Quote:
Originally Posted by mmartin798
All this discussion about aircraft got me taking a longer look at the Airscout in both the 3rd and 4th editions. It really seems to be something that looked good, but really doesn't work.
Forgetting the fact that it is a gyrocopter and can't do VTOL or hover in most circumstances, the load outs on both make little sense. Fully loaded with guns, ammo, and missiles, it really can't handle a 2-man crew, unless they are really small or children. The average weight of each would have to be 57kg for 4th ed and 53kg for 3rd edition. The 4th edition version gets really bad if you add the reserve fuel tank for additional range, bringing the ave weight per person to 35kg. You really have to leave off the missiles to get a per-person weight of around 70kg.
There are VTOL fixed-wing drones that can operate at higher altitudes, can loiter for up to 24 hours, and operates at ranges of 250km from the base station. These can do a much better job of mapping and surveillance work in a much smaller and lighter package. The only thing you don't get is the flying weapons platform.
Given all this, I really cannot think of a good use case for the Airscout.
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The Airscout essentially becomes obsolete in an advanced timeline. I never truly liked the design nor gyro copters in general. Drones can fill niches such as recon, surveillance, and scientific data gathering. The Fire Scout is a great example of this, also using VTOLs as general duty aircraft. Another good example I remembered is the OV-1 Mohawk. It was designed as a recon surveillance aircraft, with light attack capabilities. It had a side mounted radar system that could easily be swapped (1hour) in the field for other packages. You could swap them for scientific data gathering such as NBC detection, LIDAR, Communications, and even weather packages. It was also designed like the OV-10 for improvised runways. Vietnam era aircraft that could easily be absorbed into the MP with not much attention under the guise of science and and research.