Morrow Aviation Assets

[mmartin798]

Originally Posted by cosmicfish

Why? I honestly cannot think of any VIP's that are that urgent to move.


Isn't that what the Science Teams are for? And what are the odds that the time for this trip (or any other, for that matter) isn't dominated by the need then to first get the sample to the airstrip where your high speed plane is located... if one even exists in the area? Even ignoring propulsion, I cannot think of any high-speed aircraft that can operate from a dirt field, and without that it seems like a slightly slower aircraft that can land nearby is superior to a faster aircraft that you have to traverse a hundred miles in a random direction just to reach!

Science teams in the field would be able to collect and do some limited analysis in the field. But if they need the results of a GC, HPLC or to grow cultures in a controlled environment, then they need a lab. As for jets that can operate from a gravel runway, there is the Boeing 737 and a large number of Russian MIGs. It's just a matter of getting the intakes high enough above the ground.

Originally Posted by cosmicfish

Why is this person so important that an entire engineering team needs to devote massive pre-war resources against the possibility of their survival? And how is it that they can survive a 2-hour trip with Morrow's massive medical technology base, but not a 3-hour trip?

Dying warlord, whose survival at the hands of the Morrow Project could stabilize the political climate in a large area, there by contributing to the mission of restoring the CONUS and allowing the redistribution of MARS assets to more other unstable regions.

Originally Posted by cosmicfish

If that time saving didn't come with massive costs, sure... but it does. Engineering another vehicle with specialized and not-currently-extant engines, creating and maintaining the support including parts and staff, and either somehow creating a dirt-strip, high-speed aircraft or else ensuring a network of conveniently placed landing strips. That's a lot of work for little justification.

Much of that engineering is already done. The US was flying bombers using fission powered jets in the 1950's. Using those engine designs and adapting the plenums from blowing the cold air through the fission fuel rods to cool them and create the superheated air that goes out the other plenum to create the thrust is not like making this thing from scratch. Modify the fusion reactor to express the heat more directly rather than driving the thermoelectric generators that would usually be there to produce electricity and rely on the electron capture only for on-board electrical power. Granted, that last part assumes a great deal about Project reactors that to my knowledge does not exist in canon, but which has been discussed here at great length in another thread.

I am not saying that the jet powered aircraft would be everywhere, but a small number would be useful.

[cosmicfish]

Originally Posted by mmartin798

Science teams in the field would be able to collect and do some limited analysis in the field. But if they need the results of a GC, HPLC or to grow cultures in a controlled environment, then they need a lab.

But the only option is transport by jet? They can't be preprocessed by the Science Team, or transported by prop plane? I worked in a biochem lab years ago (dark, dark days) and I'm having trouble remembering anything other than an organ that was anywhere close to that time sensitive.

Originally Posted by mmartin798

As for jets that can operate from a gravel runway, there is the Boeing 737 and a large number of Russian MIGs. It's just a matter of getting the intakes high enough above the ground.

Actually, it is more than that. There is also the issue of debris damaging other vulnerable parts of the plane, for example. For the 737 at least it also still requires a very long, wide, flat, compacted surface - a good engineering team with lots of equipment might prep an acceptable strip in a few weeks (a lot faster than tarmac!) but that doesn't work so well in an emergency. The idea of using things like C-130's was always that even their relatively mild runway requirements still made them impractical without massive amounts of preparatory work, and even with that infrastructure built it is still not particularly conducive to the kind of tasks you are describing.

Originally Posted by mmartin798

Dying warlord, whose survival at the hands of the Morrow Project could stabilize the political climate in a large area, there by contributing to the mission of restoring the CONUS and allowing the redistribution of MARS assets to more other unstable regions.

I'm having trouble imagining someone starting this discussion in a pre-war planning meeting and not finding themselves reassigned to fund-raising or some other affair. It's a huge reach, and even you add all the huge reaches together they don't justify anything.

Originally Posted by mmartin798

Much of that engineering is already done. The US was flying bombers using fission powered jets in the 1950's. Using those engine designs and adapting the plenums from blowing the cold air through the fission fuel rods to cool them and create the superheated air that goes out the other plenum to create the thrust is not like making this thing from scratch. Modify the fusion reactor to express the heat more directly rather than driving the thermoelectric generators that would usually be there to produce electricity and rely on the electron capture only for on-board electrical power. Granted, that last part assumes a great deal about Project reactors that to my knowledge does not exist in canon, but which has been discussed here at great length in another thread.

No nuclear-powered aircraft has ever been built, much less flown. The US and Russia both built conventionally-powered aircraft that carried fission reactors, to study the feasibility of nuclear bombers, but the reactors were never connected to anything. There were prototype jets created, but they were never flown - the aircraft I was discussing were propeller planes.

Originally Posted by mmartin798

I am not saying that the jet powered aircraft would be everywhere, but a small number would be useful.

But they wouldn't. The expense and difficulty of creating even one would be huge (all that development work!), and operating it requires a huge infrastructure, especially if you want it to go more than a couple of places. The infrastructure that TMP can support is exactly the infrastructure that kills any advantage of these aircraft.

[nuke11]

Originally Posted by cosmicfish

No nuclear-powered aircraft has ever been built, much less flown. The US and Russia both built conventionally-powered aircraft that carried fission reactors, to study the feasibility of nuclear bombers, but the reactors were never connected to anything. There were prototype jets created, but they were never flown - the aircraft I was discussing were propeller planes.

This wiki page has a few interesting projects that did show results : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear-powered_aircraft

[cosmicfish]

Originally Posted by nuke11

This wiki page has a few interesting projects that did show results : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear-powered_aircraft

Yes and no. They developed some conceptual engines, and they built a fission reactor into a plane without actually connecting it to anything. They were extremely preliminary results.

That having been said, I knew that the planes were not really nuclear but I was surprised to see how far they got with nuclear propulsion. I still don't think it really helps the Project, however - the infrastructure required for jet aircraft (nuclear or not) is simply beyond what the Project can support for a benefit they don't really need.