                               Concept : Planes

 Planes are units constructed by nations to transport commodities,  to  gather
intelligence  about other nations, to protect national borders against foreign
aerial incursions, and to project power through the air.  Planes come in  gen-
eral  categories,  such  as fighters, tactical bombers, strategic bombers, and
transports.

Planes, like other kinds of units, are built and owned by nations.  To build a
plane,  a  nation  must  spend construction materials in a functioning airbase
sector that has excess available civilian workforce.  This  initial  construc-
tion  will  cost 10% of the full cost of the plane, and create a 10% efficient
plane in the airbase.

As time passes (assuming the airbase is 60% efficient  and  there  are  enough
civilians  able  to  work on the construction of the new plane) the plane will
gain efficiency each update.  Until the plane reaches 100%, it cannot fly  any
mission.   For  each 1% of efficiency built, the owning nation will be charged
1% of the total price.

Once completely constructed, planes are free to perform any and all  missions.
All  missions  require  and  use  mobility, which is accrued every update.  If

                               Concept : Planes

ships receive damage, they can be rapidly repaired at any friendly functioning
airbase.   Each  1%  of  repair  will  cost the owner of the airbase 1% of the
plane's purchase price, assuming the owner of the airbase  has  a  tech  level
sufficient to construct the plane in the first place.

Unlike most other units, planes may not move via  ground  movement.   Instead,
planes  fly  to wherever they are destined, taking off from a functioning air-
base or aircraft carrier and landing at another airbase or carrier.  In  order
to take off and land, the required efficiency of the bases in question depends
on the size of the plane involved.   Tiny  fighters  require  relatively  less
well-constructed  airfields  from  which  to  operate,  while the mighty heavy
bombers need long and well-built runways to successfully take off and land.

The technology level at which a plane is constructed will significantly affect
its  performance.  Two nations may both have the ability to build a particular
plane-type, but the plane built by the nation with the higher tech  will  gen-
erate a better-performing aircraft (fly farther, shoot better, etc).

If the sector a plane is residing in is seized, the crew  of  the  plane  will
attempt  to  destroy  the  plane  on the ground.  This is a chancy affair, and

                               Concept : Planes

sometimes planes will fall into enemy hands.

All plane missions are directed at a single target sector.  Each plane mission
involves  the  gathering of the strike force which assembles at the designated
assembly point, and then proceeds along the specified flightpath to the target
sector.

If during the course of a mission your planes may  fly  over  somebody  else's
territory.   If the other nation has ordered his forces to intercept you, then
it is quite possible that his fighters will rise to dispute your  passage  and
will attempt to shoot your planes down.

If you manage to fight though the enemy fighters and arrive at the target sec-
tor,  your  force  must  still contend with any flak guns which your enemy has
stationed there.  What's more, any enemy ship in the target sector  will  also
shoot at each of your bombers before any attacks are performed.

Planes have differing  air-to-air  combat  abilities,  differing  ranges,  and
load-carrying  capacities.  Some airplanes don't need runways, but can operate
out of any sector which has fuel in it.

                               Concept : Planes

Certain missions may be proscribed by treaty.
bomb  Perform a nuclear, strategic, or tactical bombing mission.
para  Seize sectors by dropping paratroopers from transport planes.
fly  Transport planes (and possibly commodities) from one sector to another.
recon  Perform overflights, gather intelligence.
drop  Air-drop supplies and equipment.

The particular planes available and their attributes are  given  by  the  show
command.   The  fields  given  in  the  output  are as follows.  For the plane
build-cost report:

tech  minimum tech level to build this unit,
cost  cost of the unit in dollars,
avail  the available work (divided by 10) required to build one plane to 10%,
materials  the  quantity  of  construction  materials  of  the  specific  type
      required in the sector,

                               Concept : Planes

For the plane capability report:

 acc  bomb accuracy, low is best; a 0 accuracy implies no ability.
load  bomb load/cargo capacity.
 att  air-to-air combat attack rating.
 def  air-to-air combat defense rating.
 ran  one-way range (in sectors); divide by two for bombing missions,
fuel  amount of fuel used each trip.
abilities  the abilities of the particular plane model.

The abilities are given as a set of attributes for each plane.  These include:

 tactical  pinpoint bombing ability
intercept  interception and escort ability
    cargo  cargo-carrying and paradrop ability,
   bomber  strategic bombing ability,
     VTOL  vertical take-off ability -- no need to use airports
    naval  can land on carriers,
      spy  spy ability, used during recon missions
  stealth  improved combat ability, has chance of not triggering intercepts.

                               Concept : Planes

See also : fly, build, show

