Are MSV books canon? (Not being sarcastic, I really don't know!)False Prophet wrote: ↑Wed Jan 31, 2018 12:41 pm So... Macross Chronicle is the equivalent of MSV and a background book put together, am I right?
Like the Gundam Perfect File, it's an attempt to make a comprehensive official artbook which covers EVERYTHING by condensing the material from previous official artbooks for individual shows and games and, occasionally, adding new information, insights, and trivia that weren't in those older books. One background book to rule them all, as it were.
The Macross Chronicle Mechanic Sheet's size comparison seems to be a bit out in left field on this... it shows the AIF-X-9 at almost 15m long, which may have been an artist defaulting due to the lack of any specs that explicitly give its size. The text on its sheet, and others, suggests that it's very close in size to the mass production models derived from it (~9.85m).False Prophet wrote: ↑Wed Jan 31, 2018 12:41 pm A few more things I have questions for after reading through that book:
1. How big is the X-9 really? I can't find the numbers, but I always have this impression that the QF-4000 is both smaller and less-armed than the X-9? If so, then any explaination why?
The AIF-7S/QF-4000 Ghost is certainly less well-armed than the AIF-X-9 prototype it was derived from. It's an economized mass production model that you could say is the fallout of the Sharon Apple incident giving the New UN Forces misgivings about a fully autonomous fighter that exceeded the performance of manned fighters. The AIF-7 series has internal missile bays, but swaps the five laser cannons the AIF-X-9 had for a pair of particle beam machine guns. The micro-missile launchers are the same basic unit, but as with the economized VF-11C the number of launch ports on the launcher were halved. The biggest cut for the AIF-7 production model was the Sharon Apple-type fully autonomous AI was discarded as a dangerously unstable design choice and replaced with a more stable procedural AI system, sacrificing its full autonomy and the truly unpredictable combat behavior. The result was an unmanned fighter that cost a third of the flyaway cost of a VF-171-II Nightmare Plus and could operate in combat with no danger to human life. As such, it was an enormously popular fighter that arguably shared the "next main fighter" designation with the VF-171, some colony fleets even going so far as to scrap manned air forces in favor of the drones.
Now, the AIF-9 production series is a horse of a different color. The AIF-9B Ghost retained the armaments, equipment, and performance of the much-feared AIF-X-9 Ghost prototype. It was produced in very limited volumes and only deployed by the Earth New UN Forces - who are the leaders in military technology - as a defense measure for Macross City and as unmanned fighters for the Macross-13 flagship of the Earth defense fleet. Macross Galaxy made their own version of the AIF-9, designated AIF-9V, which is MASSIVELY upgunned from both the AIF-7 that was its starting point and the AIF-X-9 prototype. It swaps the five laser cannons for eight particle beam guns, switches back to four micro-missile launchers and two modular bays, and adds a heavy quantum reaction beam cannon modeled on the VF-27's gunpod. It also retains the illegal full-autonomous AI air combat software the AIF-X-9 used, with some decidedly draconian additions to the programmed behavior including kamikaze tactics.
None specifically mentioned, no. Thrust vectoring on the two main engines and the nozzle of the booster pack help mitigate the change in center of gravity and thrust axis.False Prophet wrote: ↑Wed Jan 31, 2018 12:41 pm 2. Is there any notable disadvantage to the VF-5000 Super Booster to mount the ramjet booster at where it is? I don't know much about aerodynamic, but that can't look to be a good place to do so. How do they keep the balance to the VF? And would the hot air affect the VF's surface strength?
The VF-5000, like all its predecessors, is designed to withstand repeated atmospheric reentries without damage... some pseudocanon technical materials suggest the airframe skin is rated at ~3,200 degrees C, about twice what the TPS of a US space shuttle is good for. More official materials have put the strength of the hypercarbon composite used at around 100x the strength of a comparable thickness of RHA steel. After all, these fighters are already built for enduring high engine heat, given that their power source is a compact thermonuclear reactor inside each engine, and the exhaust is a mixture of air blast-heated by the fusion reactor and small amounts of plasma bled off the reaction.
The surface also isn't directly exposed to the jet wash of the ramjet either, in theory... Macross Zero and Plus both indicated that practically all VFs have ablative armor coatings to protect them from energy weapons strikes as well, though Macross Frontier was the first to put an actual number on the protection value of the coatings.