The Development of Non-Balfour Aircraft

Since the invention of the Balfour engine and the proliferation of zeppelins and aethercraft, humanity has known the skies. However, the flight of humanity was not the flight of birds or bats, or even the mighty drachen of Concord Minor. That discovery came much later.

Experiments with gliders and other craft of their like had been occurring on and off for centuries, and with the widespread adoption of zeppelin technology, simple gliders became more and more common as emergency escape vehicles. Zeppelins were not and are not immune to disaster, and so in the mid-1800s, most had several gliders on board. However, advances in textiles eventually made parachutes more viable, and these gliders started to decline in popularity.

In the late 1800s, a pair of brothers on Concord Minor began experimenting with attaching engines to gliders. Their hope was to create a longer-distance glider with which to help deliver mail to more remote settlements on the frontier. Their success yielded the first true fixed-wing aircraft and a much deeper understanding of the properties of lift. Small planes of this type are still a common sight in the colonies, where the reach of more established methods of transportation are limited.

Since then, these crafts have become far more common. Cheaper and faster than a zeppelin or an aethership, though far and away more fragile, planes have come into use across the world for many applications. Their first military use was in the Colombian-American War, where they played a pivotal role as scouts and light attack crafts for both sides.

In the modern day, Balfour miniaturization has blurred the lines between these vehicles and their heavier cousins. While some vehicles are still constructed to be borne entirely through the power of lift, many have integrated circuitry helping them along. Heavy bombers such as the American B-72 Condor or the Russian Seraphim Mk. 7 make particular use of this to extend their range far past what they could otherwise achieve.

The majority of fixed wing aircraft are powered by the same type of electro-thermal engines as other, larger aircraft, with their onboard petroleum engines serving as a power plant for this propulsion. This means that properly sealed aircraft can operate in the aether for limited periods of time, with the primary limiting factor being their oxygen supply.

One field in which planes have become more and more relevant is that of carrier-based deployments. Large contingents of planes are stored aboard dedicated zeppelins or aetherships, and, at the start of combat, are catapulted into action. The most modern of these ships have an entire deck of catapults, giving them some of the appearance of sailing ships of old with their broadsides of cannons. In recent battles, these ships have proven to be dramatically effective, with the smaller planes even finding it possible, with appropriately executed maneuvers, to slip bombs through enemy shield generators. As a result, the number of aircraft employed during the Great War has sharply increased since its start.

The low cost of planes has proven to be attractive in another area as well: border defense. With the increased speed of modern zeppelins, border and commerce raids have become more and more common, and so the need for a rapid response force has increased. To fill this need, many nations have developed a ground-based air force with a wide network of bases and regular patrols to guard their borders and quickly respond to incursions.