NOVEL NEXT [Vol.8] Ch.29 Aircraft Part 1
Since I've already done quite a bit of work on fans to push air, it was pretty easy to begin the process of optimizing propellers. Though ultimately, that's all that I did. I wasn't going to fall into my old habits of attempting all the optimization myself. There are a number of different variables that can be adjusted, with relations to each needing to be tabulated and calculated. As such, I only spent a month designing the testing apparatuses to be used for data collection alongside the experiments to be run. I intend to hire on some more graduates at the end of this year to handle this study while I work on other aspects of aircraft design.
Some of the variables will be out of the scope of their initial study, like fan blade design, as that itself has a lot of variables associated with it. Eventually I'll have them work on that aspect, but to start with, I need strong data on the relational aspect of number of blades, length, rotational speed, torque, and fan blade angle to do more work. I know from memory that optimized propellers use a curved blade, with a higher angle of attack closer to the center of the propeller, but in order to actually make that relation, I need data on straight angles of various lengths to determine optimum angle of attack at different lengths.
I plan to begin work on airfoil design first, then move on to designing control surfaces for aircraft. I have something else of note, though it isn't actually very exciting in practice. I prestiged recently. It has been quite some time since that occurred. Without a serious source of XP in my life, it's been a very slow process of passively leveling up, but I finally reached level 100 and then went right back down to level 0. The last time I prestiged, I'd been using thermal regulation quite a lot as I had been mining heat fluorite from our overheated mine and as a result gained access to thermal capacitance.
<UNCOMMON LAVA DEMON>
Level: 100
HP: 6969/6969
MP: 3117/3117
Traits: Mana Affinity, Earth Manipulation, Improved Dexterity, Heat Resistance, Partial Sleep, Thermal Capacitance
Magic: Improved Stone Shaping, Tectonic Sense, Improved Earth Spike, Thermal Hands, Pulverize, Thermal Regulation
Unlike many of my previous times reaching level 100, I was actually quite disappointed that I didn't have much in terms of options. There was no option to evolve again, though that didn't really surprise me. However, I also only had a single option for traits to choose from, which meant I really didn't have a choice in what I picked. This probably has to do with my more sedentary, experiment focused lifestyle, where I've been heavily reliant on others doing a lot of the manual work, though I still have some advantages in being able to heat and bend metal as needed in some cases, meaning most traits just didn't manifest. The main reason I likely picked this trait up is because my office on the campus is fairly closely located near to Drazvok's bathhouse.
Available Traits:
Manavore: Allows the use of mana to supplement diet.
<RARE LAVA DEMON>
Level: 0
HP: 4594/4594
TC: 2500/2500
Traits: Mana Affinity, Earth Manipulation, Improved Dexterity, Heat Resistance, Partial Sleep, Thermal Capacitance, Manavore
Magic: Improved Stone Shaping, Tectonic Sense, Improved Earth Spike, Thermal Hands, Pulverize, Thermal Regulation
It seems like all magic and traits that demons have access to really are quite physically linked. What I mean by that is there isn't really anything fantastical, at least not within any of the data we've collected. They're all survival oriented, which I suppose makes sense. If it's all driven by biological evolution, these traits are a way of adapting to an environment rapidly, and the traits themselves likely evolved over time. There is some question as to why everyone doesn't have all the traits if they're so beneficial, but considering that some drain mana, and production of proteins is a nutritional cost, it might come down to that.
That might partially explain why our stats go back down upon prestige. If the general upkeep of our body is now more expensive, and therefore harder to repair, it'd be reasonable to assume that it might have a relative cost in what we perceive our HP to be. There is a lot going on under the hood biologically that is well beyond my current ability to actually test, and further, I don't know how exactly this all plays into the overall tree of life. Outside of demons, nothing else seems to exhibit the same resetting behavior that we do, however we also don't experience leveling sickness.
This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
The humanoid races also have access to interesting abilities that I'd classify as being odd from a survival aspect. Though that can partially be explained genetically as well, depending on how old their species actually are. Shasta's block cutting ability is different than many other dwarves, and she'd mentioned that occasionally, their abilities differ in some way, like making spheres, or being whole number multiples in dimensionality. Perhaps some aspect of their genome is actually very mutation prone which when combined with the fact they operate in larger societies yields the possibility to support more fantastical mutations that are initially detrimental, but upon even further mutation become useful again in a different way than the old adaptation was. This again is all conjecture with no proof, and until the threat of war cools down, I can't really spend more than a bit of idle time like this thinking on the matter.
As this school year came to an end, we managed to hire on 33 students from the graduating class who will work full time on military matters in secret. The northern alliance has started to ramp up a lot of their production, and we've been seeing more tanks and artillery along the border. The good news for us is that we're fairly certain that they do not have hybrid engines, especially from the locations of their tanks. They've kept them fairly spread out, which you'd have to do if they're running entirely on heat fluorite without a mana crystal source. Without a hybrid engine, they're not only slower, but they also compete heavily for mana with other tanks that are nearby.
They could probably operate a few tanks somewhat near each other, but each tank is going to reduce the effectiveness of the others. The concern is that they're producing far more than we are, even if they're inferior. This probably comes down to how their alliance handles the addition of factories across their territory. We're allowing nations to choose, and they're likely forcing them to build more military equipment. There is a secondary aspect that we aren't actually sure of yet. We don't know if they're actually making smokeless powder, or if they're still using gunpowder. We haven't seen them firing anything first hand, and wherever they are producing ammo, it's far enough away that what little information we have hasn't given us any hints.
Perhaps the increased border presence will encourage some of the countries in our alliance that they should have their factories producing at least some military equipment. It would be fairly easy for us to ramp up our production of smokeless powder and primer on Kembora, keeping that a trade secret, while supplying factories with it as needed for making bullets and artillery. In that manner, even if the enemy captures factories or spies on things on the mainland, the most they'll get is the material itself, not how to make it.
This is actually all the more reason to continue work on aircraft, however. If the efficiency of our tanks to travel without water refills is anything to go off of, we'll probably be able to fly aircraft all the way from Kembora to the mainland, fly over all the human continent, and then return back all on a single moderately sized water tank. Of the 33 new hires, 10 are going to work on the capital ship designs, and the rest have been assigned to work on aircraft related projects.
I've gotten the general shape of airfoils down, and have developed a handful of things to help with testing. One such thing is the design of a decently sized air tunnel. The tunnel will have a 20 foot diameter, with fans at the front and back, and various instruments inside, including an anemometer. We'll need to measure a lot of things at certain airflow velocities to determine performance of wings and propellers at speed, and the tunnel is a vital aspect of doing that testing. It's under construction on Kembora, and should be completed in the near future. The fans used in it will be installed after some initial research is completed on their optimization. I spent most of the semester planning out the kinds of tests I'd need to do on all the components as they're prototyped, so we should be able to move forward fairly quickly on testing, especially with the number of people we have on the team.