Life & Temperatures on Titan

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by DataPacRat

New question: What do you think an aircraft with both a gasbag and helicopter rotors would look like?

It's been done, although not successfully.

[DataPacRat]

Originally Posted by johndallman

It's been done, although not successfully.

I see what my problem is - helicopters are just the closest that SS has to props and turbofans.

Comparing the Vehicles stats for all of those with the Spaceships numbers, I'm going to propose, for a SM+4 ship:
* Ducted fan: 2G thrust, needs 1 PP, max of 600 mph, $40k
* Electric turbofan: 0.5G thrust, needs 4 PP, no max speed, $50k

I'm basing that on these numbers...
* SS SM+4 jet engine system: 1,000 lbs, 1G aerial, $100k, 0.5 tons fuel per hour
* 1,000 lb TL7 turbo-ramjet: 4,666 lbs thrust, $100k, 233.3 gph (0.758 tons) jet fuel
* 1,000 lb TL8 turbo-ramjet: 6,000 lbs thrust, $100k, 270 gph (0.8775 tons) jet fuel
* 1,000 lb ducted fan: 2,455 kW, 9,820 lbs thrust, 10 cf, $40k, max 600 mph
* 1,000 lb electric turbofan: 2,933 lbs thrust, 8,212.4 kW, 20 cf, $50k, no max speed
... plus some half-remembered idea of a PP having something to do with 1 to 1.2 MWe per ton, and SM+4 systems being half-tons apiece.

Given that getting to 600 mph for a streamlined spaceship only takes a thrust of 0.0576G, then ducted fans cap out with a system 3 SM smaller than the ship as a whole. For a SM+4 ship, that looks like it'd work out to around $1.3k and 30 lbs - just about within rounding errors. I'm almost tempted to let any Spaceships winged craft be able to spend 1 PP to hit 600 mph in atmo, without needing to explicitly specify anything further. (An unstreamlined ship would need 5.8G, which would need 3 full-scale ducted-fan systems.)

Anyone have any nitpicks, or other further thoughts?


Edit: I think I messed up the kW to power-point conversion. For a SM+4 ship, one system is a half-ton, so a Power Point should be about, maybe just above, half a megawatt. Implying a one-system ducted fan needs 5 PP, and a one-system electric turbofan needs 16 PP. Does that seem more right?