DroidCorp Inferno

The DroidCorp Inferno is a dedicated competition fighter series designed by DroidCorp for Daria's FJRT program.

Initial Development Overview (In-Universe Lore)
The Inferno's initial plans were drawn up during the preseason of Fighter Jet Roundtable S2. After the preseason success of the stealth AN-L17 Raven against capable opponents, DroidCorp decided to expand on its basic design principles. The Raven's full delta wing design, wide profile, and gimballing engines gave it very good maneuverability at subsonic speeds. These features would be implemented on the Inferno, however the Raven's signature stealth capabilities would be discarded in favor of further increasing flight performance. The findings of one of DroidCorp's lead competition designers, recently published as the "Stealth Irrelevancy Theory," had a profound effect on aircraft design going forward. Instead of the Raven's sleek and highly swept lines, the Inferno featured shallower angles at its wing roots, larger intakes for operating at low speeds and high altitudes, an additional set of all-moving rudders on angled lower wing panels, and a pair of low-set canards. It flew in early tests alongside various other prospective designs, one of which would be selected for entry into Round 2 of the competition first. The Inferno itself wouldn't be used in competition until Round 5, which it won in convincing fashion thanks to its maneuverability and stability.

Design logs from the Inferno team which have been selectively released from DroidCorp records provide some insight into the pre- and post- submission development of the aircraft:

04/03/21: "[The Inferno] focused originally on stable high-maneuverability flight. Focus shifted with the Mark VIIa and later the official Mark VIII to a well-balanced compromise between dogfighting capability and missile evasion reliability. A modified version of the Mark IX was used in the 5th bracket of FJRT2 with great success, showing promise as a balanced fighter. Development continued through to the current Mark XIII with a focus on increasing speed retention, with these changes in design direction made significantly less disruptive (than on the Ki) by the Inferno's more conventional design."

The original Inferno airframe was retired in April of 2021, with several further airframes developed based on its general shape and principles. The penultimate competition version of the Inferno was the Inferno Avenger, which was finally eliminated in the semifinal round of FJRT2.

Continuous Variant Design (Real Life Developer Commentary)
The Inferno can almost be seen as a fluke of design. By essentially just copying the visual aesthetic of the AN-L17, I essentially stumbled into a very meta airframe concept, that being the delta-with-canard. It provides a very high amount of lift for any given size, even with the old stock-style design methods that primarily used non-lifting fuselage sections. Regardless, the original design could only go so far, and as I gained inspiration from the flood of development that FJRT2 brought on, in April of 2021 I decided a rebuild was in order.

Despite my own theories, stealth was the flavor of the week at the time, and so I developed the Inferno II as a stealth fighter. It opted for a very flat shape and basically got in its own way; I went backwards in terms of practical flight performance and gained basically nothing from it except slightly better performance against missiles, which is something I knew I could achieve by simply making a better-flying craft. The Inferno II remained in public testing rotation and in "maintenance development" mostly as a decoy as I pursued other ideas.

The CSO was a very simple concept: "increase lift". To that end, I essentially rebuilt the original airframe with some minor optimizations to lighten it and then shaped and attached much larger wings to the thing. Maneuverability did, in fact, improve, as did its speed retention. However, as you may be able to tell by the lack of an image, this design was developed for such a short period of time that I didn't even manage to preserve a trace of it to present to you here. I noted down that making something lighter and lift-ier was definitely worthwhile, and then moved on to a new design.

The CSO Alpha was rather oddly named, when you consider that the only parts it shared in common with the CSO were the main wings, which it also slightly tweaked. Really it is an entirely separate airframe and should probably have simply been called the Inferno Alpha or similar. However, despite its questionable designation, it did not have a questionable airframe. This design used lighter and lift-ier parts than ever before, and it was something like 80-90% lifting area, which was a big deal at the time; pwing fuselages weren't exactly common in mid-2021, so this fuselage, which made extensive use of the lightweight and lift-enabled B9 fuselage parts, had a significant advantage over those which opted for more familiar parts. The Alpha also implemented a funny bit of tech that I had accidentally discovered while using the Inferno II: the "Pulse Laser ERA". PLSL was the SPW of choice for most of FJRT2, since it was hilariously overpowered (with a combined fire rate of 500 RPM and rounds that basically one-shot every part they hit), so finding a countermeasure to combat it was incredibly valuable. Enter my strange obsession with RPF flag parts. Conformal Decals are all the rage today, but back then they were an unfamiliar sight, and myself and some others were using the actual physical flag parts to do some of our coloring. Yes, it sucked. However, these flags, despite being physics-less parts (contributing zero mass and zero drag), were very much physically present on the aircraft and could actually take a hit. One. Exactly one hit. However, against the Pulse Laser, that was all that you could expect out of any part. 9 of these flag parts were placed on the largest portion of each main wing to protect against incoming fire, and saved the main wings on many occasions in testing. These innovations combined with the larger vertical tails and overall better construction to create a highly capable airframe.

The CSO Evolution (I and II) built on the successes of the Alpha, ditching both the Pulse Lasers and the dedicated "flag armor" now that they were finally nerfed down to a sensible state. The most significant external alteration was the further canting of the vertical tails to 45 degrees, allowing them to efficiently act as full rudders and stabilators; they controlled all 3 axes of movement. Using these large tail surfaces for pitch allowed for the mostly-aesthetically-driven removal of the canards without any significant loss in performance potential. This was perhaps the best-looking competition variant of the Inferno, and was followed up with an even more capable, but sadly visually compromised model.

The Inferno Evolution III (and the Avenger, a minor modification for the Round of 4) was a trijet conversion of the Evolution II. It extended the center fuselage to connect up to a third engine which was then mounted between the original 2 engines, which were now spaced further apart to accommodate it. Based on findings from the little-known "TRIDENT" concept craft, which featured an extremely lift-efficient airframe driven by 3 Saturn engines for an effective balance of gimbal range and thrust, the Evo III went all-out on post-stall combat. Its three upscaled Saturn engines provided a truly immense amount of thrust to maintain and recover speed during intense maneuvers. It also made use of upscaled reaction wheels to provide exceptional post-stall handling. Finally, rear-facing intakes were added to maintain a consistent airflow to the engines during reversed flight. While it is the culmination of all of the lessons I learned during FJRT2, I still can't get over how much worse the 3rd engine makes it look.

...So, when it came time to revive the Inferno for use as a boss in FAS II, I built off of the twin-engine Evolution II. This "Evo IV", later renamed as the "Inferno IV" (though the entire Alpha/Evo airframe is now classed as the "Inferno IV", this is a product of retroactive naming. the only inferno models to be originally named by this numbered airframe system were the Inferno II and this particular Evo variant. the new system numbers the major airframe models in sequential order for the sake of continuity when looking back at its development.), contains only minor improvements and adjustments to the original design. In an effort to maintain a connection to the original design, I endeavored to change as little as practical.

However, I did let myself cut loose with the big boss. The main antagonist of the FAS II Finale got what I consider to be the ultimate adaptation of the Inferno: the Inferno Omega. Featuring dogtooth leading edge slats, custom shrouded engines, a slick new coat of paint, a dab of overpowered armor, two 50mm autocannons, and even larger vertical tails, the Omega is what happens when you tell me I need to design a fighter jet for a fun anime bad guy. The Inferno has been through a lot, and I definitely still feel an attachment to it. Some have suggested that I should revive it in FJRT3. However, I feel as though its legacy is in a good place, and bringing it back only for it to fall short in a standard round of competition would be a disservice to its name. So, for now, its story is complete.

Real-Time Development Logs (Hybrid Commentary)
Starting in April of 2021, I began keeping a journal on the development of the Inferno. I wrote it using a combination of actual personal notes and in-universe writing (the ideas of things like FJRP did not exist at this point, so this was a half-hearted attempt at writing "canon" notes). The end of the first entry was already referenced in the "lore" section of this article, so we will pick back up with the second entry and continue to the end:

4/26/21: ''After several changes to AI and BDA in general, as well as the inevitable evolution of fighter designs over time, the Inferno airframe was declared partially obsolete. With various modernizations culminating in the Mark XX, it is still an accurate and consistent dogfighter that could reasonably be placed in the top 5 among current competition. However, any significant improvement proved to require a new airframe. Keeping the same basic principles in mind, and sharing much of the original geometry, two offshoots were developed: Inferno II and Inferno CSO, under the original designation system. Inferno II was designed from the ground up as a lightweight stealth fighter. It is approximately 4 tons lighter than the legacy Inferno and has a stealth rating of 11km/5.9m^2. It showed potential, but after initial variants it was consistently outclassed by equivalent updated legacy Infernos. This design was officially discontinued at mark eight after poor performance in simulated tournaments proved existing suspicions. Inferno CSO (Competition Superiority Overhaul, unofficially nicknamed Inferno XL) was developed as a direct result of this performance. It is currently at the second mark; performance is still being evaluated. Further information on the CSO program is currently released on a need-to-know basis.''

8/18/21: First, a note: the Inferno II was given one last chance with the mark nine, which sought to fix its most glaring weaknesses, however performance was still lacking and the project was shut down fully.

''The original Inferno CSO "XL" was not developed past the mark two variant due to reliance on old design principles. It was eventually decided to use its larger-frame wing but extend the fuselage itself. After creating what is essentially a fully new aircraft in function, it was designated the Inferno CSO Alpha. This airframe would be developed into the Inferno CSO Evolution and Evolution-II. The Evo is, in essence, a slimline legacy Inferno. If it were slightly larger and fit two operators, it would likely be redesignated as a heavy fighter. Regardless, the Evo-II is by far the best-performing airframe with the greatest potential and will in all likelihood be the one that is entered into the finals of FJRT2.''

8/24/21: ''Project: TRIDENT has yielded spectacular results. The 5th-generation airframe will either replace the 4th-gen or heavily influence its development.''

9/13/21: ''TRIDENT incorporated not only a doctrinal shift but also technical advancements. One of which was the use of reaction wheel scaling, although in a much less radical and more acceptable way than on the SR that inspired it (2x normal scale and placed plainly between the engines and their mounts). The most obvious change was the switch from a twin-engine airframe to a trijet. This change was originally made to essentially power through turns that would stall the older and less-powerful twinjet designs, however this change combined with the strong reaction wheels to simply make the airframe turn even harder and power out of the stalls. It also shot the accuracy stats through the roof, which is a nice touch. The third design feature was that of the intake setup. Standard front-oriented intakes (both super- and sub-sonic optimized) were augmented with subsonic rear-facing intakes. This had been done before on DC fighters, but had never been proven to be effective. It is now plainly apparent that this technique has its merits. Additional air is forced into the rear intakes and maintains sufficient flow to the engines, keeping them all fully active throughout flight.''

''All of these changes were incorporated into a conversion kit for the Evo-II, designated the Evolution-III (which was delightfully convenient in that the 3rd major design happened to be the trijet conversion). It has shifted focus from a turnfighter to a full-on post-stall dogfighter which simply never loses an angle. This may actually be peak performance for the Inferno.''

Overview of Airframes
The following is a list of the major airframes in the Inferno series (not including short-run experimental designs), along with brief descriptions of their major differences and usage.


 * AN-L20 Inferno (Inferno I)
 * The original Inferno design. The Mark 9 variant was used in FJRT2 Episode 5. Its final public appearance was the use of the Mark 20 "Liberator" as a strike aircraft during the Boss Fight. The Mark 20 was the final variant of the Inferno I.Inferno1mk12.png


 * Inferno II
 * The Inferno II was a stealth design which implemented an internal weapons bay, re-swept the wing roots, and overall "flattened" the airframe to present a smaller, more angular profile. It did all of this at the expense of maneuverability; the Inferno II was noticeably worse at dogfighting and was not extensively developed as a result. Variants were produced up to the Mark 9 to study the effectiveness of stealth in modern FJRT combat; after this the airframe was retired.
 * Inferno2mk9.png

Inferno CSO (Inferno III)


 * The Inferno Competition Superiority Overhaul was essentially an optimized rebuild of the Inferno I with much larger wings. This design showed promise, but the old proportions of the legacy Inferno hindered further development. Two marks were produced, with limited private testing being conducted. Data from the CSO would inform major design decisions of its successor concepts.

Inferno CSO Alpha/Evolution (Inferno IV)


 * The Inferno CSO Alpha was a complete redesign of the Inferno into a much larger overall airframe size. It featured the same basic center fuselage and engine pod design and used the larger wing structure of the original CSO. The Alpha maintained some older design conventions, as well as using raised "shoulder" canards instead of the low-mount canards found on previous airframes. The Evolution variants removed the canards entirely and angled the rudders to 45 degrees, using them for control in all axes to make up for the lost torque. The Evolution III added a third engine in a centerline mount for increased thrust and post-stall capability. The Avenger, the last competition variant of the Inferno, is essentially a hastily modified Evolution III; it was internally designated as the Evolution IV. DroidCorp often uses the Evolution II, the last twin-engine competition Inferno variant, as the "face" of the Inferno series.
 * Infernocsoalpha.png