"New Assault Landers for Hive, Queen and Country" Topic

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So Craig has sent me the new production versions of the latest landers for aerial assaults in the Hive, Queen and Country Universe. I can't wait to put these out for the big Hive and the Flame games this summer convention circuit!

That would be Craig from Gaming Models gamodls.com BTW

More aerodynamic lift or still primarily aerolyth?

Since these are designed for Hive, Queen and Country (HQC) they are primarily aerolyth craft, although they would work as well for liftwood or aeronef or any other VSF universe. They also would work for a "straight" SF universe.

A lot of craft in HQC are compound flyers they use both aerolyth (an mineral that when energized acts against the force of gravity) and aerodynamic lift. Pure aerodynes are called Cayleys in HQC after Lord George Cayley their inventor, who discovered the mechanics of flight in the first half of the 19th century.

The red topped craft in the bottom picture is a pure aerolyth design, having only aerodynamic control surfaces. The newer machine has both aerolyth panels and wings. The wings are not only airfoils but also contain additional aerolyth panels that provide additional lifting force. That is one reason why they are so heavily braced. Even the fixed parts of the tailplane contain aerolyth. This also explains why the airfoils are so thick, they have to contain the five or six inches required for the aerolyth arrays and their electrical components.

Was actually wondering about any ornithopters large enough to carry more than a squad. (Thinking CH47 or -53 equivalents, not Huey/Blackhawks) Extra maneuverability might be worthwhile.

[In HQC, Ornithopters are primarily held aloft by aerolyth, and use the moving wings for maneuverability.]

I had always seen the Ornithopters as smaller vehicles because the wings not only maneuver them but also forward motion. Now perhaps a machine with a propeller and flapper wings for control might be powerful enough to haul troops and still have some speed and agility.

All the landing machines we have built so far are capable of vertical take off and landing while fulled loaded, even the ones with airfoils.

Hrm… OK.

I suppose with aerolyth (or whatever else magitech floating stuff) you probably wouldn't build a large transport helicopter/ornithopter.

One possible reason for 'thopters as drop ships is the ability to 'jink', which might be difficult for a usual aerolyth transport.

'All right, all right, me lovelies, when you're done heaving, you can step on terra firma. Just be glad none of the fuzzies were able to pop you.

What? What? Oh, sorry, Jones. Medic!'

However, I think the wings as 'lyth makes sense because, unlike most of other methods, it imparts lift rather than blocking/neutralizing/reversing gravity.

Right, Terry? Heavy, dense, power hungry gasbags? Remember, I'm still laboring with my original understanding of it as 'a/g coal' that you burned to rise. Which is sort of what Liftwood is.

Though, now that I think on it, would they work as well in a cube? Standing upright?

Doug

Aerolyth provides a force that acts against gravity (with a right hand rule, like from high school physics). The amount of force is determined by the area of the panels.

They won't work standing upright and in fact at angles over 15 degrees the panels begin to lose their lift.

Terry

So a cube WOULD work, but be so heavy as to negate it's usefulness. 'Upright panels' would present a thin edge (I think you give two inches as common) and the effect of which would be negligible.

Right?

Doug

@The Beast: Yes, the standard panel is 4x8 feet of mirror-polished bluestone no more than 3" thick, wrapped with copper wire able to handle kilowatts of electrical power.

I looked through Flying Machines of the World (which I had not memorized)page 52 has the Ornithopter MK II carries 29 troops and a bunch of Ordnance.

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I knew I'd seen something like that.

With over 1000 pages of material in print and 50,000 messages on our Yahoo! Group I have trouble keeping up sometimes! Good Catch