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Seto Kaiba

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  1. Seto Kaiba
    Since it's appropriate here as well, probably more here than there, here's a post I recently did for the Newbie thread concerning a few aerodynamic helpers that VFs have. Every VF, save a few that went in for canards instead, uses boundary layer control. From the VF-19 and VF-22 onward, VFC is also used.
  2. Seto Kaiba
    None that appeared in Macross R, but as a relatively standard local derivative of the VF-19E it should've had some.
  3. Seto Kaiba
    Yeah, the Siegfried version is less well-armed than the standard VF-31A Kairos, so every little bit helps. Most were, but even the ones that weren't aren't depicted as using FAST packs on a regular basis on space (e.g. the VF-19EF Caliburn).
  4. Seto Kaiba
    Nothing concrete, no... just that the 55th Large-Scale Long-Distance Emigrant Fleet established its permanent colony on the former Vajra hive world. Variable Fighter Master File and Variable Fighter Episode Archive come the closest to commenting upon their doings, but that's almost exclusively talk about the VF-25 finally being approved for the start of mass production and its adoption by Frontier's local New UN Forces and the forces of their allies and closest trading partners as either export sales or local build-under-license agreements. The Macross Delta novelization offers one other tidbit. Its second volume establishes that the MP representing the former Macross Frontier emigrant fleet in the New UN Government parliament is none other than Macross the Ride main character Chelsea Scarlett. Island-1 is a cert for the planetary capital, given that it already houses most of the fleet's population and the fleet's entire government. Since city ships are, by their very nature, given to water landings it'll probably end up parked in a bay or lake with causeways linking it to a bayshore city the way the habitat ship in Barette City on Ragna was.
  5. Seto Kaiba
    Pilots, as a rule, like being able to steer and the worse your drag problem the rougher your ride is going to be... though the unfortunate implications for fuel economy are less of an issue for a VF's thermonuclear reaction turbine engines than they would be for something running with traditional combustion engines. (Really bad laminar flow separation can cut fuel efficiency 30%, decrease its stalling angle of attack, and make handling more difficult.)
  6. Seto Kaiba
    Aids to maneuverability. The Boundary Layer Control System (BLCS) is a collection of air pumps situated in the main and sub-intakes and inside the control surfaces which collectively work to manipulate the laminar airflow over the airframe. Two different real world methods are used. The first, boundary layer suction, is used via air pumps in the main intake and a dedicated sub-intake above the main intake, to extract the boundary layer (the air closest to the surface) and thus prevent it from breaking away from the surface and forming drag-increasing low pressure zones in the aircraft's wake (flow separation). It also employs what are called "blown" control surfaces, which use air drawn from the turbines and blown out a series of vents in the trailing edge of the wing to shape the airflow downwards, which increases the lift coefficient by delaying boundary layer flow separation. This manipulation of the boundary layer results in reduced drag that increases fuel efficiency, and also offers improved lift, low-speed performance, and increases the stalling angle of attack, making the aircraft more agile and even offering limited maneuverability without control surfaces if applied asymmetrically. The Vortex Flow Controller (VFC) is a more recent addition to VFs that injects trace amounts of neutral gas into the boundary layer to asymmetrically change the pressure gradient on the aircraft skin. The gas causes a vortex to form or an existing vortex to change position, shifting the airflow pressure on the aircraft enough to actually change the direction of flight. Essentially, an attitude control system that uses the air moving over the airframe as a control surface. (And yes, boundary layer suction, blown control surfaces, and vortex flow controllers are all real-world technologies.) Yeah, though the YF-29's Super Pack is specifically designed to cause as little disruption to the fighter's aerodynamics as possible and is pretty minimal in all respects. For more fun with boundary layers, you may find it enjoyable to watch the Mythbusters episodes for the Tailgate up or down? myth and the Blue Ice myth.
  7. Seto Kaiba
    Truth be told, the VF-19 Excalibur probably doesn't belong on that list. Two of its three animated appearances with Super Packs equipped were in atmospheric operations (Macross Plus and Macross 7's 44th episode), and for almost the entirety of Macross 7 it was operating in space without any bolt-on hardware at all. Improvements in engine technology that were adopted in the 4th Generation VFs1 that increased fuel efficiency, combined with larger airframes having more room for internal fuel storage, reduced the need for FAST packs during normal space operations. Essentially, the design focus of FAST packs transitioned from maximizing operating time in space while adding some extra weaponry to maximizing armament while adding extra verniers and boosters to prevent the additional mass from degrading the fighter's performance. When that extra weaponry isn't needed, they operate without the packs, as the VF-17s and VF-19s in Macross 7, and the VF-171s in Macross Frontier did. (When it comes to the VF-25s in Frontier, let's just say when you're fighting an enemy at least as well equipped and rather more numerous than your own forces, there's no harm in bringing along enough missiles for a three-ring Itano Circus.) The VF-11s are earlier (3rd Gen) models that predate the adoption of the more efficient engine technology, so like the VF-1 they're actually dependent on conformal tanks and booster rockets as a way of extending their operating time to a practical level for deep space operations. Getting down to the actual question you asked after that long and tedious digression on my part (sorry!), the VF-17 is the only one of the three that's noted as having any kind of a deficiency in atmospheric performance. Its passively stealthy design and space-centric operating profile meant that some concessions were made in its aerodynamic profile. Those issues were later corrected in the simplified all-regime rebuild designated VF-171. The VF-22 is an all-regime fighter, and its unique transformation leaves a lot of empty space that can be used for internally-carried ordnance and fuel. It's hard to classify the VF-27 since it bears some hallmarks of an all-regime fighter and some of a space-optimized fighter, but with the amount of thrust it's throwing around it's less more a "I have enough thrust to go wherever I darn well please" fighter.
  8. Seto Kaiba
    Well, the remaining conformal packs would disrupt the boundary layer airflow and lead to increased drag that would disrupt handling and impede the operation of the boundary layer control system and vortex flow control system. It wouldn't be a dealbreaker for powered flight, the decrease in lift coupled with the increase in drag and mass would definitely lower maneuverability. The main reason I can see that they wouldn't retain the other conformal packs in the transition from space flight to atmospheric flight would be that they're not really hanging onto anything of value. Option packs affixed to the boosters are where most of the actual armament is. The conformal packs mounted elsewhere hold relatively little in terms of micro-missiles. For the most part, they're conformal fuel tanks holding the additional cryogenic fuel slush necessary to give the VF a longer operating time in space and cool the reactors inside the engines. Thermonuclear reaction turbine engines are thousands of times more fuel efficient in atmosphere than they are in space, and their internal tanks normally hold sufficient fuel for weeks of continuous operation as it is, so they don't really need that extra fuel slush.
  9. Seto Kaiba
    Macross Delta's writers forgot about her "woe is me, I am the merely average Jenius" character arc almost right away after they introduced it in the sixth episode. Definitely a "they wasted a perfectly good plot" moment, after Mirage completely took a backseat to Freyja in the second half of the series and she just mysteriously became as good as Hayate for the finale. She just became the tsundere girl who couldn't spit it out for thirteen episodes. Absolutely, yes. Macross Delta: the White Knight of the Black Wing shouldn't have been a separate side story manga. Its story absolutely should've been a flashback episode or two of the Macross Delta series proper. Without that extra context, the Macross Delta audience never really gets that signature Macross moral ambiguity where where antagonists aren't really bad people. Someone who only sees the anime never gets the Why of the Kingdom of the Wind's grievances against the New UN Government. All they get to go in is a vague remark about a "profoundly unequal treaty" in Roid's declaration of war, and a lot of hinting that all is not as it seems before the very late introduction of the truth about the New UN Government having bombed Carlyle with a dimensional warhead. If you add in the material from the manga, and it puts an entirely different dimension on the whole conflict. Roid's remark about the unequal treaty and second class citizen status turns out to be a masterpiece of understatement and makes their stated desire to liberate the other natives from the New UN Government seem rather reasonable (if misguided).
  10. Seto Kaiba
    >implying Mirage got development. The writing was just an absolute fiasco, start-to-finish. It's not so much "they wasted a perfectly good character" as "they wasted a perfectly good cast". Kind of a bad idea to require the whole audience to buy a manga side story to even figure out what the enemy's motivation is. Savage, but undeniably true.
  11. Seto Kaiba
    Nope. Macross Delta is incredibly stingy with technical detail... probably because the mecha are out-of-focus in the series. I'd guess around 120-180rpm based on the animation.
  12. Seto Kaiba
    They're talking about whacking Mirage, not Freyja. Only a handful of them actually had backstories... and most of the ones that did had only the most cursory kind, with barely one bullet point's worth of information. Hayate's dad had more backstory than almost the entire main cast, and he was a posthumous character! The backstory for the main frigging character was "he's a shiftless space bum who moves a lot because he can't keep a job". Some of them, like Makina and Reina, have a "backstory" that's entirely Informed Ability that's not actually in evidence in the show.
  13. Seto Kaiba
    Very likely, yes... but has it explicitly come up in any interview or other publication? That's kind of what I was going for with that list. The inspirations that've been explicitly identified in various books, magazines, etc.
  14. Seto Kaiba
    The first OP is the only time she's actually shown doing anything vaguely mechanic-like. The show doesn't actually depict her working on Hayate's VF-31 or EX-Gear, she just shows up to tell him it'd been tuned up for him. If they're not gonna kill Makina and/or Reina off, it'd be nice if they actually lived up to what their official bios said about them the way the other Walkure members do instead of just being the galaxy's most inept undercover team. Heck, why not go all the way and have Xaos actually behave like the (strictly mythical) competent PMC the show was supposed to make us believe they were? They're no SMS, but it was incredibly bizarre seeing them walk blindly into every trap Windermere set in the series. The reduced movie runtime might help a lot in that regard, since just two hours leaves less time for Xaos to be played for fools by Windermere before saving the day.
  15. Seto Kaiba
    Nah, Mirage is bulletproof... they'll never let this one out of the gate without a proper romantic foil for Freyja. It might've been workable if Mirage hadn't been made the serious girl in the obligatory love triangle. (Also she's more maroon than mauve... but hey.) Well, they've got the dying part down in the series... what with King Grammier, Qasim, Roid, and Keith all dying and Heinz at death's door due to overuse of his rune. All the architects of the war have been killed. The only Aerial Knight aces left are the ones who either opposed the campaign against the New UN Government or were spreading Walkure fandom around behind the scenes. Safe bet they'll be suffering after the war ended as well. Their Kingdom of the Wind's government is either an absolute monarchy or very close to it, and the royal family is on the brink of dying out. Its economy is in tatters with its only marketable exports unsellable for health reasons. To put the cherry on it, their source of technological aid bailed on them, so they have no way to even mount a new offensive or keep their existing aircraft operating for very long.
  16. Seto Kaiba
    How dare you, sir! That's the best character in the show. Someone give the mercat a VF-31 damnit.
  17. Seto Kaiba
    Hm... the ones I know that've been explicitly stated in one publication or another: Sv-51 = Su-27 VF-0 = F-14D Tomcat VF-1 Valkyrie = F-14A Tomcat VF-3000 Crusader = F-14A Tomcat VF-4 Lightning III = XB-70 Valkyrie / SR-71 Blackbird VF-5 = F2Y Sea Dart VF-X-7 Ghost Valkyrie = Martin Marietta X-24B V-BR-2 = SR-71 Blackbird VF-5000 = F-16C/D Fighting Falcon VA-X-3 = None acknowledged1 VAB-2 = None acknowledged1 VA-3 Invader = A-6 Intruder VF-9 Cutlass = Grumman X-29 VF-X-10 = Grumman X-29 VF-11 Thunderbolt III = Su-27K/Su-33 Flanker-D VF-11MAXL = F-16XL Fighting Falcon VF-14 Vampire = SR-71 Blackbird VF-17 Nightmare = F-117A Nighthawk Y/VF-19 Excalibur = Su-27 Flanker/X-29 YF-21/VF-22 Sturmvogel II = YF-23 Black Widow II VF-171 Nightmare Plus = F-117A Nighthawk YF-24 Evolution = F-22A Raptor VF-25 Messiah = F-14D Tomcat/Su-27 Flanker VF-27 Lucifer = F-14D Tomcat/Su-27 Flanker/SR-71 Blackbird YF-29 Durandal = None acknowledged2 YF-30 Chronos = None acknowledged3 VF-31 Kairos/Siegfried = None acknowledged4 Sv-154 Svard = F-104 Starfighter Sv-262 Draken III = Saab J 35 Draken One could be forgiven for getting the impression Kawamori-sensei has a very great enthusiasm for the Su-27 Flanker's many variations and the F-14 Tomcat. 1. None stated, but almost certainly the B-2 Spirit bomber. 2. It's widely hinted-at, but not explicitly confirmed, that the YF-29 Durandal is a modified reuse of the SW-XA II Schneegans from Kawamori's VF-Experiment column in Character Model magazine, which would make the YF-29 indirectly inspired by the Sukhoi Su-47 Berkut (NATO: Firkin). 3. Explicitly derived in-universe from the YF-24 Evolution, suggesting it's probably another F-22A Raptor-inspired design. 4. Directly derivative of the YF-30 Chronos, making it arguably indirectly derivative of the F-22A.
  18. Seto Kaiba
    So, Arad going out for revenge after Windermere conquers Ragna and cuts him off from his supply of jellyfish snacks?
  19. Seto Kaiba
    Dunno~! Macross Chronicle is the only source I know of that talks in-depth about the VF-19EF/A, but it doesn't say anything about why it only adopted the NP-FAD-23 wing boosters from the VF-25's SPS-25S/MF25 Super Pack. If I had to guess, my guess would be that the NP-FAD-23 was the only part of the SPS-25S/MF25 that could be easily adapted for use on the VF-19EF/A that wasn't also redundant in the face of the existing VF-19 Super Pack parts like the NP-AB-20 (leg) and NP-FB-FA07 (shoulder) conformal tanks. There'd be some significant remodeling involved to get the other parts of the SPS-25S/MF25 to fit the differently-shaped limbs, body, and shield of the VF-19.
  20. Seto Kaiba
    A strange guy indeed, though in this case I think he probably had second thoughts about where to put Reconguista in G after writing began in earnest and he realized there'd be a huge plot hole or ten if he kept it as a prequel to Turn A. I'm launching my latest effort to get through Gundam SEED today... I fear this will be another doomed expedition into the wilds of the darkest Cosmic Era.
  21. Seto Kaiba
    Ah, I can only hope this'll be the reverse of the Macross Frontier movies sparing Michael Blanc... and they'll actually whack Makina, Reina, and maybe a few other deadweight flat characters in the cast. The trailer's underwhelming as hell compared to even the teaser trailer for Macross Delta's TV series.
  22. Seto Kaiba
    What don't know exactly what it's made of, just that when it's energized it catalyzes the creation of heavy quantum... and that the raw form of the stuff is apparently a byproduct of supernovas.
  23. Seto Kaiba
    Not a fuel source, but a fuel catalyst. When used in a fold reactor, the fold carbon or fold quartz is part of the Gravity Inertia Controller in the reactor core. It produces the heavy quanta that the GIC system uses to catalyze thermonuclear fusion in the reactor's fuel and to contain the resulting plasma.
  24. Seto Kaiba
    Initially, when Reconguista in G was being promoted he'd said it was a prequel to ∀ Gundam but once the series was out he started asserting it was a sequel to ∀ Gundam set ~500 years after it. The latter makes more sense, IMO, given that the Earthnoids in ∀ Gundam couldn't possibly have built that orbital elevator on their own when they could barely build copies of archaeotech mobile suits. Their ignorance of the Moonrace's existence in the Correct Century also wouldn't fit if they'd spent several centuries dependent on the Moonrace's lunar colony of Towasanga and the photon batteries it produced for their entire energy infrastructure. It fits better if the troubled times of the early Reguild Century occurred after the Moonrace started trying to recolonize Earth and then gave up for a time to support its recovery before planning their reconquest of the planet.
  25. Seto Kaiba
    The Bird Human is a bio-technological construct that the ancient Protoculture created, inspired by the Vajra Queen. The statuary modeled on it is something the Protoculture created and left behind on various worlds... it's their calling card. That does seem to be the case, yes. The "magic floating rocks" (no I don't have a better term) are also presumably some of their sufficiently advanced technology. There's the interesting related question of whether the megastructure on the Vajra planet in Macross Frontier was something that the Vajra built or something the Protoculture built for the Vajra, considering both have an organic design aesthetic and the part in which the Vajra hive is situated is a large spiral design very similar in appearance to the icon associated with the Protoculture on several occasions. It raises the question of whether the Protoculture created a home for the Vajra and then tagged it with their Stellar Republic's insignia or whether the Republic adopted the Vajra's hive design as their formal emblem.
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