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Homofront in Yohannes
On that night, two Luftwaffe technicians were inspecting special coatings for the ZM-7L; the aircraft that would be used to strike deep at the organisation that had for so long struck fear into the hearts of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender populace.
The term for all the things that made the ZM-7L the “stealth” bomber was low observability technology, or “LO.” LO combined appearance, radar cross section, and acoustic, electromagnetic and infrared signatures. Although ‘stealth’ aircraft seemed to be an invention of the seventies, there were many documented undertakings for ‘stealth’ as early as the First and Second World Wars. In fact, ‘stealth’ was not an American invention, nor was it a Soviet invention.
It was Nazi Germany’s.
The German heavy bomber “Linke-Hofmann R.I” had parts of its main body constructed from cellulose acetate to produce transparent cellon. Although the aircraft announced its presence too late in the war to be judged based on its performance, it did represent some forward thinking in the area of low-observability technology. If that was not enough, in the closing year of the Second World War George Patton’s Third Army discovered an unfinished Horten Ho 229 bomber. Assimilating a number of forward-thinking technologies, it had a radar absorbent painting; buried its jet engines in the main body along exhaust path; and was a flying wing design, which gave it smaller radar cross section. These features would all be incorporated more than sixty years later into the ZM-7L, far away on the continent of Yohannes.
Another more well known LO bomber that was designed in the Second World War was the Royal Air Force’s “Mosquito”, which aided Britain in its bombing raids at night in the skies of German-controlled Europe. To make it cheap, it was made of balsa wood. Whilst this was viewed as a step back from the all-metal bombers already proliferating at the time, the wooden construction of the Mosquito reflected less radar energy than aluminium, and gave it smaller radar signature. Combined with its small size and the decentralised approach of British bombing at the time, this made the Mosquito hard to detect — its losses were a fraction of the much larger all-metal American Flying Fortress.
Two other attempts to escape detection by the enemy were by flying extremely high. Designed by then Lockheed Aircraft Company’s Advanced Development Programmes, the U-2 single-jet engine reconnaissance aircraft flew high above eighteen kilometres. Another was the “Blackbird” strategic reconnaissance aircraft, which could reach the edge of space two times faster than the speed of sound. Both designs incorporated radar absorbent coverings and radical designs to reduce their radar cross sections.
By the seventies, another invention by Lockheed, the “Quiet Star”, was purposely built to ignore radar detection. The guerrilla tactics used by Communist Vietnam in the Second Indochina War relied on sound to identify incoming American aircraft. Although vulnerable to radar, a huge muffler meant the Quiet Star could scout the area undetected above the jungles of North Vietnam for hours; giving friendly soldiers importation information to identify the enemy’s supply routes.
Like small stepping stones, these designs represented a small step in the direction of a specialised area in low observability discovery. One by one, these aircraft allowed the release of the Gulf War’s “Stealth Fighter” and Kosovo’s “Stealth Bomber” by the Americans; and ultimately the realisation of the Long Range Striker programme by the Nineteen Countries.
In the history of Yohannesian aeronautical engineering, there had never been an aircraft design more dangerous and well-built. Able to fly almost anywhere in the world undetected to attack bigoted terrorist organisations and religious extremists, the Long Range Striker could arrive to meet its prey down below and release its precision munitions; to then fly away knowing that the bombs would most likely hit their prey, and that it could return back home safely.
It was designed to destroy the bases of politically incorrect LGBT-misrepresenting terrorists who tried to slander the good name of peaceful LGBT rights movement and open-minded social liberalism. The two technicians called it:
“The Homofront Bomber.”
The following morning it was raining. Parliament Square in the heart of continental Yohannes was filled with business-suited fat old men, all wet, sidestepping one another to take cover. One reached the protected grounds of Parliament House, where the Nineteen Countries’ politicians debated fiercely with one another day-to-day. Another reached the Luftwaffe School of Aeronautical Theory. On this particular day and in one particular classroom in that school, a group of first-year secondary students were attending a free lecture led by one of the nation’s most respected aeronautical engineers: Eve Braun, the daughter-in-law of the legendary father of Yohannesian strategic bombing, Generalfeldmarschall Walden Wever.
“Why should we risk sending the stealth bomber deep into the heart of debauchery? How can we be sure that they will not be shot down, only for the enemy to study their technology?” the student seated closest to her asked.
“God forbid; the thought of having them sending these studied technologies down to right leaning fascist states made me squirm already,” his friend added.
Eve was impressed. These students were unafraid of asking questions.
“Let me explain by going back to the basic. The easiest way to detect the enemy is by using radar.”
“Standing for ‘RAdio, Detection, And Range’, the technology was developed at the height of the Second World War as a way to fight back against Nazi Luftwaffe’s aircraft at night. These early British radars proved quite good in defending the Kingdom of England from German night-time bombing raids.”
“How does that work, Miss Braun?”
“Actually, Adolf, the theory was simple—a radar transmitter sends out radar waves, which bounce off things and are then thrown up in all directions. Some of the spread out energy is reflected back to the radar site. This reflected energy is then collected by a receiving antenna.”
“Well, how about now, Miss Braun?”
“Well, most twenty-first century radar dishes combine two antennae which alternate between transmitting and receiving. The things out there which reflect radar are called ‘targets.’ By betraying information, such as the intensity of the reflection and its angle into a computer, the radar can then plot the location of these targets.”
“Wow, so it’s just like the online video game NationStates then?”
“Dear me Heinrich—no. There’s no rule-set to follow. A radar sadly cannot differentiate its targets; that is, it cannot distinguish them. This is why it is only extremely successful at detecting aircraft when there is nothing else around to reflect the wave.”
“Well, so can we shoot down Bigtopian bombers by using these radars now?” the mischievous looking girl to his left interrupted.
“Again, it’s hard to say. Although less detectable aircraft were used effectively in the Second World War—”
“Like the Mosquito?”
“Yes, Henry. Yes, the Royal Air Force Mosquitos. Although the Mosquito and others like it were proven effective during the war, there was still no scientifically sure way of determining a bomber’s radar cross section. Yes, the Americans built spy aircraft such as the U-2 after the war—but even they were not proper stealth-like strike aircraft.”
“So—the Americans were not the inventor?”
“Well, no.”
“Was it Hitler’s Nazi Germany?” Kayla interjected.
“No.”
“But Miss Braun, you did say it was Nazi Germany though!”
“Yes—during the interwar years. Not after it.”
“Hah! So it was us then!” Adolf said.
“No. The fact that we stole the technology from the United States Air Force’s original B-2 programme clearly meant the Nineteen Countries was not the original inventor.”
The class was quiet.
Eve paused for effect. “It was Soviet Russia—”
“Get the [censored] out of here,” said the biggest boy at the back of the class.
“Chad—no cursing, please! One point off for Krillindor”
“Was it that scientist guy—Stalin’s invention?”
“No Adolf. One, he was not a scientist; Joseph Stalin was a dictator. Two, he was a brutal man.”
Eve hesitated. “His name was Petr Ufimtsev.”
“Who the [censored] is that? Never heard that name before”
“Chad—no. Two points off Krillindor.”
The class went quiet.
“He was a very much unknown physicist who developed the early formula of stealth—”
“As in, he was a mathematician that could make giant bombers?” Kayla asked. “Yes?”
“Well, no. Girls and guys, can we please stop interrupting here? Thank you. He wrote about the way that people can compute the deflection angles of radar waves.”
“This is too complicated; why are we going back this far? It’s not even related with the ZM-7L at all. I give up!” Chad stood. He made his way to the door. He opened the door—hesitating—and then slammed it hard.
Now the class was quiet again.
“Well—he got some anger management problem alright?” Kayla interrupted the silence.
“Kayla. Remember, Chad is your classmate. No backhand swipe, please.”
“Yes, Miss Braun.”
“Though you are right about one thing: if only he waited just a bit more. He would’ve learnt why.”
“Joint direct attack munition excursions. Present. Radionavigation system jamming scenario. Present. Unconstrained weapon system effectiveness. Present. Mission level analysis. Check.” The sky was clear and the tarmac was prepared. The pilot, seated to the right, was waiting for just this exact call from his commander:
On that morning, the bomber was ready. It would undergo a series of engine and pre-flight evaluations. Every minute of the flight would be crucial: with almost one hour’s worth of logistical and maintenance-related work on the ground required for every minute of flight time, they could not afford to commit any mistake. The mission analysis of the previous hours alone had determined the effectiveness of each weapon to be delivered from the Petr Ufimtsev against her five possible target types for this mission.
“Robert, on the same page here?”
“Yes, Ma’am.”
At 10:07, Robert shoved the throttle on and then released the brakes. As the Petr Ufimtsev started its run, a pair of Archeron M.Cs 82 ‘Falmentyr’ fighters—which were procured from Anemos Major seven years ago—could be seen above the sky. They would not accompany the Petr Ufimtsev deep into the heart of debauchery, however—for on this particular mission she could finish her job alone.
Around thirty seconds after, the bomber rose. She rose faster and faster. Her technical maintenance crew cheered after her. Armed with her assortment of weapons and especially—her crown jewel—the nine-hundred-kilogramme joint direct attack munition weapons, both Robert and Claudia could not wait to fulfill her intended mission over the next twenty-four hours. She was, after all:
“The Homofront Bomber.”
The term for all the things that made the ZM-7L the “stealth” bomber was low observability technology, or “LO.” LO combined appearance, radar cross section, and acoustic, electromagnetic and infrared signatures. Although ‘stealth’ aircraft seemed to be an invention of the seventies, there were many documented undertakings for ‘stealth’ as early as the First and Second World Wars. In fact, ‘stealth’ was not an American invention, nor was it a Soviet invention.
It was Nazi Germany’s.
The German heavy bomber “Linke-Hofmann R.I” had parts of its main body constructed from cellulose acetate to produce transparent cellon. Although the aircraft announced its presence too late in the war to be judged based on its performance, it did represent some forward thinking in the area of low-observability technology. If that was not enough, in the closing year of the Second World War George Patton’s Third Army discovered an unfinished Horten Ho 229 bomber. Assimilating a number of forward-thinking technologies, it had a radar absorbent painting; buried its jet engines in the main body along exhaust path; and was a flying wing design, which gave it smaller radar cross section. These features would all be incorporated more than sixty years later into the ZM-7L, far away on the continent of Yohannes.
Another more well known LO bomber that was designed in the Second World War was the Royal Air Force’s “Mosquito”, which aided Britain in its bombing raids at night in the skies of German-controlled Europe. To make it cheap, it was made of balsa wood. Whilst this was viewed as a step back from the all-metal bombers already proliferating at the time, the wooden construction of the Mosquito reflected less radar energy than aluminium, and gave it smaller radar signature. Combined with its small size and the decentralised approach of British bombing at the time, this made the Mosquito hard to detect — its losses were a fraction of the much larger all-metal American Flying Fortress.
Two other attempts to escape detection by the enemy were by flying extremely high. Designed by then Lockheed Aircraft Company’s Advanced Development Programmes, the U-2 single-jet engine reconnaissance aircraft flew high above eighteen kilometres. Another was the “Blackbird” strategic reconnaissance aircraft, which could reach the edge of space two times faster than the speed of sound. Both designs incorporated radar absorbent coverings and radical designs to reduce their radar cross sections.
By the seventies, another invention by Lockheed, the “Quiet Star”, was purposely built to ignore radar detection. The guerrilla tactics used by Communist Vietnam in the Second Indochina War relied on sound to identify incoming American aircraft. Although vulnerable to radar, a huge muffler meant the Quiet Star could scout the area undetected above the jungles of North Vietnam for hours; giving friendly soldiers importation information to identify the enemy’s supply routes.
Like small stepping stones, these designs represented a small step in the direction of a specialised area in low observability discovery. One by one, these aircraft allowed the release of the Gulf War’s “Stealth Fighter” and Kosovo’s “Stealth Bomber” by the Americans; and ultimately the realisation of the Long Range Striker programme by the Nineteen Countries.
In the history of Yohannesian aeronautical engineering, there had never been an aircraft design more dangerous and well-built. Able to fly almost anywhere in the world undetected to attack bigoted terrorist organisations and religious extremists, the Long Range Striker could arrive to meet its prey down below and release its precision munitions; to then fly away knowing that the bombs would most likely hit their prey, and that it could return back home safely.
It was designed to destroy the bases of politically incorrect LGBT-misrepresenting terrorists who tried to slander the good name of peaceful LGBT rights movement and open-minded social liberalism. The two technicians called it:
“The Homofront Bomber.”
__________________________
The following morning it was raining. Parliament Square in the heart of continental Yohannes was filled with business-suited fat old men, all wet, sidestepping one another to take cover. One reached the protected grounds of Parliament House, where the Nineteen Countries’ politicians debated fiercely with one another day-to-day. Another reached the Luftwaffe School of Aeronautical Theory. On this particular day and in one particular classroom in that school, a group of first-year secondary students were attending a free lecture led by one of the nation’s most respected aeronautical engineers: Eve Braun, the daughter-in-law of the legendary father of Yohannesian strategic bombing, Generalfeldmarschall Walden Wever.
“Why should we risk sending the stealth bomber deep into the heart of debauchery? How can we be sure that they will not be shot down, only for the enemy to study their technology?” the student seated closest to her asked.
“God forbid; the thought of having them sending these studied technologies down to right leaning fascist states made me squirm already,” his friend added.
Eve was impressed. These students were unafraid of asking questions.
“Let me explain by going back to the basic. The easiest way to detect the enemy is by using radar.”
“Standing for ‘RAdio, Detection, And Range’, the technology was developed at the height of the Second World War as a way to fight back against Nazi Luftwaffe’s aircraft at night. These early British radars proved quite good in defending the Kingdom of England from German night-time bombing raids.”
“How does that work, Miss Braun?”
“Actually, Adolf, the theory was simple—a radar transmitter sends out radar waves, which bounce off things and are then thrown up in all directions. Some of the spread out energy is reflected back to the radar site. This reflected energy is then collected by a receiving antenna.”
“Well, how about now, Miss Braun?”
“Well, most twenty-first century radar dishes combine two antennae which alternate between transmitting and receiving. The things out there which reflect radar are called ‘targets.’ By betraying information, such as the intensity of the reflection and its angle into a computer, the radar can then plot the location of these targets.”
“Wow, so it’s just like the online video game NationStates then?”
“Dear me Heinrich—no. There’s no rule-set to follow. A radar sadly cannot differentiate its targets; that is, it cannot distinguish them. This is why it is only extremely successful at detecting aircraft when there is nothing else around to reflect the wave.”
“Well, so can we shoot down Bigtopian bombers by using these radars now?” the mischievous looking girl to his left interrupted.
“Again, it’s hard to say. Although less detectable aircraft were used effectively in the Second World War—”
“Like the Mosquito?”
“Yes, Henry. Yes, the Royal Air Force Mosquitos. Although the Mosquito and others like it were proven effective during the war, there was still no scientifically sure way of determining a bomber’s radar cross section. Yes, the Americans built spy aircraft such as the U-2 after the war—but even they were not proper stealth-like strike aircraft.”
“So—the Americans were not the inventor?”
“Well, no.”
“Was it Hitler’s Nazi Germany?” Kayla interjected.
“No.”
“But Miss Braun, you did say it was Nazi Germany though!”
“Yes—during the interwar years. Not after it.”
“Hah! So it was us then!” Adolf said.
“No. The fact that we stole the technology from the United States Air Force’s original B-2 programme clearly meant the Nineteen Countries was not the original inventor.”
The class was quiet.
Eve paused for effect. “It was Soviet Russia—”
“Get the [censored] out of here,” said the biggest boy at the back of the class.
“Chad—no cursing, please! One point off for Krillindor”
“Was it that scientist guy—Stalin’s invention?”
“No Adolf. One, he was not a scientist; Joseph Stalin was a dictator. Two, he was a brutal man.”
Eve hesitated. “His name was Petr Ufimtsev.”
“Who the [censored] is that? Never heard that name before”
“Chad—no. Two points off Krillindor.”
The class went quiet.
“He was a very much unknown physicist who developed the early formula of stealth—”
“As in, he was a mathematician that could make giant bombers?” Kayla asked. “Yes?”
“Well, no. Girls and guys, can we please stop interrupting here? Thank you. He wrote about the way that people can compute the deflection angles of radar waves.”
“This is too complicated; why are we going back this far? It’s not even related with the ZM-7L at all. I give up!” Chad stood. He made his way to the door. He opened the door—hesitating—and then slammed it hard.
Now the class was quiet again.
“Well—he got some anger management problem alright?” Kayla interrupted the silence.
“Kayla. Remember, Chad is your classmate. No backhand swipe, please.”
“Yes, Miss Braun.”
“Though you are right about one thing: if only he waited just a bit more. He would’ve learnt why.”
___________________
“Joint direct attack munition excursions. Present. Radionavigation system jamming scenario. Present. Unconstrained weapon system effectiveness. Present. Mission level analysis. Check.” The sky was clear and the tarmac was prepared. The pilot, seated to the right, was waiting for just this exact call from his commander:
On that morning, the bomber was ready. It would undergo a series of engine and pre-flight evaluations. Every minute of the flight would be crucial: with almost one hour’s worth of logistical and maintenance-related work on the ground required for every minute of flight time, they could not afford to commit any mistake. The mission analysis of the previous hours alone had determined the effectiveness of each weapon to be delivered from the Petr Ufimtsev against her five possible target types for this mission.
“Robert, on the same page here?”
“Yes, Ma’am.”
At 10:07, Robert shoved the throttle on and then released the brakes. As the Petr Ufimtsev started its run, a pair of Archeron M.Cs 82 ‘Falmentyr’ fighters—which were procured from Anemos Major seven years ago—could be seen above the sky. They would not accompany the Petr Ufimtsev deep into the heart of debauchery, however—for on this particular mission she could finish her job alone.
Around thirty seconds after, the bomber rose. She rose faster and faster. Her technical maintenance crew cheered after her. Armed with her assortment of weapons and especially—her crown jewel—the nine-hundred-kilogramme joint direct attack munition weapons, both Robert and Claudia could not wait to fulfill her intended mission over the next twenty-four hours. She was, after all:
“The Homofront Bomber.”