AeroTech 2 Vessel Technical Readout
                                  VALIDATED

Class/Model/Name:  Super Wing 
Tech:              Inner Sphere / 3067
Vessel Type:       Aerodyne DropShip
Rules:             Level 3, Standard design
Rules Set:         AeroTech2

Mass:              35,000 tons
Length:            300 meters
Power Plant:       Standard
Safe Thrust:       4
Maximum Thrust:    6
Armor Type:        Standard
Armament:          None
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
==Overview:==
Imagine a Chippewa (the 90-ton fighter) that had a pointed nose...or the XB-47
jet-powered flying wing of yesteryear. Imagine it with a 500-meter wingspan
and nearly 300 meters long from nose to tail elevator plane. 
.
Below, tiny petroleum-burning jumbo jets approach the fusion-powered behemoth.
Glittering, barely visible cables snake down to them. Not flapping in the
breeze at all, the grapple at the end of the cable has control fins to steer
in for an effortless capture of nose hooks on the jumbos. The passenger-laden
jumbo is pulled smoothly through the turbulent boundary layer of air below the
titanic flying wing and nestled into a conformal dock on the underside of the
flying wing. Over a half dozen other jumbos are docking two at a time, and the
entire operation will be done in minutes. 
.
After the last of the jumbos dock and as passengers begin to disembark into
the cavernous interior of the "Super Wing," the fusion engines that are the
entire point of the Super Wing double, then triple their output. Electric
ducted fans ten meters across adjust their pitch and spin faster, carrying the
Super Wing from the low altitude rendezvous run to the cruising altitude of 20
kilometers. 
.
On the grand promenade, the thousands of newly boarded passengers immediately
(and with little decorum) rush for the leading edge of the Super Wing. (A half
dozen major control surfaces flex and shift along the Super Wing to adjust for
the movement of the hundreds of tons of organic ballast. Simultaneously,
hundreds of minor panels and air vents along the broad, broad back of the
Super Wing work to smooth out the altered air flow.) At the front of the
plane, the passengers (who will not not notice a wobble from their stampede -
the huge plane is that precise in maintaining an even keel) find a string of
giant windows framed in faux gothic "iron" columns, some of the windows as
much as five meters tall. From here, they can look down at the receding world
below. 
.
The magical moments are the passage through the clouds, towering columns of
glorious white vapor that dwarf even the Super Wing, and finally leveling off
at twenty kilometers, far above even the cloud deck. The cafes and stores
behind them are much like the ones they left in the airport, but the
passengers couldn't sip coffee or chase shrieking children in the airport with
such a view. 
.
The passengers have 6 hours on this flight across the Jones Ocean, the smaller
of Claybrooke's oceans. The (appropriately, if unimaginatively named) Vast
Ocean on the other side would take up to 20 hours to cross, and they would
probably visit a sleeper section of the Super Wing on such a flight. But for 6
hours, the passengers will sit and gaze at an incredible view in an incredible
vehicle. Except for the drone of conversation and noise of a crowd, the Super
Wing's interior is much quieter than the noisy little jumbo jets they just
left. 
.
Mingling with the passengers, the tourists, are the permanent residents of the
Super Wing. They live in the apartment towers that are the vertical
stabilizers, gazing down at a 650kph sculpture of stainless steel. Because the
stern of the stabilizers are mobile (the Super Wing's 100-meter tall rudders,
of course), each of these very wealthy residents lives in the leading edge of
the rudders. That leading edge is wholly transparent like a glass-walled
skyscraper, a panoramic window that wraps the 5-meter wide stabilizer from
side to side. Their view is infinitely better than that of the economy-class
tourist drones below in the main wing. They can see occupants in the other
stabilizer a football field away, or out into the vastness of the sky to the
other side, ahead across the cloudscape, or even quite a way behind the
vessel, a 300-degree arc of vision when they are in the very leading edge of
the stabilizer. So stiff, so insulated are the windows that not a whisper of
the 650kph slipstream can be heard. Even further overhead, the residents have
their own, smaller promenade in the horizontal elevator between the two
vertical stabilizers. 
.
The tourists would actually be surprised to find fast food restaurants and
bland business offices in those upper decks, so exclusive to the rich and
famous who live on the Super Wing. The residents pay a fortune for the "real
estate," so they don't want to pay a fortune for everyday expenses, like a
quick taco. If they want fancy eatin', they'll go down to the overpriced
tourist trap restaurants in the main wing (which are 5-star, even if not worth
the price). There are exclusive corporate offices in the upper decks and the
stabilizers, of course. The scenery and prestige are just too much to pass up.
.
In the heart of the wing, in the thickest, 25-meter deep middle, two of three
fusion reactors are operating at seventy-five percent of their capacity. They
are supplying the power to lift 35000 tons of steel and titanium to an
altitude twenty kilometers and the power to fight the drag of 650kph air
flowing over more than twenty-five thousand square meters of surface area. No
small part of their power goes into pressurizing the vast volumes of the Super
Wing and keeping it habitable. The reactors' third sibling is currently
inactive as twenty crewmen pull out one of the twenty-ton containment coils, a
superconductor with badly helium-sputtered insulation. The replacement coil
was ferried up on another airplane days ago and awaits in another part of the
cavernous engineering bay. This huge chamber brings to mind a football stadium
with its size. It is not a dark dungeon one might imagine in the bowels of a
gothic-themed Super Wing. Indeed, neither is it noisy. If the workmen had not
been maneuvering twenty tons of metal (apparently maneuvering the coil as much
with their curses as the overhead crane), it would be one of the quietest
parts of Super Wing. The fusion reactors do not thrum or boom or like
cinematic "warp drives". The liquid sodium coolant pumps circulate the metal
with electromagnetic coils - there are no whirring motors or gearboxes to add
noise. Air circulation, as elsewhere in the Super Wing, is accomplished with
carefully shaped and damped vents. 
.
There are noisy parts of the Super Wing. Enclosed within meters-wide ducts
running from bow to stern are dozens of electrically-powered, ducted fans.
Most are operating just fine, but there are extras (just as with the fusion
engines) in case of trouble or routine maintenance. There is some repair work
today: the starboard number three bank of fans is all out of commission. A
suicidal flock of large birds launched a kamikaze assault while the Super Wing
was picking up airliners, and managed to ding and dent quite a few of the
5-meter tall compressor blades. The fan bank's inlet ports and exhaust ports
are all closed now. Small workers move about the gleaming metal duct. They use
cranes to dismount damaged blades, which will be repaired, or new ones made,
in the Super Wing's machine shops. This is truly the least of the Super Wing's
internal repair capabilities, the watching tourists are told. The frame of the
Super Wing has extra trusses and spars, more than it needs to stay together.
An old or damaged spar (yes, one of those huge I-beams you see overhead in the
Grand Promenade) can be dismounted for reworking and repair. 
.
Now, in just a few more hours, the stewards will shuffle the herd of tourists
back to their planes. The jumbo aircraft will detach at twenty kilometers
altitude and almost glide to a landing at the airports the Super Wing flies
over. When all the aircraft are free, the Super Wing will drop to a mere three
kilometers above the ground and, at the same time, conduct its lumbering turn
over a one hundred kilometer radius. It will pick up another, new dozen of
jumbo jets and carry them across the ocean again, back to the continent whence
it came. 
.
==Capabilities:==
The Super Wing is powered by a dropship-sized fusion engine. It uses this
differently than most BT aerospacecraft. Rather than using it to heat reaction
mass, it powers fans - large, ducted fans. Electric fans. The Super Wing thus
has no fuel requirements (the 1500 tons it carries are for visiting aircraft)
and has a reasonable, if subsonic, speed, but its acceleration is low (it can
accelerate by 0.2 thrust points per turn, taking 20 turns to reach its normal
cruising speed). The Super Wing's turn radius is typically 100km at its
cruising speed, though it can turn more sharply (this would just disturb the
passengers). The Super Wing is not a spacecraft. 
.
The fusion engine consists of 3 reactors, any two of which can maintain up to
5 MP per turn, or any one of which can maintain up to 3MP per turn. The
multitudes of fans also include spares that can be taken out of service for
repair either in their ducts (in which case the ducts are closed off for and
aft to provide a pressurized working environment) or dismounted and moved on
in-wing trolleys to the Super Wing's very complete machine shop. Most Super
Wing electronic and mechanical systems can be built from scratch in those
machine shops, but most repairs are made with stockpiles of spare parts.
Fusion engine components generally require shipment from the ground. (One of
the many commercial air freighters that dock with the Super Wing will deliver
the components; delays for spare part delivery are rarely more than 12 hours.)
As noted in the tour, the Super Wing's framework is redundant, allowing
sections to be repaired in flight. A handful of systems (like the massive
electromagnetic pistons that move the main control surfaces) can be repaired
internally, but in unpressurized areas - depending on the length of the
repair, this is either done on the half hour to hour the Super Wing is at low
altitude picking up new visiting aircraft, or the work is performed with
oxygen masks and insulated clothes at cruising altitudes. Very few systems
other the hull itself cannot be withdrawn into the Super Wing for repair. In
the case of the hull, the Super Wing typically spends an extended period at 3
kilometers of altitude and a "mere" 250kph-300kph. Windbreaks are raised (from
purpose-built slots in the hull) and workers perform the repairs in the
shelter of the break. 
.
Defensively...well, the Super Wing has no integral defenses. It's a civilian
airliner. It certainly has the tonnage for weapons. It does have 6 fighter
bays (well, underside fighter docks), but these typically hold 4 to 6
"Inter-Wing Shuttles" that make emergency ground visits or transfer people
directly between Super Wings. Some actually do carry fighters. There are no
escape pods or life boats in the dropship sense. The theory is that a Super
Wing will either be able to land (see below) or will fail catastrophically if
attacked. As a seaplane, the Super Wing does have ocean-going lifeboats (and
seat cushion floatation devices) for after it lands. 
.
Planes dock by being snagged by a triplet of steerable cables. The nose is
snagged first, followed by the wing tips, then the plane is reeled in through
the considerable boundary layer of the Super Wing. Near the Super Wing, a
large mechanical arm grabs the mid-section of the of the planes and pulls it
firmly into place. "Into place" is a more-or-less conformal alcove in the
underside of the Super Wing where pressurized docking tunnels allow passengers
to enter the Super Wing. Planes suitable for docking with the Super Wing
typically have double tails rather than a single large rudder - the Super
Wing's narrowest dimension is its height, and large jumbo jet tails could
enter quite a ways through the thickness of the Super Wing towards its
wingtips. Available docking space is another problem - while the Super Wing is
big, it cannot fit jumbo jets internally. (The largest available spot in the
center of the wing is occupied by the engine room.) This limits the Super Wing
to carrying about a dozen jumbo jets. 
.
Landing and takeoff. In an ideal world, a Super Wing will takeoff once and
land once in its operational lifetime. About 70% of all Super Wings achieve
this goal, while the others land for more extensive maintenance, repairs, or
upgrades than is possible in the air. Later versions are becoming more
reliable. The Super Wing is a seaplane - this avoids the trouble of finding
airstrips able to handle the behemoth. It has 5 fixed pontoons almost flush
with its body. Each is nearly the size of a 21st Century oceanic corvette.
During liftoff, the Super Wing uses air injection under its pontoons to help
break free of the water. With a surprisingly low stall speed (110kph), getting
airborne is rather easier than might be suspected. However, the roaring
engines and clouds of water are always spectacular. Likewise, on landing, the
Super Wing often must work to defeat the wing-in-ground effect, or it can
coast on the trapped cushion of air under its wings for kilometers. 
.
The interior of the Super Wing, free as it is from fuel tankage, has a lot of
open space. Requirements for machinery and access ways make the rear half of
the Super Wing non-accessible to visitors (imagine a gleaming, clean,
metallic-walled factory space), while the large center is occupied by the
power plants. This leaves about a quarter of the volume for passengers, who
must still compete with the fore-to-aft fan ducts for space. 
.
The passenger space is up to four decks near the front of the wing, feature a
promenade over 600 meters long. (Remember: the wing is angled, so the actual
length for the promenade is longer than the wingspan.) The promenade is filled
with stores and "open air" cafes; hotel rooms with balconies overlooking the
promenade are also here. Styles differ from Super Wing to Super Wing, ranging
from Airport Chic to Victorian Steampunk Gothic to Mass Consumerism Mega Mall.
The smell of tourist trap is strong.
.
Crew members tend to work 6 days on, 2 days off, or 3 weeks on, 1 week off.
They have spartan (but roomy) quarters behind the passenger areas. The limit
is always tonnage, not elbow room.
.
The available, unused space on the Super Wings has not been overlooked by
visitors with a lot of money. Many Super Wings sport permanent residents,
sometimes approaching 1000. The tail of the Super Wings (which looks much like
the Chippewa's) consists of two vertical rudders the size of skyscrapers (100
meters tall, 50 meters long, 5 meters thick) joined by a horizontal elevator
plane 125 meters wide (50 meters long and up to 5 meters thick) provide a lot
of unused space. The trend has been to make the leading edges of the vertical
stabilizer and elevator transparent, like the leading edge of the main wing,
and install apartments and offices. The front third of the rudders and front
40% of the elevator are available for occupation, and the view is absolutely
outstanding. "Real estate" prices are obscene and (at about 50%-75% occupancy,
depending on the market) can pay for the entire construction cost of the Super
Wing. The demand among the Claybrooke wealthy for Super Wing apartments is
high. There is a culture of "Super Wing dwellers" who prefer never to touch
ground if they can help it. Some are snobs, some are romantics, some are just
weird. 
.
There are various gondolas and wing-top observatories to thrill visitors and
residents alike. These transparent structures allow the viewer to marvel at
the vast expanse of the Super Wing and the ground below or sky above. 
.
Many of the main and resident's promenade decks actually "float" separately of
the hull of the Super Wing. The Super Wing does flex by some meters, and it
would be unnerving for visitors to see people hundreds of meters down the
promenade raised or dropped suddenly. Thus the promenades are broken up into
sections and decks isolated from structural members. 
.
The bridge is the last notable feature of the Super Wing. Some models just
bury it in the interior and provide a "flying bridge" (pun intended) for
landing and takeoff, while others install it as a 100-meter long transparent
tear drop on the top of the Super Wing (see the XB-49 pictures, below). 
.
The Super Wing's tiny predecessor: 
www.edwards.af.mil/gallery/html_pgs/bomber5.html
www.edwards.af.mil/history/docs_html/aircraft/yb-49.html
A much slower, chunkier "Super Wing": 
home.att.net/~dannysoar/BelGeddes.htm
For the top picture only: 
www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/SP-440/ch5-3.htm
.
==Deployment==
The 35,000-ton "Super Wing" is a dropship-sized, fusion-powered aircraft used
on the FWL world Claybrooke. Oil-rich but tech-poor Claybrooke had thriving
(primitive, 21st century) industries and a decent standard of living for its
billions of inhabitants. (Well, the ones that hadn't been thrown into labor
camps by Claybrooke's dictator.) The "Super Wings" were introduced in the late
30th Century and remain in use into the 32nd. 
.
Claybrooke was able to manufacture fusion power plants locally, but only
large, municiple-sized engines. The availability of fusion engines from
off-world suppliers for any non-military application was nil; airlines were
stuck with petroleum-burning jet liners. However, one of the dictatorship's
more grandiose schemes actually made a modicum of economic sense: if jet
liners only had to climb to 3 kilometers and, say, 300kph, before coming under
tow by an aircraft large enough to harness those fusion power plants, then the
airliners could save a great deal of money on fuel. The catch was building the
dropship-sized aircraft inexpensively enough; each one couldn't cost more than
2-3 billion C-bills, and would need to carry at least a dozen airliners per
trip to pay itself off. (In fact, at about 1 billion C-Bills, the Super
Wings were quite affordable.)
.
The result was the (first generation, or prototype) Super Wing in 2962. After
several weeks of test flights and docking operation tests, it was declared an
aerodynamic and (potentially) an economic success. However, it had
some...issues. The wing tip "flutter" on a 300-meter flying wing involved a
15-meter oscillation that made the outer third of each wing basically
uninhabitable. The stress of part of the plane entering turbulence (or an air
pocket) but not another was almost more than the frame could handle. The first
Super Wing conducted the first landing after three weeks in the air and would
never fly again. Indeed, the cracked frames and torn skin were so damaged that
the whole thing was sold for scrap. 
.
The second generation Super Wing was much more reinforced and included
extensive anti-flex control surfaces (that aerodynamically damped structural
"flutter") and memory metal-based reinforcements in the frame to "muscularly"
damp structural movement. These features proved overkill; the problem the
second generation would have would be in-flight maintenance and poorly
thought-out interior layouts rather than cracking in meter-thick main spars.
The second generation Super Wings were all out of service by 3007. 
.
The third generation Super Wing is the modern form; incremental upgrades have
occurred through the succeeding decades to minimize maintenance demands on the
crew. It is flying wing with 500-meter wing span and belly docks for 20
airliners. When small fusion engines did become more common in the mid-31st
Century, the trouble of supplying water, ammonia, or some other reaction mass
to the jet liners kept the Super Wings in service. Larger "third generation"
Super Wings would enter service in the 3040s to handle the Vast Ocean, where
the lower number of daily flights each Super Wing could make made the smaller,
dozen-airliner Super Wings less economically feasible. 
.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Class/Model/Name:  Super Wing 
Mass:              35,000 tons
.
Equipment:                                                            Mass  
Power Plant, Drive & Control:                                        9,100.00
Thrust:  Safe Thrust: 4
      Maximum Thrust: 6
Structural Integrity: 50                                             8,750.00
Total Heat Sinks:    151 Single                                           .00
Fuel & Fuel Pumps:                                                   1,530.00
Bridge, Controls, Radar, Computer & Attitude Thrusters:                263.00
Fire Control Computers:                                                   .00
Food & Water:  (83 days supply)                                         30.00
Armor Type:  Standard  (1,550 total armor pts)                         225.00
                           Standard Scale Armor Pts
   Location:                            L / R
   Fore:                                475
   Left/Right Wings:                 387/387
   Aft:                                 301
.
Cargo:
   Bay 1:  Crew and Officers (900)                                     450.00
   Bay 2:  Passengers (5000)                                         2,500.00
   Bay 3:  Residents (1000)                                          5,000.00
   Bay 4:  Small Craft (12)                                          2,400.00
   Bay 5:  Fighters (6)                                                900.00
   Bay 6:  Cargo (1)                                                 3,502.00
.
Crew and Passengers:
     72 Bay Personnel                                                     .00
Weapons and Equipment      Loc        SRV    MRV    LRV    ERV  Heat    Mass
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 Lot Spare Parts (1.00%)                                              350.00
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TOTALS:                                                Heat: 0      35,000.00
Tons Left:                                                                .00
.
Calculated Factors:
Total Cost:        989,748,000 C-Bills
Battle Value:      4,653
Cost per BV:       212,711.8
Weapon Value:      0 (Ratio = .00)
Damage Factors:    SRV = 0;  MRV = 0;  LRV = 0;  ERV = 0
Maintenance:       Maintenance Point Value (MPV) = 904,500
                   (881,190 Structure, 21,800 Life Support, 1,510 Weapons)
                   Support Points (SP) = 0  (0% of MPV)
BattleForce2:      MP: 4,  Armor/Structure: 26 / 26
                   Damage PB/M/L: -/-/-,  Overheat: 0
                   Class: DL;  Point Value: 47