Tuesday, October 20th
Operation Scrap Theft had brought me a bit over three tons of materials, and by lucky coincidence just the sort I might need for my next project.
I already knew that I wanted a larger air car or even better, an air van with some decent cargo space. Now it was time to decide on a model.
“Elya, let’s look at options for a hover car or helicopter blueprint. List anything that I will be able to afford in the near future, say up to ten thousand points.”
That would give you 334 models to choose from, assuming you purchase a relevant catalog and spend the remaining points on the blueprint. Would you like to narrow your search somewhat?
“OK, two additional criteria. First, it must be possible to build it in my new fabricator. If some assembly of the hover car is required, that is acceptable. Second, sort by payload first, suitability for adding weaponry second.”
I ended up dismissing the first three blueprints, but then Elya came up with an option I really liked.
In the Class I Air Cars catalog there is the Explorer Mk I, which is halfway between a car and a van in its cabin layout. It is powered by a small fusion reactor that gives it a range sufficient to circumnavigate the Earth.
“Detailed description please!”
A wire frame model appeared on my augs, with lines leading from every component to a small description. The overall aesthetics had some similarity to my Variocopter, with eight gimbaled rotors around the cabin and an overall roundish design.
But there the similarities ended. Where the Variocopter had a cabin for two people and a small amount of luggage, the body of the Explorer was considerably larger and more slender in form. It seated seven including the pilot, and the five seats in the rear could be folded up to convert it into a two-seater with a decently sized cargo space. The performance data also looked pretty nice.
One of the descriptions caught my special interest.
“Elya, what’s that inertia modulating thing?”
It temporarily increases the inertia of the air flowing through the rotors, thereby allowing the rotor blades to “push off” it more efficiently. If you will, think of a propeller in water compared to the same propeller in air. The propeller in water will provide a much greater thrust in the thicker medium.
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Interesting. I could already think of ways to reuse this tech elsewhere. And if I didn’t have a Mack invasion to fight, I could likely spend years exploring the principles behind it.
Browsing the list further towards the cheaper options, I quickly lost interest. Only one sleek and sporty two-seater made me take a second look, but the payload was barely higher than what my Variocopter offered.
“OK, let’s go with the Explorer” I said.
Fortunately, you already have enough points. Here is the bill:
Item
Point cost
Description
Class I Air Cars (catalog)
500
The modern form of being stuck in a traffic jam
Explorer Mk I (blueprint)
8000 points
Long-range air vehicle for very extended weekend trips
Total price
8500 points
Remaining balance… 145 points
Nice. But I still wanted to give it some bite. With help from Elya, I created a larger version of the Avian Eliminator, armed with two railguns based on the Shiv instead of the 5.7x28mm gunpowder-based guns.
I added one each on top of the Explorer and under its belly, respectively to the blueprint. After a few more changes, including tougher windows, the Explorer was almost three hundred kilograms heavier. But it could still carry a payload of more than a ton.
Printing and assembly came next. The big new fabricator was faster than the older ones, and it made all the parts within a day. We did have to print the mounts for the rotors separately though, with them the Explorer was almost four meters wide and would not fit in the fabricator.
Thursday, October 22th
We could finally go on a test flight. It turned out that even with the extra air drag from the turrets, the Explorer could do four hundred kilometers per hour. Between that and the relatively high payload, it was clearly superior to a conventional helicopter of similar size.
But not so much that the latter could not have done the job. The problem for HANAF and other militaries was the broken supply chains. Most aircraft makers did not exist anymore. Now they had trouble maintaining their old machines at all, and rumor had it that Pete made a nice profit printing spare parts for them.
At that point I was surprised that I had not received more inquiries about buying a fabricator. I was still hesitant of hiring complete strangers as managers, but once the people of Haven were more accepting of the rescued Mack girls, Wendy might be a good candidate for running a fabricator company. After all, she had some experience and some digging by Elya led me to believe that she had run her little company well.