Seto Kaiba
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Ach, that's a shame. We've lost a man whose work brought joy to millions.
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The kana for "Earth" is アース. The kana for "Alus" in Macross II is アルス. So, no... the spellings are similar, but アルス is not an alternate kana spelling of "Earth". The Macross II manga has a translation that is, at its best, rather spotty and of indifferent quality. (It also really doesn't have any bearing on the story of the animated series.) -
... pretty much impossible to tell from a thumbnail the size of a postage stamp. EDIT: Looks vaguely like a Beechcraft Starship... though that seems unlikely, since that design didn't go into production until 1983.
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No.
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Well, it's not the exact same engine... the VF-17 used the FF-2100X, while the VF-171 uses the FF-2110A. Still, it wouldn't be a tall order to either tune up the new engines or drop in a different, more powerful engine to make a command spec. model or something along those lines. WRT the capacity of that launcher... I would assume that it's the same as the VF-17's, but nothing is actually said about the number of missiles carried inside of either launcher system, so that's a great big question mark. As far as why the forearm beam guns were axed, Macross Chronicle's VF-171 Nightmare Plus mechanic sheet points to it being the result of the changes in the transformation system... specifically, the elimination of the "high speed GERWALK" configuration the VF-17 was so fond of using.
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Nothing of significance, no. They are... and the answer is "if you have a planet literally covered in wrecked ships that are structurally sound but not salvageable, why not use them for building materials?". The UN Spacy of Macross II was eyebrow deep in secondhand Zentradi warships, and more were being captured every time a rogue Zentradi fleet blundered into human-controlled space (once every 10 years or so...). The Macross Cannon-class gunships are another example of using captured Zentradi warships to build something new... each of them was built around four captured, retrofitted Nupetiet Vergnitzs-class fleet command battleships. No, they can't... they're just convenient structural building material. The emigrant fleets of the Macross II universe use the Macross-class SDFs and Megaroad-class ships well into the 2050's. Unless I missed something in Variable Fighter Master File, we don't know how many VF-19's were made... and from other, official materials like Macross Chronicle we just know that the VF-19 was deemed unsuitable for extensive deployment. The reasons given for the VF-19 being passed over for widespread adoption are: The high performance of the VF-19 and VF-22, both in engine output and maneuverability, exceeded the tolerances of a human body to such an extent that pilots frequently lost control of the aircraft during training. Various attempts to fix the problem were made (e.g. the VF-19F/S's control refinements), but no viable permanent solution was found. The VF-19 and VF-22 are extremely expensive. Isamu's little stunt with the YF-19 proved that the VF-19 and VF-22 were capable of independently penetrating Earth's defensive sphere, so the UN Forces officials were unwilling/reluctant to deploy it to emigrant fleets as-is (which, later, resulted in "Monkey Model" VF-19's like the VF-19P and VF-19EF. Unmanned aircraft demonstrated capabilities exceeding that of the VF-19 and VF-22, though they had their own issues and did not become the new main fighter either. (Based on Chronicle's descriptions, it sounds like they ended up being one of two main fighters alongside the VF-171.) Those dates are a bit misleading... you're citing dates of first flight or introduction, not actual adoption of the main fighter role. The VF-1 Valkyrie was the main VF from 2008-2020, the VF-4 from 2020 to "after 2030" (and shared it with the VF-5000 for part of the period), the VF-11 from some point after 2030 to ~2050 (and technically shared it with the VF-14), and the VF-171 from ~2050 to the "present day" (2060). (Mind you, having a new fighter become next main fighter doesn't mean the existing ones just disappeared... they were still using VF-1's alongside VF-4's and VF-5000's, etc. etc.) Just because the VF-19 didn't become main VF of the (New) UN Forces doesn't mean it wasn't used in significant numbers... the Macross Galaxy fleet is known to have equipped their defense forces with a locally-produced version of the VF-19C, the Macross Frontier fleet had their own local variant that they built over 150 of (the VF-19EF), and so on. Yes. The Mistral is sitting on the airstrip in episode 1. The MiM-31 Karyobin, a completely different aircraft that link you found was for, is NOT present in that episode.
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Nope... the VF-171 design changed a LOT of stuff from the original VF-17 design it was based on. The redesigned (simplified) transformation resulted in the bi-directional medium-bore beam guns in the forearms being cut from the design entirely. Also, the internal micro-missile launchers in the wing root had their number of exit ports reduced from 2 to 1, those laser cannons on the head and alongside the cockpit were replaced by beam cannons, it got a new gun pod, and wings gained six new pylons for externally-carried ordinance. The engines weren't unchanged either... they got a less powerful version of the VF-17's engine with 17% (93.5kN) less output than the VF-17D and gained 300kg of mass. On the plus side, it did gain improvements in avionics, active stealth, aerodynamics, etc. Nah, the Mistral is a completely different aircraft... it's just that link you found to Nanashi's defunct website would've taken you to the wrong aircraft. We have info on the MiM-31, which isn't at that airshow, we don't have anything for the Mistral because it's just part of the scenery. Pretty much, yeah... there's a caricature of Kawamori in the background of one of those crowd shots tho.
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That link probably wouldn't have taken you to the right plane anyway... the MiM-31 was the Anti-UN Alliance fighter from Claudia's flashback episode in the original series. http://www.macross2.net/m3/sdfmacross/karyovin.htm Apart from one or two pieces of art, there isn't really any coverage of the Mistral.
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Apart from the Mistral in the foreground, there is no ID on those planes... just background filler, I'd guess.
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If I had to hazard a guess based on the "virtues" of the design mentioned in Macross Chronicle, it would be that it's a "heavy" VF because of the combination of the design's excellent defensive strength and payload capabilities.
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Source for that? I don't recall anything about the BDI system being Zentradi overtechnology... the only explicitly Zentradi system that's mentioned with the YF-21/VF-22 is the inertia vector control system, based on the one used in the Queadluun-Rau. I'm not finding anything that connects the YF-21's BDI to the DYRL?-only Meltrandi cybernetics. EDIT: I think you might be conflating the BDI and IVCS... the BDI wasn't used on the YF-24, but the ISC used on the YF-24 and its derivative designs is based on the IVCS used on the Q-Rau and YF-21/VF-22. Frontier's prohibition of implants is rare in 2059. Per Kawamori's interview in Otona Anime #9, that's a recent change.
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Remember, the material in the DYRL?-related entries may not necessarily be true for the stories of the main/ongoing Macross universe... as DYRL? itself is a movie within that Macross universe.
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Two in total, IIRC.
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It's not a factory satellite, it's just the "Macross Cannon base"... one of the orbital staging areas for the Sol system's six Macross Cannon-class gunships.
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None that I'm aware of, no.
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"Migg Pitt" is the name it's given.
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Well, the waste heat has to go somewhere... and in most cases the wing is the largest contiguous surface on a Valkyrie, and thus an ideal radiator surface for that waste heat when not in combat. (As noted on the VF-25.) Er... just because you don't know the answer doesn't mean it's an inconsistency, my friend. As noted in Macross Chronicle1, the VF-171 Nightmare Plus used by the Macross Frontier fleet were (effectively) detuned models operating at well below the airframe's design limit in the name of reducing costs and improving handling. It was designed with the structural strength to support a much more powerful engine, and is noted as being both more durable and having comprehensive performance superior to that of the VF-17. The (still comparatively detuned) FF-2550F engines the VF-171EX was fitted with are noted2 as having loaded the airframe right to the limits of its structural strength. By contrast, the VF-11 was designed in a much earlier era... when the kind of thrust even the detuned FF-2110A produces could only be achieved by a "brute force" approach of simply building bigger, thirstier engines. I'm certain the airframe was, like others, designed with leeway for reasonable improvements in engine technology like those seen on the VF-1 or VF-4... but they probably didn't anticipate that, a decade or so after finalizing the design, there'd be a quantum leap in engine technology that'd just about double the potential output of a thermonuclear reaction turbine. In short, the VF-171 didn't need reinforcement to adopt the more powerful engines because the airframe was designed to take a more powerful engine than it ended up using... while the VF-11 needed reinforcement because it was designed for the outputs of engines available when it was built, and used those engines to the max. As a point of order, there are already sensors all over the airframe on regular VF's... even moreso on AVFs. Yep... that's what we've been saying. On a thermonuclear reaction turbine engine, the production of thrust is a function of energy losses at the generator stage. Plasma, heat, and power are bled off the reactor to heat intake air and/or run the MHD plasma ion engine, which means less power is available for other systems. With FAST packs, it's also possible they could be utilizing the thermonuclear reaction turbines at a lower level and relying more on rocket boosters to provide more generator support for things like the capacitor banks in the APS-25 Armored Pack... though newer craft using Stage II reaction turbine engines have a greater energy surplus at maximum thrust than previous generations, which is responsible for their ability to use light energy conversion armor in fighter mode (and probably helps fill the demand for power from capacitor banks in FAST packs). So... using a detuned engine to preserve AVF technical functionality at lower levels of performance. That sounds very familiar. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Macross Chronicle Macross Frontier mechanic sheet NUNS 02A "VF-171 Nightmare Plus" 2. Macross Chronicle Macross Frontier mechanic sheet NUNS 03A "VF-171EX Nightmare Plus EX"
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All told, the available descriptions of the Macross universe's active stealth technology I've found point to it being an ECM-based active stealth system which uses destructive interference to mask the fighter's presence by zeroing the returning radar wave. Variable Fighter Master File: VF-1 Valkyrie's second volume has some brief mentions of the UN Forces having to make post-war adjustments to the VF-1 active stealth system to improve its effectiveness against Zentradi radar systems, because they use different frequencies, modulations, and search patterns from what human-built radars do.
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Actually, that has a relatively straightforward explanation. Because development was being pursued in the immediate aftermath of the first space war, the VF-X-4 prototypes were assembled using large (but diminishing) amounts of existing VF-1 hardware. The version (a model of which is) seen in the series was 35% VF-1 Valkyrie parts, and by the start of trial production, they'd whittled the percentage of shared parts to 25% on the VF-4A-0.
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It's one of the acknowledged advantages of the delta wing configuration used on the VF-0C/D, VF-11MAXL, etc... you have more internal capacity for fuel and, if what's said about cooling on other models holds true, room for a larger coolant loop to dissipate heat from engine components that isn't being used to produce power. There are a couple examples of engines made by Daimler and RR, or LAI, but yeah... Shinnakasu Heavy Industry seems to have a lock on the military's thermonuclear reaction engine contracts. Conformal tanks on their own would probably be cheaper, yes... though the simplest way to go about it would be just enlarge the airframe for better internal tank capacity (e.g. the VF-11MAXL). That's because the improvements in armor strength are due to upgrades in the energy conversion armor system, not reinforcement of the airframe itself. I'm sure I could find worse among the stuff I've written on request for various RPGs and MUSHes. As the dethroned "next main fighter", the VF-19 tends to be the go-to source for AVF upgrade parts... though we know little about what the configuration of the VF-17's radar system is. The AVF-tier radars and other composite sensor systems we know about in official or semi-official sources suggest they probably wouldn't fit inside a smaller airframe without compromises elsewhere (like an elongated nose, e.g. the VF-171, which adversely affected stealth). Yes, the VF-171 Nightmare Plus uses a detuned version of the VF-17's burst turbine engines in its "stock" configuration for cost reduction, but as discussed earlier, that doesn't necessarily translate into reduced generator output. The engine may simply be design-limited to reserve more of its reactor output for onboard systems instead of thrust production. Either way, it's still using the more efficient thermonuclear reaction burst turbine technology... so it's at least in the same category, power-wise, as the VF-19 or VF-22's engines. (Also remember that, with its coolant limitations on thrust production, the FF-2450 used on the VF-22 had comparable output to a FF-2110 but more than enough power for active stealth and a pinpoint barrier as well.) The difference should be fairly significant... the VF-19 is said to have needed structural reinforcement to use the GU-17, and it was much more robust than the VF-1 or VF-3000. (If we look to Master File, the difference isn't just 3mm in shell diameter... 58mm vs 55mm... it's also 2km/s in muzzle velocity.)
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Well... the obvious, non-story reason for it is that Kawamori wanted something less main character-y for the Macross Frontier fleet's grunts than the VF-19 Excalibur, and settled on a simplified VF-17. The in-story reason is vague and nebulous to say the least. I suppose if you wanted to point to a distinct advantage of the VF-17 in-setting, it'd have to be that General Galaxy's VF-17 is on the low end of the AVF performance "band" without actually being an AVF itself. Its performance pushes the limit of human endurance without actually exceeding what a well-trained pilot can take... whereas the VF-19 and VF-22 both went so far that their excessively high performance caused the pilots to lose control of the aircraft. It also had respectable defensive capability without a barrier, and respectable stealth capability without the 3rd Generation active stealth of the first AVF generation. In short, it's because the VF-17 might as well be sold as "I can't believe it's not AVF!". During the Macross 7 series' second half, Gamlin was still leading Diamond Force... and the trial lot of AVF's built by Three Star for the Macross-7 fleet was three VF-19's (Emerald Force) and two VF-22's (Max and Milia's). Not enough free planes to upgrade the entirety of Diamond Force, so they got to keep their VF-17's until a year or so later in Dynamite 7, when Gamlin finally got his VF-22S. (Diamond Force was probably low-priority for upgrades after being seconded to the City-7 defenses.) The Nightmare Plus had the Aegis Pack for the RVF-171, but yes... the VF-171 doesn't seem to have actually had a Super Pack of its own until the decision was made to enhance them for anti-Vajra use. With both internalized armaments AND wing-mounted ordinance, the VF-171 probably shouldn't have needed a Super Pack in the normal course of affairs. It's already got the more efficient FF-2110A engines, so its need for additional propellant is minimal. It's also probably scaled back a bit because, at the time, the AIF-7S/QF-4000 Ghost was gradually taking over for manned fighters. By all accounts, the VF-171 was a highly versatile design that could easily be adapted to different operational roles with little in the way of modification... and that probably played a role in the absence of FAST packs.
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I'm not aware of anything that describes how exactly a thermonuclear reaction burst turbine is different from a regular one, just that the burst turbines were used on the VF-16, VF-17 from the D variant on, and the first AVF generation, and that their key advantages were significant gains in fuel efficiency, improved heat exchange systems, and nearly double the thrust. Combined, that's apparently responsible for the ability to reach orbit unassisted.
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Energy Conversion Armor (ECA), some gathered trivia
Seto Kaiba replied to Mr March's topic in Movies and TV Series
Macross Chronicle sort of beats around the bush about how exactly the Vajra get their energy... but between the series' mention of a "fold reactor" in the Vajra's Knight-class ship and the Queen Frontier's "fold quartz dimensional energy conversion" power source, that tidbit sounds like the Vajra are using the fold carbon they naturally produce to extract energy from super dimension space to run the energy-intensive technorganic traits like gravity control flight, their energy conversion armor, beam weapons, etc. What makes energy conversion armor work is supposedly electromagnetic pulses... -
That's a good question... in Macross Plus and Macross 7, it seems like the pinpoint barriers are turned off (or at least on hot standby) until they're needed, and then they just appear where they're needed. Usually it's centered on the shield or over a fist. If I had to guess, I'd say it's probably semi-autonomous operation (because the pilot's frankly got enough going on as it is). IINM (and it has been a while, so I may very well be), the only time we see fighter-scale pinpoint barriers represented as the original series-style discs was in the Macross 7 series. I believe it was either 2 or 3 discs.
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As far as my views go, it's principally because what little official information exists on the practice of upgrading older designs to use AVF-level hardware suggests the end result for all but the most minimal changes is usually an unstable and/or unreliable plane the likes of which would potentially be beyond even the skills of an ace pilot to manage... and are thus unsuitable for mass production. It's not just a matter of raw thrust... but a matter of fuel efficiency. The thing that pushed the VF-17 Nightmare to the level of being able to launch into satellite orbit unassisted was the adoption of a new version of thermonuclear reaction engine technology. It got the FF-2100 thermonuclear reaction burst turbine, which had greatly improved output and, more importantly, fuel efficiency. One of the key design features of the VF-11MAXL was its delta wing, which offered more room for fuel storage... that probably was as much a factor in its orbital capabilities as the new engines. One also has to wonder if the stock VF-11 could meet the cooling requirements of a more potent engine... because even AVFs are struggling with that on their own. They're vague on that subject in general... another instance of it being mentioned but not described in any detail would be on the VF-19EF Caliburn, which had to be reinforced to use the GU-17. Minor upgrades are... you don't usually drop a next-generation avionics package into the fighter and call it a block upgrade. That takes a lot of adaptation. Whether next-generation sensor systems would even fit is a whole other kettle of fish... the VF-19 radar, for instance, is QUITE large and the VF-25's is actually dependent on the shape and composition of the nosecone. WRT the active stealth system, that's probably more a case of sufficient generator output than anything else... you need to throw more power behind the active cancellation to defeat more powerful radars. Electrical output... it's not at all clear what the exact relationship between a reaction engine's generator output and thrust output is. It's not helping that we only have generator outputs for two VF's... the VF-1 Valkyrie and VF-2SS Valkyrie II. For those, the output power to engine thrust relationship seems to be a linear progression, and if we knew the efficiency of the MHD systems in the engines it'd be possible to backtrack from maximum instantaneous output in space to a ballpark figure for generator output for the others if it's still linear for VF's in the main timeline. We're still talking enormous amounts of power here... gigawatts, easily.