KF-50 'Triage'

The Krieger Foundries KF-50 'Triage' is a heavy-weight tactical fighter aircraft designed by Kerbalfury.

Origins of the Triage
The engineers over at Krieger Foundries(K.F.) pushed the tri-jet legacy a step further and literally. Trijets so far have been a simple formula consisting of simply two mk1 fuel tanks(400 units per) and two engine nacelles(80 units per). The engineers decided to take it a step further and bolted on an additional mk1 fuel tank. Now with three mk1 tanks and two nacelles fuel totals at 1280 units. The initial designs that were developed are a KF-40 'Triage' in a delta and double delta variant. Both designs of the Triage are the largest and heaviest out of any aircraft developed by Krieger Foundries which will call for some drastic modifications to keep up and squeeze as much performance out of their airframes.

The Design of the Stacked Wing Trijet
The decision to shift the intakes above the main wing was a design choice to lower RCS returns to stealthify the craft to keep up with dedicated stealth fighters. The double delta design would be sidetracked to prototype a delta design with a LERX/wing strake ahead the low main wing. The lower LERX would double as extra lift as well as generating leading-edge vortices that would trail into the side intakes as consistent flow even at low AOA. A canard would be situated ahead of the upper LERX adjacent to the side intakes below. The unusual placement of the canard was intentionally put there to help maintain a constant airflow to the side intakes in anticipation of high AOA. The canards would not only direct pressure downward when pitching up but also redirecting the leading-edge vortex generated by the lower LERX toward the side intakes at high AOA to maintain constant flow to reduce the possibility of flameout and or loss of engine power. Such a concept is either the smartest or dumbest design feature to come out of Krieger Foundries. A hotly debated topic even till this very day of writing. The canards and upper LERX would generate vortices of their own to further enhance the lift and yaw stability on the upper features of the plane. The resulting aero-tunnels act as channels for increased cooling of the engines, aero-vector for pitch/roll, and an aero-brake when the rear flaps are extended.

The P-Wing Revolution
The recent advancements in the manufacturing of Procedural Wings(P-wings) were deemed mature enough by K.F. to warrant a technological demonstrator. The KF-40P would be the initial demonstrator to test the limitations of this new manufacturing technique. At first, the designers wanted to try all sorts of shapes and sizes which resulted in a jumbled piece of airplane scrap in the hangar. With some intervention by the industrial engineers, a basic framework and procedure were developed to streamline a design for testing.

The KF-40P: P-Wings and LAMEs
The KF-40P series shifted its design and philosophy to take full advantage of the molding techniques enabled by p-wings. K.F. was able to acquire several Lightweight Aerodynamic Maneuverability Experiments(LAMEs) which are to be tested extensively on this craft. As word around the complex is the lead developer somehow entrapped eldritch properties from the Kraken and Kthulu into these wings magnifying the lift. The engineers weren’t going to turn down wings that bend the laws of aerodynamics over some silly superstition. Good thing the competition coordinator Kaz Kerman had a few on hand for us competitors to harness. Lames would be initially tested on the KF-40 Triage as a demonstrator to understand the limitations of the LAMEs. They are a staple for future Triage from this point onward.

The main delta wing was replaced by a tapered wing with inboard variable camber and tilting wingtips. The inboard flaps were kept for redundancy in case the wingtip is ever decommissioned. The addition of tilting wingtips was implemented for maintaining roll stability at high AOA. The second lower LERX would generate a vortex that would flow over the main wing amplifying lift. The decision to maintain a majority of the main wing as a static structural member was out of redundancy to house the flaps and tilt-wing. The wingtips were widened to add further leverage on rolls and match the lines on the flaps. The enlargement of the upper LERX allows for the canard to be situated directly forward of the side intakes providing further control of flow in at higher AOA. The upper wing would also be widened to overhand the engine pods. Normally this would cause unnecessary induced drag from tip vortices but all moving tails would be situated at the ends to magnify the lift of the smaller tails. Although the engineers feel that the sidepod angular covering is creating further induced drag of its own for the moment it’s a minor issue. The rear of the plane would be extended past the engines to shroud the exhaust to reduce the massive IR signature of the tri-jet. The shroud is integrated with the flaps for aero-vectoring and exhaust pikes/spikes to mix the flow of air to cool the exhaust. With the added clearance of the top wing, the designers could finally test out the plausibility of top-mounted missiles that would fire upward during a close-in dogfight. The reason being that the missile has clearance to view upward from the body when in a turn fight. The rails would be situated between the canards and centerline of the craft to clear the craft without hitting the cockpit or the canards.

The Triage Simulations & Redesign
When the KF-40P was complete, K.F. wanted to share the craft around as a good gesture to see how it would fare against the prototypes of other competitors open to sharing progress on their designs. Initial testing was promising as the design was able to post-stall maneuver at speeds never seen before for a craft of this size, weight, and power. The creators were able to see that the Triage P had a promising airframe for performing decently at its weight class. K.F. had midtier testing equipment to simulate 2v2s which was nowhere close to being the best but it was good enough for the team since they had plenty of free time. Josue Dynamics had one of the best equipment on the block since they were also one of the major sponsors of FJRT-2 with the Bahamuto Dynamics AI(BD-AI) which all the teams were running. J.D. sported a supercomputer to run all super-tournaments for the competitors to simulate every possible scenario when the supercomputer was available and not down for maintenance. It was known that the supercomputer would begin producing noise and nearly catch fire several times midtesting. One computer technician from J.D. was rumored to have heard the voice of the Kraken when he reattached cables to keep the simulations going.

The KF-40P also took advantage of the opportunity to test over in Droidcorp’s workspace too which had one of the most advanced and extensive testing facilities for 2v2s in series. The fella who was supervising the simulations in Droidcorp’s workspace went by the name of Anh Kerman. Frequent testers that got to know him called him ‘Anh-droid’ with a silent h. There was also a gal named Ann Kerman who was there to occasionally check up on the Droidcorp team. Several competitors who had access to several KF-40P prototype simulation files of their own wanted to reverse engineer it to see what they could learn about the design. Several of the competitors complained to the heads of K.F. which didn’t go well for the teams working on the Triage. The management stressed to the teams that they were here to compete and innovate. If it resulted in them needing to cheat and lose their sense of dignity and sportsmanship to spite the spirit of the competition then they shouldn’t be working here at all. So a next variant was called for to remedy this oversight by higher management.

The KF-40PX & LAME Energy?
The KF-40PX is the result of blood, sweat, and tears toiling away at long hours in the night in the hangar. The teams revised the Triage to eliminate as much unnecessary phantom clipping. By returning to their roots, the teams were able to completely renovate the top wing with the proper design integrating the canards cleanly and eliminating the overhang which honestly brought more issues than solutions. The tail would be shifted to the side paneling of the pods to blend cleanly with the body minimizing unwanted breaks. The tail will be upsized to account for being closer to the CoM. The lowering of the tail would also help to minimize any adverse roll effects further when the tails are yawing. A keen engineer who was analyzing data one night of that day’s flight testing and noticed a strange drop in performance. He would later narrow it down to the LAMEs causing the loss of performance. Since it was late, the engineer hooked a sensor at the base of the lame then went to go grab a shop fan and placed it into the Triage's aero-tunnel where the LAMEs are exposed to the airflow of the tunnel. Doing some back of the envelope tests, the data seemed to imply that half the lift was lost. The engineer consulted his superior and they both decided it was best to stop by R&D to get to the bottom of this. The engineers would return several weeks later to check up on the analysis. According to their findings, the eldritch energy of the LAME had worn off losing exactly half its lift as predicted. This was easy enough to reapply and shift the LAME forwards to get similar performance to what it was like before.

I am the Pie Man and my Pies are delicious
During long nights, the hangar doors are left open to the rest of the KSC so anyone in the complex can drop in. Some of these nights, a strange scientist from the R&D division would often drop in after an exhausting day’s work. He would often chat it up with the engineers still there running the final simulations of the night. Oh, he would often bring up the most random of topics to them like religion, farming, art, geography, architecture, and his unfinished projects. He had an uncanny ability to change topics just as quickly as they came to his thoughts. Many of those unlucky enough to be the recipient of his nightly rants would either despise him, engage back, or keep him company. The late night technicians of the K.F. team were usually there most late nights to keep him company. Those lucky enough to stick around would be gifted late night pies when he was assigned as cafeteria cook that day. Mysterious flavors were the norm as he could never recall which pies had what when he dropped by on his little cart during late night runs around the complex. People would eventually know which ones were the good ones by a glance. Those unlucky enough to choose the wrong ones either went to bed with a bad taste in their mouth or strange flavors and sensations that lingered for hours on end.

Let’s just briefly mention his love for the arts, this fascination with the arts would often lead to late night chats about anime, manga, fan-fiction, chibis, and erotica(oh kraken, why so much erotica). One such member that would often engage with him in these degenerate talks was Chips Kerman. Chips was good with anything related to numbers like coding, betting, and gambling. He too had a love for the arts since he was also an aspiring artist. So you can imagine the type of degeneracy going on whenever the scientist appeared. You can imagine how well these chats went in the early hours of the morning. Ann Kerman was one of those unlucky victims one night. From that point on, she avoided midnight in fear of the man she calls the Pie-Man. Nevertheless, the guys in the hangar never seemed to have caught his actual name but he was referred to as the Pie or Pies Kerman.

The Time Traveling Detective in a world of Kerbals
The recent Hololive EN craze swept through the KSC, nobody was spared the designers, engineers, scientists, and even higher management. The cause of which was most likely due to Watson getting lost again in the timestream stranding herself in the Kerbal Dimension. The Kerbals welcomed her with open arms and great hospitality as they worked to help her return to where she was going. While there, she would tell great stories of powerful deities back in her dimension that rule the earth realm. These stories of near mythical beings spread like wildfire. Nevertheless, this new phenomenon reinvigorated everyone leading to go all out with the KF-40PX. Teams began going overtime rigging up as many special weapons(spw) inspired by their favorite idols. With the Triage nearly complete and being adaptive, the teams mounted EMLs, HPAAs, MMM, MPBMs, and TLS. The team decided unanimously that the new Triage was worthy of a new designation, The KF-50 Triage.

Design (Real Life)
Triage was the chosen name as by definition: In medical use, the assignment of degrees of urgency to wounds or illnesses to decide the order of treatment of a larger number of patients or casualties.

Major Variants

 * KF-50 'Triage Backblast'
 * The most popular craft being the KF-50 ‘Triage Backblast’ themed after Gawr Gura which Watson spoke fondly of. This deity was a 9000 year old shark that was from the lost city of Atlantis that wielded a mighty trident and ruled the mighty seas with an army of loyal Shrimps that outmatched even the other deities of her world. The Kerbals have no knowledge of such creatures like sharks so Watson shared media on what these apex predators were like. There was even a movie night in the KSC where they watched the Jaws Trilogy and The Shallows. The Kerbals wanted to represent this mighty creature of the ocean with the MPBM. The MPBM, a mighty missile with a blast akin to that of a torpedo of the sea like a shark. Some Kerbals even compare their Triage in looks similar to that of the hammerhead shark with the tapered canards out front of the plane. The paint scheme was going to be Azure Simp referencing the Kerbals who would dye their face blue during movie nights but were protested against by several team members(who were also Azure Simps). The paint scheme would end up being Azure Shrimp which the Azure Simps uh I mean team gladly accepted. The name Backblast was in reference to the MPBMs as they have a massive motor that ignites to get the missile off of the plane and out to a high speed with the payload. It can also be interpreted as a shark swimming past you at great speeds blasting water out the way with its powerful tail. Although at times, the missile can’t launch quickly enough leading to the plane colliding with the tough casing of the MPBM leading to the main wing getting eviscerated. The Triage fantastically is redundant enough with the engines spread so far apart and the far reaching rolling wingtips that it can stay decently combat effective with a near fatal loss in roll control.


 * KF-50 'Triage Crossfire'
 * The last craft being the KF-50 ‘Triage Crossfire’ themed after Takanashi Kiara that Watson described as an angry Austrian Phoenix deity. The Kerbals compared the equivalent of a Phoenix to their planes. Planes that would take off to the skies and return as a fireball in a crater only to be reborn in the hangar all to do it again. She also mentioned the Phoenix having a raging boner for the Reaper poetically like the planes that are reborn only to die in a fiery plume of death destined for the scrapyard to be recycled into new machines of tomorrow. The paint scheme is named Crimson Wang for its representation of the Phoenix. Since Wang can also represent the type of bird that would be ideal for working at a big name fast food chain like KFP. The Crossfire is in reference to the onboard TLS that would leave cross beams of energy and bullets streaking across the sky. With the TLS in reference to the awesome beam of energy and fire of a mighty Phoenix’s squawk. The onboard TLS would also be nicknamed the Phoenix Laser System(PLS).


 * KF-50 'Triage Inaceptor'
 * The next craft the KF-50 ‘Triage Inaceptor’ themed after Ninomae Ina’nis where Watson described as a deity of eldritch origins that punned a lot which the Kerbals didn’t understand at first. They eventually made the connection to their equivalent in their system being the all mighty Kraken. A being that once terrorized Kerbol system warping space and time but in recent years seeming to die down in intensity. As if the Kraken itself transcended to a different plane of existence leaving behind trace energies of its cosmic horrors. The Inaceptor’s paint scheme is called Eldritch Purple. To represent the eldritch and Kraken- like appearance of the idol, the team chose Macross Missile Massacre as if the missiles were a stream of unrelenting tentacles gravitating to whatever they can get their hands errrr tentacles on. With a name like Ina, the team couldn’t pass on the chance to call it the Inaceptor as the Triage was capable of interception but with a nasty surprise for the poor fella on the other side.


 * KF-50 'Triage REAP-IR'
 * The next craft, the KF-50 ‘Triage Reap-IR’ themed after Calliope Mori which Watson explained to the Kerbals as a deity who was a manifestation of death back in her dimension. To the Kerbals death was a natural way of life in the KSC with crashes, accidents, explosions, food poisoning, and so much more. The only difference was that their death wasn’t a tall pink haired big booba rapper. The Reap-IR’s paint scheme would be called Deadbeat Pink. To represent the inevitability of death, the Reap-IR was given HPAAs with their near unavoidable ability to catch their target through heat-seeking like death itself. Plus the team liked the pun of Reap-IR cause Reaper if it wasn’t obvious already.


 * KF-50 'Triage Slamfire'
 * Let’s begin with the KF-50 ‘Triage Slamfire’ themed after Amelia Watson the time-traveling detective who breached into this dimension in the first place but that is a story for another time. The Electromagnetic Launcher tuning was done in cooperation with Watson Rail Industries who had plenty of experience with powered rails and was even gracious enough to lend a hand while they were in the Kerbal dimension. The EMLs are renamed to Zoomer Cannon to recognize the collaboration. Slamfire’s paint scheme is colored in Atomic Blondie in reference to Ame’s hair color. The name Slamfire describes the near instant fire of the EMLs as if the gun had gone off accidentally.


 * KF-50 'Triage Ferret'
 * A week before the KF-50 finalized its AI, a note appeared in their workspace, and scribbled on it was a drawing of a Ferret. Throughout the week, the team would find various notes and drawings of Ferrets and Pole Cats scattered around the workspace. The team had figured out who was planting these notes but have yet to call them out due to the lack of a witty comeback.


 * The Holo-Syndicate
 * The teams decided to consolidate all the KF-50 variants that were Hololive themed into a single group, The Holo-Syndicate.