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Description

A cool wind blew over an empty pasture, blowing fallen leaves over the yellow green turf. The 12 square kilometre expanse was part of the Army's remount system, breeding cavalry mounts, draft horses and donkeys for it's own use and for general sale in peacetime. The completion of ULAF did mark a significant shift away from animal motive power, but in 49 IA it was not quite done yet. Normally one would see small herds wandering about grazing under the care of handlers and new riders training. Natasha Smedth and her party found plenty of evidence of their presence and had to watch their step. Today however, they had been moved to the Northern half of the complex. Today what the Ministry of Technology and Industry needed a nice flat field with as few obstructions as possible.

Broadly speaking, she'd felt good about this project. It was a far smaller undertaking than ULAF. Setting up even just one of it's assembly lines was a mammoth undertaking with a thousand issues to sort out every day and most of her work there was coordinating the effort and putting a stamp of approval on requests. Rarely did she get her hands dirty. She'd feared that she'd be saddled with the post of Chief Engineer for the huge factory complex and it came as a relief that the Committee had different plans. She left ULAF's technical department in the hands of someone who actually preferred the formal uniform and went back to Dalatyr to put together the latest project which mostly involved building a new specialist type of engine, both powerful and light and to that that end made from aluminum. That had been finicky and they'd gone through a few prototypes before they got something reasonably reliable. The other systems were unorthordox, but far more straightforward. The rest was new, though remarkably straightforward beyond the need to keep weight down. Over the last two days they assembled the completed unit in a large barn, checked and doubled checked everything this morning. Now it was the moment of truth, to which she would be little more than just another spectator.

At 13:17 a bell was rung. Three hundred meters away, a burly Technician grabbed a blade of a large wooden propeller and put all his effort into spinning it around. Instead of slowing down, it soon sped up to a blur. A couple other people removed blocks of wood from a pair of tires, which after a few static seconds allowed a strange contraption to advance. A collection of wood, canvas and wire with an engine with an operator seated within it's sparse framework. There were various opinions about what the fully assembled unit looked like, but Natasha said it mostly looked like a set of of those sun awnings that some cafes put above their outdoor dining areas held over each other. Compared to a lorry or a battle it looked preposterous in it's advanced over the ground, rumbling at increasing speed. Then suddenly and with little change beyond a set of brief bumps, things changed. The strange vehicle went from running along the ground to rising above it in a shallow but steady incline rising above the grass and beyond. As people noticed this, there were cheers from the gathered Engineers, Technicians and workers. All the while, a camera operator meticulously tracked the new mechanism as it puttered around the sky, as did a few more technically minded observers who kept track of the Robin. It completed two gentle circles through the air before it turned about, reduced power, increased drag and came down to the ground, shaking about somewhat as it did so, but ultimately coming to a complete stop at 13:36. With that done, the crews ran out cheering and to congratulate test-pilot Katerina Ryabova. Natasha followed them at a more sedate pace and the crowd parted at her approach.

"You're a braver woman than me. Well done." She said as she offered her hand. "How about some lunch?"

"Yes Ma'am." Katerina replied with a grin on her face. The two of them made their way to a buffet table laden with sandwiches, blini, charcuterie, soup, pastries, a samovar full of hot tea and a few bottles of Anvosian wine. Not long afterwards there would be toasts to the first manned heavier than air mechanical flight, Katerina, the Robin, the Engineers and workers and to director Natasha in particular, to her mild embarrassment. Not long afterwards, the prototype airplane would be taken back to it's barn for inspection and preperations would be made for further flights tomorrow.

On several of it's struts were attached a set of seven small mechanisms, ranging in size from coin sized disks to a a pack of cards. These took careful readings, from altitude and speed to temperature to the efficiency of the engine. All of which were electronically logged and transmitted to a scout drone monitoring the situation eight thousand meters above and relayed the info to the Central Committee. The Robin was not everything they'd hoped for, but it met it's basic requirements reasonably enough. Their UAVs were potent tools, but they required a lot of fabricated material and were limited in what they could accomplish by both the production bottleneck and the feeble cognitive capacities of their processors. To truly take to the skies, the Central Committee would need to give it's people wings.

From the Beginning...

Previous: Infrastructure: Part Three Hundred and Ninety Eight
Next: Infrastructure: Part Four Hundred

Description

A cool wind blew over an empty pasture, blowing fallen leaves over the yellow green turf. The 12 square kilometre expanse was part of the Army's remount system, breeding cavalry mounts, draft horses and donkeys for it's own use and for general sale in peacetime. The completion of ULAF did mark a significant shift away from animal motive power, but in 49 IA it was not quite done yet. Normally one would see small herds wandering about grazing under the care of handlers and new riders training. Natasha Smedth and her party found plenty of evidence of their presence and had to watch their step. Today however, they had been moved to the Northern half of the complex. Today what the Ministry of Technology and Industry needed a nice flat field with as few obstructions as possible.

Broadly speaking, she'd felt good about this project. It was a far smaller undertaking than ULAF. Setting up even just one of it's assembly lines was a mammoth undertaking with a thousand issues to sort out every day and most of her work there was coordinating the effort and putting a stamp of approval on requests. Rarely did she get her hands dirty. She'd feared that she'd be saddled with the post of Chief Engineer for the huge factory complex and it came as a relief that the Committee had different plans. She left ULAF's technical department in the hands of someone who actually preferred the formal uniform and went back to Dalatyr to put together the latest project which mostly involved building a new specialist type of engine, both powerful and light and to that that end made from aluminum. That had been finicky and they'd gone through a few prototypes before they got something reasonably reliable. The other systems were unorthordox, but far more straightforward. The rest was new, though remarkably straightforward beyond the need to keep weight down. Over the last two days they assembled the completed unit in a large barn, checked and doubled checked everything this morning. Now it was the moment of truth, to which she would be little more than just another spectator.

At 13:17 a bell was rung. Three hundred meters away, a burly Technician grabbed a blade of a large wooden propeller and put all his effort into spinning it around. Instead of slowing down, it soon sped up to a blur. A couple other people removed blocks of wood from a pair of tires, which after a few static seconds allowed a strange contraption to advance. A collection of wood, canvas and wire with an engine with an operator seated within it's sparse framework. There were various opinions about what the fully assembled unit looked like, but Natasha said it mostly looked like a set of of those sun awnings that some cafes put above their outdoor dining areas held over each other. Compared to a lorry or a battle it looked preposterous in it's advanced over the ground, rumbling at increasing speed. Then suddenly and with little change beyond a set of brief bumps, things changed. The strange vehicle went from running along the ground to rising above it in a shallow but steady incline rising above the grass and beyond. As people noticed this, there were cheers from the gathered Engineers, Technicians and workers. All the while, a camera operator meticulously tracked the new mechanism as it puttered around the sky, as did a few more technically minded observers who kept track of the Robin. It completed two gentle circles through the air before it turned about, reduced power, increased drag and came down to the ground, shaking about somewhat as it did so, but ultimately coming to a complete stop at 13:36. With that done, the crews ran out cheering and to congratulate test-pilot Katerina Ryabova. Natasha followed them at a more sedate pace and the crowd parted at her approach.

"You're a braver woman than me. Well done." She said as she offered her hand. "How about some lunch?"

"Yes Ma'am." Katerina replied with a grin on her face. The two of them made their way to a buffet table laden with sandwiches, blini, charcuterie, soup, pastries, a samovar full of hot tea and a few bottles of Anvosian wine. Not long afterwards there would be toasts to the first manned heavier than air mechanical flight, Katerina, the Robin, the Engineers and workers and to director Natasha in particular, to her mild embarrassment. Not long afterwards, the prototype airplane would be taken back to it's barn for inspection and preperations would be made for further flights tomorrow.

On several of it's struts were attached a set of seven small mechanisms, ranging in size from coin sized disks to a a pack of cards. These took careful readings, from altitude and speed to temperature to the efficiency of the engine. All of which were electronically logged and transmitted to a scout drone monitoring the situation eight thousand meters above and relayed the info to the Central Committee. The Robin was not everything they'd hoped for, but it met it's basic requirements reasonably enough. Their UAVs were potent tools, but they required a lot of fabricated material and were limited in what they could accomplish by both the production bottleneck and the feeble cognitive capacities of their processors. To truly take to the skies, the Central Committee would need to give it's people wings.

From the Beginning...

Previous: Infrastructure: Part Three Hundred and Ninety Eight
Next: Infrastructure: Part Four Hundred