IPA 34 Monsoon Medium Bomber
The Bharatiya Commune's air force consists of four types of aircraft - light fighters, close air support, heavy fighters, and tactical bombers. There are individual variants of these - the close air support aircraft for example, include a variety of dive bomber and torpedo bomber variants, intended for usage in naval war and against ground targets. But there has been little discussed of one of the key aspects of the Commune's air force, its medium bomber, the IPA 34 Monsoon.
In Commune doctrine, tactical bombers are more slated for interdiction work than for tactical, close air support, operations. They are supposed to strike targets behind the line, such as enemy airfields, marshaling yards, HQs, supply depots, railroads, troop movements, roads, bridges, and other such targets. Above all else, in this list, the targets are static ones - the previously mentioned airfields, marshaling yards, bridges, HQs, supply depots. And when they are used on the battlefield, they are supposed to be used against enemy immobile positions, striking fortifications and enemy defensive lines. The task of striking fast moving units on the ground, by contrast, falls to close air support, who in the conditions of fast moving mobile war and above all else during breakouts, are responsible for bombing and strafing enemy units. Furthermore, tactical bombers have a role in providing a deterrence to enemy strategic bombing, by promising that any attack on our territory will be met simply - with an attack on the cities of the enemy with reprisal.
Tactical bombers thus have an important role to play in tactical operations of the Commune. Before the IPA 34 was designed, the Commune had purchased French medium bombers, and continues to use them. But as with other pieces of military equipment, it was ambitious to manufacture them internally. The problem which as always asserted itself, was the lack of power. 500 horsepower engines continued to be the upper limit available.
It was in fact, the IPA 34 Monsoon which started the trend for the Commune of placing these engines into push-pull arrangements, capitalizing on the low power and hence low cooling to be able to produce an aircraft which hence might be capable of meeting international standards. The resultant Monsoon aircraft has 4 500 horsepower engines which drive three-bladed, variable angle propellers - which by international standards, in number of engines, might make it into a strategic bomber, save that the engines are so relatively weak that it continues to firmly be a medium bomber. This gives enough power to be able to roughly match international performance, generally somewhat lower as most Commune aircraft are, but still reaching some 418 kilometers per hour at maximum speed, and with a service ceiling of around 6,000 meters. The engines are mounted in push-pull nacelles on the wings. Construction continues to be entirely of wood, in a monocoque design, and retracting landing gear is fitted. The wings are cantilever, low wings. The aircraft's fuselage and wings are designed to provide minimal drag, something of defining importance for any Commune design given the limited power available. There are twin tails, which provide for marginally better field of fires, although it did require much in the way of aerodynamics tests to be able to resolve some flutter and turbulence problems associated with them. Emphasis was put on low wing loading to enable take off from unprepared fields.
Of course, the principal objective of the IPA 34 Monsoon is to drop bombs on the enemy. Here, it is capable of loading up to 2,000 kilograms of bombs in its maximum weight, but typically operates with a smaller load of around 1,500 kilograms. This can be constituted of 50, 100, or 250 kilogram bombs, although typically 100 and 250 kilograms are its fare - after all, against the targets that it is fighting against, larger explosive effect is better than a larger number of bombs. These are held vertically in the bomb bay. The bombsight for this is controlled by a gunner-bombardier in the nose, and the bombsights are one of the crucial pieces of information which are adopted from French models, with frantic efforts to produce them domestically and major imports to stock up on them.
For its defensive armament, some 3 7.7mm machine guns are used, with 1 in the forward cockpit, 1 in a dorsal setting, and 1 in a ventral setting. There was consideration for trying to put these into turrets, but this was rejected due to weight issues and due to technical complexity - bomber turrets would be too hard for the Commune to make en masse. Similarly, proposals about weapons more powerful than 7.7mm machine guns were rejected. The reasonably good speed of the aircraft was viewed as better than piling more weapons on it, although effort did go into making it more sturdy than other Commune designs.
There is a crew of 4 for the aircraft, composed of the pilot, a forward gunner-bombardier, and rear gunner-navigator and gunner-radio officers.
Some consideration has been put into building a variant of the bomber as a torpedo bomber. This has currently not been accepted, as the air force is not that interested in the project, viewing its role as much more of coastal defense than long range torpedo attacks, but it could be in the future. The principal variant of the IPA 34 Monsoon is instead that it is used as a VIP transport and airliner. Currently the Commune does not have a large internal domestic airliner service, but the IPA 34's civilian variants is one of the first good quality, high speed, high capacity airliners to be available for it.
Crew: 4
Length: 15.4
Wingspan: 20.2 m
Height: 4.5 meters
Wing area: 68 meters squared
Empty weight: 5,946 kilograms
Max takeoff weight: 8,645 kilograms
Power plant: x4 Kumar 12k air-cooled inverted v-12 piston engine, 500hp
Propellers: 3-bladed variable pitch
Maximum speed: 418 kilometers per hour at 4,000 meters
Range: 2,000 kilometers
Service ceiling: 6,000 meters
Armament: x3 7.7mm machine guns in defensive mountings
In Commune doctrine, tactical bombers are more slated for interdiction work than for tactical, close air support, operations. They are supposed to strike targets behind the line, such as enemy airfields, marshaling yards, HQs, supply depots, railroads, troop movements, roads, bridges, and other such targets. Above all else, in this list, the targets are static ones - the previously mentioned airfields, marshaling yards, bridges, HQs, supply depots. And when they are used on the battlefield, they are supposed to be used against enemy immobile positions, striking fortifications and enemy defensive lines. The task of striking fast moving units on the ground, by contrast, falls to close air support, who in the conditions of fast moving mobile war and above all else during breakouts, are responsible for bombing and strafing enemy units. Furthermore, tactical bombers have a role in providing a deterrence to enemy strategic bombing, by promising that any attack on our territory will be met simply - with an attack on the cities of the enemy with reprisal.
Tactical bombers thus have an important role to play in tactical operations of the Commune. Before the IPA 34 was designed, the Commune had purchased French medium bombers, and continues to use them. But as with other pieces of military equipment, it was ambitious to manufacture them internally. The problem which as always asserted itself, was the lack of power. 500 horsepower engines continued to be the upper limit available.
It was in fact, the IPA 34 Monsoon which started the trend for the Commune of placing these engines into push-pull arrangements, capitalizing on the low power and hence low cooling to be able to produce an aircraft which hence might be capable of meeting international standards. The resultant Monsoon aircraft has 4 500 horsepower engines which drive three-bladed, variable angle propellers - which by international standards, in number of engines, might make it into a strategic bomber, save that the engines are so relatively weak that it continues to firmly be a medium bomber. This gives enough power to be able to roughly match international performance, generally somewhat lower as most Commune aircraft are, but still reaching some 418 kilometers per hour at maximum speed, and with a service ceiling of around 6,000 meters. The engines are mounted in push-pull nacelles on the wings. Construction continues to be entirely of wood, in a monocoque design, and retracting landing gear is fitted. The wings are cantilever, low wings. The aircraft's fuselage and wings are designed to provide minimal drag, something of defining importance for any Commune design given the limited power available. There are twin tails, which provide for marginally better field of fires, although it did require much in the way of aerodynamics tests to be able to resolve some flutter and turbulence problems associated with them. Emphasis was put on low wing loading to enable take off from unprepared fields.
Of course, the principal objective of the IPA 34 Monsoon is to drop bombs on the enemy. Here, it is capable of loading up to 2,000 kilograms of bombs in its maximum weight, but typically operates with a smaller load of around 1,500 kilograms. This can be constituted of 50, 100, or 250 kilogram bombs, although typically 100 and 250 kilograms are its fare - after all, against the targets that it is fighting against, larger explosive effect is better than a larger number of bombs. These are held vertically in the bomb bay. The bombsight for this is controlled by a gunner-bombardier in the nose, and the bombsights are one of the crucial pieces of information which are adopted from French models, with frantic efforts to produce them domestically and major imports to stock up on them.
For its defensive armament, some 3 7.7mm machine guns are used, with 1 in the forward cockpit, 1 in a dorsal setting, and 1 in a ventral setting. There was consideration for trying to put these into turrets, but this was rejected due to weight issues and due to technical complexity - bomber turrets would be too hard for the Commune to make en masse. Similarly, proposals about weapons more powerful than 7.7mm machine guns were rejected. The reasonably good speed of the aircraft was viewed as better than piling more weapons on it, although effort did go into making it more sturdy than other Commune designs.
There is a crew of 4 for the aircraft, composed of the pilot, a forward gunner-bombardier, and rear gunner-navigator and gunner-radio officers.
Some consideration has been put into building a variant of the bomber as a torpedo bomber. This has currently not been accepted, as the air force is not that interested in the project, viewing its role as much more of coastal defense than long range torpedo attacks, but it could be in the future. The principal variant of the IPA 34 Monsoon is instead that it is used as a VIP transport and airliner. Currently the Commune does not have a large internal domestic airliner service, but the IPA 34's civilian variants is one of the first good quality, high speed, high capacity airliners to be available for it.
Crew: 4
Length: 15.4
Wingspan: 20.2 m
Height: 4.5 meters
Wing area: 68 meters squared
Empty weight: 5,946 kilograms
Max takeoff weight: 8,645 kilograms
Power plant: x4 Kumar 12k air-cooled inverted v-12 piston engine, 500hp
Propellers: 3-bladed variable pitch
Maximum speed: 418 kilometers per hour at 4,000 meters
Range: 2,000 kilometers
Service ceiling: 6,000 meters
Armament: x3 7.7mm machine guns in defensive mountings
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