Airships, Aircraft, and Their Infrastructure

[P3D]

AIRSHIPS

Classification

Military Airships are divided into 6 types, sorted for size and structure.

Type 0: 10 000m³ (nonrigid), 1 tons military payload, speed 30kts:  $0.10
Type 1: 20 000m³, 4 tons military payload, speed 40 kts:  $0.20
Type 2: 40 000m³, 9 tons military payload, speed 50 kts:  $0.40
Type 3: 70 000m³, 16 tons military payload, speed 60 kts:  $0.70
Type 4: 130 000m³, 31 tons military payload, speed 65 kts:  $1.30
Type 5: 210 000m², 60 tons military payload, speed 70 kts:  $2.10

Building and maintaining airships

Building time is six months.  Airships are financed from the military budget.

Construction, maintenance and safe storage happens in hangars. Landed airships are vulnerable to the weather, so they have to be stored in these huge structures if they are not in use.  You must have one hangar for every two airships.

If less hangars are constructed, 1 or more airships, according to the mathematic ratio will be subject to a wear and tear ratio equal to the ratio applicable to warships. With the following provision:  Airships below 50% can't fly.

Operations

The maximum endurance of an airship is 2hr for every 1000m3 of volume at a cruising speed of 40kts.

Maximum payload can be delivered up to 1/4th of the range.  Half the payload can be delivered to 1/2th the range.  The payload that can be delivered to the maximum  distance is effectively zero.  Between distances, payload scales linearly.

Example:  A 40,000m³ airship has a payload of 9 t. Its endurance is 80 hr. It can take 4.5 t for a 40 hr flight, or 2.25 t payload to a 60 hr flight.

An airship requires 1 hour maintenance for each hour spent in air.  This costs nothing, but functions as a limitation on operational tempo.

Upkeep

Maintenance requirements for airships are high, and they need frequent overhauls.  They are treated as land units - 12.5%/25% peacetime/mobilized upkeep per six months.
Airships cannot be put in reserve.

Design Life

An airship has a life of six years in peacetime conditions.  Heavy/wartime usage puts much higher demand on the airframe, and degrades the airship twice as fast - each six months counts as a full peacetime year.

Damage

100-86%:   Normal working aspects in airships. Doesn't affect any of the capabilities, unless it is visual. This is payed for in the upkeep

80-66%:  Range/speed/lifting capacity is reduced due leaks in the gasbags, and wasted ballast or fuel.  To repair this, the airship needs an input of 10% of the basic cost.

65-50%:  Barely airworthy, capacity lost in range/speed/lift is such that the nearest landing spot under controlled circumstances is needed.  To repair this, 25% of the original cost must be spent.

50-35%:  A controlled hard landing is the only option, but further damage can be avoided.  If the airship survives this crash, a reconstruction is possible at 50% cost, if the large lumbering hulk can be put into a hangar.

34% or less:  The airship crashes and is destroyed.

Hangar Cost

Type 0:  $2
Type 1:  $3
Type 2:  $4
Type 3:  $5
Type 4:  $6
Type 5:  $7

[Guinness]

Aircraft

Aircraft may be purchased in units as small as a squadron. The approximate manpower of each unit size can be found in the table below. In general terms, "small" is a single engine aircraft, "medium" is a twin engine aircraft, and "large" has 4 or more engines. The Moderators will be empowered to rule where a specific design fits in these classifications. Note that the manpower of air units is counted against per-nation military manpower caps (see army rules for details of these):

Num of Aircraft Manpower Unit Small Medium Large (Approx) Squadron 24 16 8 400 Wing 120 80 40 2000 Group 600 400 200 10,000

Aircraft unit acquisition costs in $ and BP are dependent upon the tech level of that unit, as are their maintenance costs. Aircraft units may not be upgraded from one tech level to the next. Rather, they may be scrapped, and if desired, their scrap value used for the acquisitions of new units of a newer tech level. The scrap value of an aircraft unit is:  0.15 * unit's original dollar/BP cost. The player earns back this value in the half-year following completion of scrapping.

Cost to construct air units:

Tech Level Squadron Wing Group $ BP $ BP $ BP 1906 0.10 0.02 0.50 0.10 2.50 0.50 1910 0.20 0.04 1.00 0.20 5.00 1.00 1913 0.30 0.06 1.50 0.30 7.50 1.50 1917 0.40 0.08 2.00 0.40 10.00 2.00 1921 0.50 0.10 2.50 0.50 12.50 2.50 1925 0.60 0.12 3.00 0.60 15.00 3.00 1929 0.70 0.14 3.50 0.70 17.50 3.50 1933 0.80 0.16 4.00 0.80 20.00 4.00 1937 0.90 0.18 4.50 0.90 22.50 4.50

Upkeep of air units:

Because aircraft are fragile and temperamental machines, it is not possible to maintain them at anything but wartime footing.

Tech Level Squadron Wing Group $ $ $ 1906 0.01 0.05 0.25 1910 0.02 0.10 0.50 1913 0.03 0.15 0.75 1917 0.04 0.20 1.00 1921 0.05 0.25 1.25 1925 0.06 0.30 1.50 1929 0.07 0.35 1.75 1933 0.08 0.40 2.00 1937 0.09 0.45 2.25

The fighting value of air units may be considered using the army unit artillery rating value according to this table:

Fighting strength of air units (in units equivalent to army artillery ratings):

Tech Level Squadron Wing Group 1906 0.02 0.1 0.5 1910 0.04 0.2 1 1913 0.06 0.3 1.5 1917 0.08 0.4 2 1921 0.10 0.5 2.5 1925 0.12 0.6 3 1929 0.16 0.8 4 1933 0.20 1 5 1937 0.24 1.2 6

Airfields
The Most basic airfield is simply an improvised strip, which may be constructed by the aircraft unit planning to use it. This has no cost, but these improvised fields have no permanent support capability. Units operating from these fields must have support from a permanent airfield for doing things like engine and airframe overhauls. Or in other words, while an improvised field can be constructed anywhere, to support a unit of aircraft more than one half-year, a permanent field must be available.

Airfields: Constr. Cost Type $ BP Permanent Support Capacity 0 1 0 Squadron 1 2 0.25 Wing 2 3 0.5 2 Wings 3 4 1 Group

Aircraft Unit/Airship Equivalency
Airships and aircraft may be based alongside one another. Airships still require additional fixed infrastructure (in the form of airship hangars). Existing airship bases are also convertible to type 0 airfields.

Airships are equivalent to aircraft unit size for the purpose of determining how many airships and aircraft may be supported by a given airfield according to this table:

Airship Type Equivalent Aircraft Unit 0 1/12 Squadron 1 1/6 Squadron 2 1/3 Squadron 3 1/2 Squadron 4 1 Squadron 5 2 Squadrons

Naval Aviation
Aircraft to be carried by or supported by ships are bought in units just as all other aircraft, and must be purchased separately from the ships they are planned to be operated from. Aircraft carried afloat do not require a shore base.

[Guinness]

Updates:

Jan 12 2011: Completely overhauled rules for fixed-wing aircraft and their infrastructure. For this change, the following transition guidelines apply:

Transition from Pre-1920 Aircraft Rules to Current

Players for which it is convenient to reorganize their current aircraft into aircraft units according to these rules are encouraged to do so. Any new aircraft acquired in 1920 or after must be purchased according to these rules. Any aircraft purchased before 1920 are not required to be reorganized into units according to the new rules, nor are any existing facilities which support them.

For purposes of converting existing airfields to the new rules, players may total up the amount of BP used in construction of airfields up to 1920. This amount of BP may then be reallocated into post-rule change airfields.

For instance, if a player spent 1.5 BP total on 3 1913 tech airfields (ie 0.5BP x 3), and then 3 BP total on 3 1917 tech airfields (ie 1BP x 3), they will have spent a total of 4.5BP on airfields up to 1920. They may then reallocate that into 4.5BP of new airfields at their convenience. This might be 4 type 3 airfields and 1 type 2, or it might be 9 type 2's, etc. Most players will find this quite generous, and only a few will still need to build more than a few more airfields to accommodate their existing air forces.

Existing fields that only support Airships (ie locations that have airship hangars but no pre-1920 fixed wing aircraft facilities) automatically become type 0 airfields. This is to reflect the post-1920 requirement that airships be based at airfields. Airships continue to also require specialized hanger installations that must be purchased in addition to an airfield or airfields.

Also, when converting the old to the new unit system, players will be allowed to round up on a squadron basis. So if you have 20 twin engine aircraft, congratulations, you now have 2 squadrons, not 1.25 squadrons. This is strictly to make the conversion easier and to prevent players having to account for half squadrons. To build wings and groups past that, add up the number of squadrons that result.