Talk:Craft

OK! Well past time to theorize on the capabilities of X-Com's air force. The Interceptor, the fastest thing humans can build in X-Com's 1998, has a maximum speed of "2100".

As Arbitrary Game Balance Units that is obviously incalculable so I will never use AGBUs again. Instead, I will translate variations of English and Metric units into oh-so-fun Mach numbers - the speed of sound. In dry air with a temperature of 21 °C (70 °F) the speed of sound is 1130 feet per second, 1230 kilometers per hour, 770 miles per hour or 344 meters per second. (I know the Skyranger page says that its speed is in "knots", but Mach 1 is 2277 knots. That makes both craft subsonic. I'm gonna go change that right now.) As for the other numbers, in order of increasing speed...

2100 feet per second doesn't break Mach 2. Come ON! The SR-71 Blackbird(the current record holder for manned supersonic flight) was built in 1964, and it broke Mach 3! (Hmm... the F-100 Super Sabre broke Mach 1 only a decade earlier in 1953... The Roswell crash was in 1945... what if ALL jet aircraft are based on alien technology... Hey! Get that straight jacket off me!)

2100 kilometers per hour STILL doesn't break Mach 2.

2100 miles per hour doesn't break Mach 3. A single-seater pseudo-Blackbird after thirty years of development. Joy. Maybe it's realistic; that would make Lockheed about as good at R&D as another government contractor - NASA. Thirty years to build a better toilet.

2100 meters per second breaks Mach 6. Finally! That's around the flight regime you'd expect from "dual pulse detonation engines".

Thus, in meters per second, the Mach numbers of your craft in X-Com: UFO Defense would be;

Skyranger: 2.2

Interceptor: 6.1

Lightning: 9

Firestorm: 12.2

Avenger: 15.7

The UFOs clock in at;

Small Scout: 6.4

Medium Scout: 7

Large Scout: 7.8

Supply Ship: 9.3

Abductor: 11.6

Harvester: 12.5

Terror Ship: 14

Battleship: 14.5

I have GOT to get me some of these! Somebody call Roland Emmerich! I WANNA SEE THESE BIRDS FIGHT!