K380/900 MAX :: 4 is the Charm - Prologue

The Report

Seangan is starting to get somewhat uncomfortable, but he knows Froing for time enough to give him some slack - more than often, it pays.

Colonel Seangan _ Hummm... Wait a minute... I had word about 3 very nasty accidents involving aircrafts in the past days on KSC. Until the moment I concluded they would be unrelated, as you stormed my office excited as hell with a "solution". But the expression in your face is starting to startle me, Lieutenant... What are you hiding?

Lieutenant Froing _ Well, sir... Permission to speak freely?

Colonel Seangan _ Please go on...

Lieutenant Froing _ As you are aware, one of my duties is to closely monitor the KSC's Fab4 team...

Colonel Seangan _ Jebediah Kerman, William Kerman, Robert Kerman and Valentina Kerman - in order of hazardousness...

Lieutenant Froing _ I could not say it better. So I was informed when they were scheduled to test flight a technically promising, but economically questionable, new airliner - the KAX's first Super Jumbo. They surely had a hard start: the first prototype didn't even cleared the Runway, and the second one literally destroyed it on taking off due the craft's sheer weight! Then KSC intervened (not sure why) and allocated the Team on the project.

Colonel Seangan _ Not with the best of the results, as I had heard about the 3rd flight...

Lieutenant Froing _ It's the exactly the other way around, sir! Allow me to enumerate the reasons INSCOM (and me) considered it a Successful Failure:

  1. They are using BACC Thumpers as R.A.T.O.** on takeoff!
    • The new 5M High Bypass Giganormous Turbofans were delayed again, KAX is struggling to scale up the Goliaths, and so they are using all the current Goliaths' stock faster than they can produce new ones.
    • Using R.A.T.O. was an attempt to save some Goliaths on takeoff.
  2. The avionics are highly advanced, besides in need of some serious INFOSEC**.
  3. They managed to (involuntarily but effectively) do a barrel roll with an 1000PAX airliner, and survived to tell the history.
  4. For reasons still currently WiP**, they lost 2/3 of her wingspan soon after, but the airliner kept flying to KSC.
    • The remaining wings and control surfaces could be hot reconfigured during the event, what surely was key for surviving it.
  5. On touchdown, and probably due a gust of wind that overthrew the precarious controllability of the craft, the airliner hit one of the Runway's ALS**, culminating with some very entertaining fireworks that destroyed (again) part of the Runway. (Way less this time).
    • No crew was injured. All Crew Cabins survived the crash, INSCOM estimates that any PAX on that Cabins would walk from the crash with little to no injuries.
  6. She have a marvellous autonomy, and proved it can fly safely hugging the deck.

_ Sir, this airliner is our best bet to carry on the NEO. She still needs a lot of work to fully meet our requirements, but at this moment this aircraft is the only thing we have that may have a chance to fulfil the mission goals, with an almost perfect chance of survivability on all but the very worst scenarios.

Colonel Seangan _ I see... But you still didn't explained to me how in freaking hell do you plan to land (and then takeoff) a huge aircraft like that on an airstrip that barely holds two Kessnas side by side... Not to mention how to get her there without being noticed!!

Lieutenant Froing _ We are working on it sir. We have a huge advantage over the previous proposals...

Colonel Seangan _ Jeb, Will, Bob and Val. We never managed to enlist them, KSC always pulled them out from any summoning (whoever backs KSP, can shut us down pretty easily) - but now we are taking over a project with they already in... This is what I call luck...

Lieutenant Froing _ Not exactly luck, sir... I'm dating Herr Doktor Wernher's daughter, she's INSCOM. She's helping on it. A lot. He's not going to be amused...

Colonel Seangan _ Boy, oh, boy... I'm smelling a Court-Martial in our future... (said laughing)

  • R.A.T.O. - Rocket Assisted Take Off. Literally, shoving some rockets on the airplane to give some extra oomph on takeoff.
  • INFOSEC - Information Security. Practices and Technics of protecting information, and the respective computers and networks.
  • WiP - Work In Progress.
  • ALS - Approach Lighting System. A lighting system installed on the approach end of an airport runway and consisting. Wikipedia