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Kingfisher (Retired Design)


 About the Kingfisher
The Kingfisher is the main light bomber of the C Quadrant Defenders. The Wolverine excelled as a fighter, but it lacked a variable payload capacity for ordnance that would make it suitable for hitting stationary targets in space or on the ground. Enter the Kingfisher, a small, maneuverable, light bomber built around an internal payload bay. The range of the craft was rather limited, owed to its small size. For quick strike missions, it had more than excellent speed, agility, and pilot visibility. However, it lacked armor and sufvivability in a dogfight, only being armed with a pair of machine guns integrated into the engine hubs.

Powered by two atomic turbine rockets, it could get in and out of a combat zone before anyone realized it had been there at all. It used a pair of small variable dihedral wings for lift in atmospheres, with a thruster at each wingtip to maintain control in a vacuum. The landing gear was fixed for structural rigidity. Weapons payloads included air-drop anti-armor mines and missile packs.


   Kingfisher light bomber and pilot.


   The Kingfisher in flight, with the variable dihedral wings folded open.


   The cockpit provides excellent visibility for the pilot.


   Compared to the contemporary Wolverine fighter, the Kingfisher is quite small.


   The controls, as seen from the pilot's perspective. The machine guns are mounted to draw from drum magazines on top of the engines.


   The engines are spaced far enough apart not to interfere with the bomb bay.


   With the doors open, the payload can be released. The wings have red and blue CQD insignia.


   A sample of two possible payload types: missile packs or air-drop anti-armor mines.



 Meta Description
This is what happens when I try to mix aerodynamic design with my own design sensibility and I end up losing so much of my own style in the process. The Kingfisher was posted in June of 2007, and I never really liked it too much because of the floppy landing gear getting in the way of swooshability. The back hatch just never looked right, never reaching the same zenith as 6444 in my mind.

Unlike other creations here that are marked as "Old Version", there are no plans to remake or improve the Kingfisher at this time. It just never scratched the same itch as my other designs, and I don't consider it part of the current canon. But I worked hard on it at the time, so no sense in not sharing it. Thus, it is marked as a "Retired Design".
 
General Characteristics
NameKingfisher
TypeLight Bomber
AffliationC Quadrant Defenders, Earth
Armament2 x Machine guns
Assorted internal ordnance
Propulsion2 x Atomic turbine rockets
Crew Compliment1




Gallery was generated using igal2 2.2
This page was last updated on 3/20/2023
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