Title: The Number 3
Name: Aaron Ford
Country: USA
Submitted: 14th July 2016
My entry for my Ord fighter Jet. It is simply called Number 3 in the Ord language. It is incredibly heavy, about 19 tons empty, and 25 tons fully loaded. ( The gravity on planet Stokmolt is slightly higher than Earths. ) The strange shape and thickness of the wings is an ingenious engineering marvel. The skin of the wing has to be polished smooth and waxed before every flight, the combination of the precisely crafted air foil, the slick surface, and multi-directional airflow from the extremely powerful engines give it amazing control and performance. After each flight, the polish is burnt and eroded from the wings and has to be waxed and polished to a shine or flight will be unstable. It can go from stationary to liftoff in 2.5 seconds and needs only 150 feet of runway. Top speed is just under Mach 1.6. It has three heavy rotating barrels, heat seeking missiles, and bomb dropping capabilities. The engines, despite being very powerful, are quite fuel inefficient, to compensate, it uses an incredibly powerful fuel, a substance that borders on being dynamite. For this reason, casualties are rather heavy due to the Number 3 spontaneously exploding. A more fuel efficient version of the engines is being developed so the highly volatile fuel can be replaced with something safer, but the power loss has so far been proven prohibitive. Its odd shape is again, perfectly balanced to give remarkable maneuverability through the air and it excels at dog-fighting. The ceiling of this craft is the edge of the atmosphere, the engines are more than powerful enough to overcome the reduced air flow. The fuel/air ratio is adjusted to run richer at altitude -dangerous, however - because the rich fuel mix means more of the explosive fuel is loaded into the engines. Most craft lost due to internal fuel explosions occur in the high atmosphere for this reason. It is a robust craft as well, built out of a highly complex steel titanium rubidium alloy. This thing can take a beating. Every part of it is braced and reinforced against another even more secure part, all the way to the core. Built into its framework is a system of tensile hydraulic cables that can pull and contract the shape of the ship, meaning that if the frame is bent or the wings get misaligned, this system is activated and, using extreme stress, pulls the frame back into alignment, Very effective to limp home with after a battle. In some cases, the linkage system was able to allow the craft to continue the fight. Another defense strategy used is pure acceleration. Again, a risky maneuver, the pilot will load the engines up with fuel and let it all off at once, blasting the ship forward at breakneck speeds, outrunning any danger.
For pilot safety, the screen in the front is not a windshield, rather it is a screen containing cameras, sensors, radar, etc. All that telemetry is fed into the cockpit, which is buried deeper in the belly of the craft.
The fuel tanks are located on the top of the craft, exposed. The tanks are made of multi-layered metal and heavily shielded - direct hits rarely set it off due to the sheer toughness of the tanks. However, due to the fact that they can and do explode, having them on the top exterior instead of underneath or in the interior of the craft allows the blast to propel away from the ship, hopefully saving the pilot.
The large engines in the back may look like the primary source of thrust, however they are only used on takeoff and getting a rapid boost of speed in a straight line, never in standard flight. The Number 3 relies of the power of the wing assemblies to fly and maneuver, - the power, wing shape and air vectors swirling all around give the craft its flying AND turning abilities. The large engines simply make the craft unbalanced when performing operations.
The fuel tanks are rather small, - the #3 fills up with only 25 gallons of fuel. That is a fortunate thing because the fuel used is SO dangerous, carrying any more than is necessary is a scary proposition. The tanks, in addition to being built tough, contains a complex network of baffles, filters and sponges, gyroscopes and sensors to sense movement of any kind and any incoming shocks or motions. Hammers inside the walls of the tanks create a shock wave travelling in the opposite direction to the incoming force to cancel it out in an attempt to keep the liquid as calm as possible. An environmental system within the tanks regulates temperature, pressure, and humidity and keeps them at optimal levels. The tanks also have an emergency automatic ejection system that will ditch the tanks at the first sign of trouble.
As a large part of the design and operation of the vehicle relies on the wings being polished and air resistant free, noticeable handling and power losses are incurred as the polish wears down, and it wears down quickly as well. The wings need service after every flight - the heat and friction pit and wear away at the surface. After 20 flights or so, the entire wing surface needs replacing. That is another major drawback to the design of the #3, it requires a lot of maintenance. However, if maintained properly, it is very reliable, and rarely breaks down ( except for the occasional fuel explosion. )