surfaces to pivot the spacecraft around the cockpit, reducing forces and stresses on the pilot during hard maneuvering.

Armaments are the bare minimum. An RP-72 sensor set, matched to a lightweight autocannon, and four under-belly hardpoints for ABird-series missiles. Rules require than warbirds racer retain internal armaments such as cannons in operable condition, but without ammunition. Using an autocannon saves carrying the weight of batteries and a power supply.

Propulsion is from a pair of BAT Customer-spec CC100 Cool Cuke reactors, modified by ourselves with a fusion booster to increase the output of the core to four times it's standard rating. These are matched to axial accelerator, dual-spiral collimated ion thrusters. They're not as efficient as a the Quad helix, but are lighter and just a bit tougher and easier to fix.

The fusion booster itself is a local innovation that's seeing some use on the racing circuit already. The customer model replaces the neutron source and moderation shield in the standard Cuke design with a straight neutron injector. The output of the core is throttled by solely controlling the reaction rate of the fusor. It is ultimately safer than using a neutron throttled method.

The fusor and reactor naturally operate in a positive feedback loop if left unchecked. Throttling the fuel supply to the fusor enables its effect to be limited, allowing the reactor output to be effectively throttled. It also ensures that a runaway reaction can never take place. Even with a throttle stuck wide open, the reaction rate is limited to a safe level by fuel flow rate, while an autothrottle prevents overfuelling and power surging at low power levels.

This ensures the ion thrusters are always operating at their most efficient setting, directly coupled to the reactor output.

Those thrusters are then tied in to a full thrust vectoring system, including reversers and speedbrakes. Our aim is maximum speed through cornering rather than straight-line output. With proper tuning on the engines and control software, it should take most long courses at full throttle without lifting. The end result is something that looks like a drifting rally car rather than a banking fighter jet.

*Can I fight with it?

This is not a combat spacecraft. It is an armed spacecraft. It incorporates the bare minimum in weaponry and hardware to meet Part L.

What this also means is that, in a straight fight, nearly any warbird built in the last five years would mop the floor with it. It's fast and maneuverable, and that's it. Really. Unless you're running away or really desperate, don't pin your survival hopes on having one of these in your hangar.

Unless, of course, you retrofit a full-feature fire control system yourself, add structural bracing to cope with maneuvering with a full combat load and reprogram the flight control software to account for the changes in mass distribution.

It can be done. But that's not our aim.

*Where we're at:

We have a spaceframe. We have a functioning set of engines. The frame itself has completed non-destructive structural testing and is certified 'Fit to Fly'. We've flight tested it four times. The first two were failures, ending in an emergency shutdown to keep it from going out of control to self destruction. Third flight was an improvement, but nearly ended in disaster when it began to pitch and roll uncontrollably during landing. The Fourth flight went as expected, ending with a planned in-space recovery.

We have problems with control. That's our big issue. It's not bad during steady flying, but once things start getting more complex. It shows a lot of promise in maneuverability, but at the same time it's almost impossible to hold it on a steady heading.

We've acquired a bare metal 'mule' spaceframe (A series 2A Blackbird) to test the engines, thrust vectoring and control software. We've also begun a flight test program to try and get some data that can be modelled. We've got about three months data.

We've got a lot of data, both from the prototype spaceframe, and Blackbird mule but that's about it. Going from data into something useful is our current sticking point.

*What we need:

We need better software models, both of the spaceframe and of our engines. The engines especially because our maneuverability and control is so dependent on them. A lot of our instability problems seem to come from interactions between the engines, throttle response and the thrust vectoring.

That means paying someone to do it because there's only so much that can be done with DCAMS and the hardware we have. Even as is, it takes it two weeks to run through a simulation of the spaceframe alone. And that's without all the operating data we've gathered in the last three months. We fed that into DCAMS then watched it fall over and die.

We also need to arrange production with a manufacturer. The initial prototype frame was manufactured to order by Hepheastus, but we've been looking further abroad. The initial investment in tooling for something this large is pretty high, and nobody will touch it without us shouldering the cost, or a reasonable chance of a return on the investment.

Then there's GJ certification. Which promises to be interesting in and of itself. It's going to be like road-registering an F1 car. We meet the requirements on paper, we just need to get it through the process which may require modification.

Finally, if all that comes off. Win on Sunday, sell on Monday. This isn't a hobby. We're expecting that this will at least pay for itself in some way. The only way people will buy this is if it performs as advertised. The only way they can be certain of that is if it starts racking up podium finishes. We need to run it in competition. And racing isn't cheap.

*The Blackbird 'XR-71'

Originally a series 2A built in 2014, and one of the earliest customer models, it was traded in against the cost of a new Valkyrie and scheduled for deconstruction. We bought it as a bare-metal frame at scrap metal prices and fitted our set of prototype engines, cockpit, control software and thrust vectoring system. Data-Logging hardware goes were the back-seater normally did

The engines were too small for the existing nacelles so we mounted them in the tail. It'll do .14C in short bursts on full-boost, but struggles to match the cruising speed of the standard model. The problem with it is it's a 50 ton spacecraft propelled by engines designed to drive something half that weight.

What's going to happen to her once we're done, I don't know. Most of the interior's gone along with the life support. It only has fuel for a half-hour's flight and those are just fiberglass covers over empty nacelles.

Still, we've learned a lot from her. Even if it takes a peculiar kind of fail to make a Blackbird spaceframe porpoise hard enough to shed pieces. That's how we discovered the throttle surge problem.

We named it XR-71, or Exxor.

*The rewards:

Tier 1: Your name will be displayed onscreen on system startup, 'With thanks'

Tier 2: Tier 1, plus printed cutaway drawings and certificate, signed by all three of us.

Tier 3: As previous, but with a printed 1/72 scale model printed in plastic.

Tier 4: Tier 3, but with a machined metal model.

Tier 5: If you come to Greencon, we'll give you a personal tour of the finished spacecraft, and all of the above.

Tier 6: 1-4, plus a half-hour demonstration flight in XR-71 at Greencon, during which you'll be given a chance to take the controls. (Limited to 20)

Tier 7: We'll put you up out here on Frigga for a few days, for the official first flight of the finished prototype. (Limited to 10)

Tier 7: Hangar tickets for a race in 2024. Meet us. Meet us and the other race teams as they prepare their machines. Get up close and personal with some expensive hardware. (Limited to five)

Tier 8: Test flight in the finished RF-047. We'll put you up comfortably out here for a few days, and you'll get a full technical briefing, and a chance to put the new RF-047 through its paces for a half hour. (Note, must have some relevant flight experience)

Tier 9: Apparently, 'Berkut' is taken. So one lucky individual will get the chance to choose the production name for our new bird. It will have to meet GJ relevant style requirements.

Tier 10: RF-047A1 #001. The first production model. We'll even deliver it in person. (Limited to one, obviously)

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Thanks for listening

-Daryl, Jet and Mackie

If anyone's ever seen video footage of that F-22 Belly-landing, or the Enterprise ALT tests... that's what it does. It's right enough to 'work' but not for long.

If you want to get an idea how it's supposed to work.... watch any decent Rally car, especially the old Group-B's like the Audi Quattro or Lancia 037.
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--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?