Super Macross Mecha Fun Time Discussion Thread!

[Seto Kaiba]

8 hours ago, aurance said:

So - valkyries have a lot of very thin and pointy bits, e.g. things that are probably control surfaces in flight mode. When they're in battroid mode, assuming they get into some sort of hand to hand combat, wouldn't those surfaces get subjected to tremendous torsion or other stresses if, say, a battroid falls down?

Yep... and many such areas are also subject to enormous stresses during transformation and high-g maneuvering as well.  Even relatively simple acts like walking or running can put joints and panels under a considerable amount of stress.

 

8 hours ago, aurance said:

Are those surfaces designed to bend to absorb stress (other than the weird wing material we see with YF-21)? Do they just snap?

Like the rest of the Valkyrie, parts that you would think of as thin and potentially fragile are made from ultra-durable overtechnology materials (OTMat) far stronger than armor-grade steel.  The structural frame is the super-durable spacemetal/hypercarbon and the composite armor skin covering the airframe is made of the same/similar materials and further reinforced with energy conversion armor.  It takes an extraordinary amount of force to bend or shear that material, but subjected to enough force it will bend or break.

Variable Fighter Master File, of course, goes into more detail.  It naturally confirms the hypercarbon frame material is extraordinarily strong and that the composite armor skin of Valkyries contains hypercarbon itself and is reinforced with energy conversion armor that greatly increases its structural strength.  One detail that Master File offers which is not explicitly repeated in official setting materials is a statement in Variable Fighter Master File: VF-1 Valkyrie Vol.1's general discussion of energy conversion armor.  Therein, it says that one area where Humanity adapted the alien overtechnology beyond mere imitation of the technology they found was by applying energy conversion armor as both an armor enhancement and a momentary structural reinforcement system.  Essentially, what it describes is the Valkyrie's control AI dumping additional energy into the energy conversion armor in moments of anticipated mechanical stress like transformation or high-g maneuvers to make the fragile parts under the most stress momentarily more durable. 

This is also mentioned in Variable Fighter Master File: VF-0 Phoenix as something that can be done in response to events like a collision or a fall.

Master File also describes the incredible durability of the "space metal" frame and composite armor as a bit of a double-edged sword.  The incredible rigidity of the hypercarbon frame and functionally graded composite armor means that, if warping of structural members does occur, the material's incredible strength can actually prevent repair and make complete replacement of parts the only option.  (How much of a problem this is varies from aircraft to aircraft, but is noted to be especally severe on the VF-25.)  The VF-1 book also notes that this makes Valkyries hard to dispose of when they're retired from service.  The structural materials are so durable that physical destruction of the aircraft is very difficult, and recycling the multilayer functionally graded composite of the armor is extremely expensive.

In a way, the VF-1 Vol.1 book turns the explanation of armor strength into a backhanded explanation for why so many old-model VFs stick around and end up in civilian hands in the franchise.  They're built so tough that normal boneyard methods aren't viable, so the military is stuck keeping them in mothballs until they can be properly diassembled and recycled... making selling disarmed old models off to civilians an attractive alternative disposal option.

[pengbuzz]

2 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Yep... and many such areas are also subject to enormous stresses during transformation and high-g maneuvering as well.  Even relatively simple acts like walking or running can put joints and panels under a considerable amount of stress.

 

Like the rest of the Valkyrie, parts that you would think of as thin and potentially fragile are made from ultra-durable overtechnology materials (OTMat) far stronger than armor-grade steel.  The structural frame is the super-durable spacemetal/hypercarbon and the composite armor skin covering the airframe is made of the same/similar materials and further reinforced with energy conversion armor.  It takes an extraordinary amount of force to bend or shear that material, but subjected to enough force it will bend or break.

Variable Fighter Master File, of course, goes into more detail.  It naturally confirms the hypercarbon frame material is extraordinarily strong and that the composite armor skin of Valkyries contains hypercarbon itself and is reinforced with energy conversion armor that greatly increases its structural strength.  One detail that Master File offers which is not explicitly repeated in official setting materials is a statement in Variable Fighter Master File: VF-1 Valkyrie Vol.1's general discussion of energy conversion armor.  Therein, it says that one area where Humanity adapted the alien overtechnology beyond mere imitation of the technology they found was by applying energy conversion armor as both an armor enhancement and a momentary structural reinforcement system.  Essentially, what it describes is the Valkyrie's control AI dumping additional energy into the energy conversion armor in moments of anticipated mechanical stress like transformation or high-g maneuvers to make the fragile parts under the most stress momentarily more durable. 

This is also mentioned in Variable Fighter Master File: VF-0 Phoenix as something that can be done in response to events like a collision or a fall.

Master File also describes the incredible durability of the "space metal" frame and composite armor as a bit of a double-edged sword.  The incredible rigidity of the hypercarbon frame and functionally graded composite armor means that, if warping of structural members does occur, the material's incredible strength can actually prevent repair and make complete replacement of parts the only option.  (How much of a problem this is varies from aircraft to aircraft, but is noted to be especally severe on the VF-25.)  The VF-1 book also notes that this makes Valkyries hard to dispose of when they're retired from service.  The structural materials are so durable that physical destruction of the aircraft is very difficult, and recycling the multilayer functionally graded composite of the armor is extremely expensive.

In a way, the VF-1 Vol.1 book turns the explanation of armor strength into a backhanded explanation for why so many old-model VFs stick around and end up in civilian hands in the franchise.  They're built so tough that normal boneyard methods aren't viable, so the military is stuck keeping them in mothballs until they can be properly diassembled and recycled... making selling disarmed old models off to civilians an attractive alternative disposal option.

Seto,

I read at the Macross Mecha Manual's Macrosspedia that "The use of space metal frames may have been abandoned/replaced in the post-2012 era of the Macross chronology. Almost no mention of space metal is found outside of the Super Dimension Fortress Macross (1982-1987) era." (http://www.macross2.net/m3/macrosspedia/macrosspedia-index.html) If that's the case, what would NUNS have replaced it with (if any sources mention it) and why would they discontinue it?