Raptor-One: Difference between revisions

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==Appearance==
==Appearance==


Raptor-One and Raptor-Two are giant VTOL aircraft [[wikipedia:Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey|Bell/Boeing V-22 Osprey]] tilt-rotor planes but twice as large with a length of over 100 feet (over 30 meters), wingspan of 175 feet (53 meters) and their twin-turboshaft tilt rotor engines topped four bladed propellers that were 50 feet (15.24 meters) long. Unlike normal Osprey aircraft, the Raptor's twin vertical tail stabilizers were mounted on it's fuselage (body) instead of it's swept-back rear horizontal wings as well as having noses made completely of heat resistant windows that were tapered in the back. The Raptors are cloud gray with jagged lines of purple and [[wikipedia:Mauve|mauve]] on their backs and sides.
Raptor-One and Raptor-Two are giant VTOL (Vertical Take-Off and Landing) aircraft, molded after the [[wikipedia:Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey|Bell/Boeing V-22 Osprey]] tilt-rotor planes but twice as large with a length of over 100 feet (over 30 meters), wingspan of 175 feet (53 meters) and their twin-turboshaft tilt rotor engines topped four bladed propellers that were 50 feet (15.24 meters) long. Unlike normal Osprey aircraft, the Raptor's twin vertical tail stabilizers were mounted on it's fuselage (body) instead of it's swept-back rear horizontal wings as well as having noses made completely of heat resistant windows that were tapered in the back. The Raptors are cloud gray with jagged lines of purple and [[wikipedia:Mauve|mauve]] on their backs and sides.


==Abilities & Equipment==
==Abilities & Equipment==

Revision as of 21:32, 29 July 2020

Raptor-One
Picture not available
Height N/A
Length over 100 feet (over 30 meters)
Wingspan 175 feet (53 meters)
Targets Godzilla, Varan, King Ghidorah
Piloted by Pierce Dillard, Martin Wong (co-pilot), Kip Daniels (combat)
First appearance Godzilla 2000 (Book)

The Raptor-One is a massive VTOL anti-kaiju aircraft designed off of a Bell/Boeing V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor plane used by the U.S. division of G-Force that first appeared in Godzilla 2000 (Book) published by Random House and written by Marc Cerasini. Raptor-One is a four man aircraft consisting a pilot/commander (Pierce Dillard), a co-pilot/flight engineer (Martin Wong), a navigation and communications officer (Tia Shimura), and a weapons systems officer (Kip Daniels).

History

Godzilla 2000 (Book)

In 1988, U.S. Air Force General Jake Taggart wrote an article for a strategic studies journal how certain weapon systems could be modified to defend against Godzilla's reappearance or the appearance of another monster. No one expected Godzilla to return as the creature was presumed dead after the events of his 1954 rampage and neither he nor any other creature like him had been seen in decades since then, and thus was assumed to be a one time freak incident. In 1998 Godzilla would finally make his presence known to the world at large by attacking Japan and feeding off several of it's nuclear reactors, the creature either being the original one or another member of the same species. That same year, after witnessing conventional weapons fail to stop Godzilla, an advisor to the president remembered Taggart's article. Taggart would be pulled out of retirement and along with Colonel William "Bill" Krupp be put in charge of Project Valkyrie, a top secret U.S. Air Force project to create Taggart's proposed anti-kaiju weapon system, with Taggart and Krupp's mission to oversee the training of teenagers in the use of said weapons as the next generations anti-kaiju fighting force. Using a video game called BATTLEGROUND 2000, the U.S. government monitors players performances with those achieving high scores being recruited.

The weapon would be completed in May of 1999 with it's sister ship, Raptor-Two, being fully built shortly afterwards. Meteor showers had awaken several monsters around the world and while Godzilla had been the initial target when he stepped on American soil, plans for Raptor-One to engage the monster were called off when a lethal blood pathogen had been unleashed in Moraga,California after AH-64A Apache helicopters had attacked the monster, resulting in hundreds having to be hospitalized and even dying. The Raptors were instead sent to Houston,Texas in June of that year to deal with Varan once he had made his way into American airspace. A fierce aerial battle was waged, with man and monster playing chicken, causing both Varan and Raptor-One losing altitude with each attempted ramming attack by the monster. When Varan is forced to land on top of a fuel station for ships near the bay, Raptor-One launched several Hellfire Missiles at the fuel farm resulting in a massive explosion that ignited Varan's hydrogen filled air sacs it used to float. Burning alive from it's own internal gases, Varan retreated before an internal explosion caused the monster to plummet to the ocean. Dead or alive, Varan was out of action and G-Force's U.S.A. division had won it's first victory against the monsters.

Plans to attack Godzilla were delayed until July when he made his way to Gunnison National Forest in Colorado, far away from populated areas and preventing another outbreak of his blood pathogen. Raptor-One and Godzilla fought evenly a fierce battle, with Raptor-One unleashed it's payloads to Godzilla's sides and back and Godzilla initially only getting indirect hits in, though he did managed to destroy a missile bay when his Atomic Breath detonated a Hellfire missile after the heat shielding had been lowered. The battle would never reach it's conclusion when a news helicopter disobeyed the military's no fly zone and the less armored Raprtor-Two was lost in the conflict shielding the helicopter from one of Godzilla's stray Atomic Blasts. With the loss of Raptor-Two the operation was called off and one of it's crew, Lori Angelo, had gone missing while the other, Tobias Nelson, was injuried.

Raptor-Two would be replaced by a converted and heavily modified CV-22 Osprey to act as Raptor-One's intel. The war machines would see action in the new century. A new threat emerged from space, King Ghidorah had been freed from it's rocky prison after nuclear missiles were launched to destroy large asteroids threatening to cause a mass extinction of life on Earth. On January 1st of 2000, Raptor-One is sent to New York City to intercept the space monster. Another monster, Mothra appears along with Lori Angelo. It becomes clear Mothra had been acting as a higher power, leading Godzilla to where he would be needed to fight King Ghidorah. Both Godzilla and King Ghidorah enter the city around the same time. Raptor-One is the first to engage King Ghidorah, firing it's new modified Teflon Surgical Needle Missiles at the golden tyrant. The first lost altitude, bouncing off King Ghidorah's chest and detonating harmlessly and destroying the Dakota apartment. The second one had pierced and lodged itself in the base of the middle neck but failed to detonate. Raptor-One switched to it's other weapons, and after a short but intense battle Raptor-One managed to survive. King Ghidorah broke off it's fight with Raptor-One to instead focus on Godzilla and Mothra. When King Ghidorah strangled Godzilla, Raptor-One fired it's cannons at the missile still lodged in King Ghidorah's middle neck. King Ghidorah retaliated with it's Gravity Beams, blasting off several of Raptor-One's heat panels. Finally, in it's last moments Raptor-One found it's mark, a single bullet had ruptured the missile resulting in King Ghidorah's central head & neck being blasted right off and giving Godzilla the chance to aim the most powerful Atomic Breath ever recorded by kaijuologist into the North Tower of the World Trade Center, resulting on the entire tower falling on King Ghidorah, further injuring him. With King Ghidorah fatally wounded, Godzilla and Mothra were given the opportunity to drive the space monster away from the planet. Though the Raptor was lost it's crew had survived, playing their part in saving the world and would lead the way to humanity perusing new ventures of making new, more powerful anti-kaiju weapons.

Appearance

Raptor-One and Raptor-Two are giant VTOL (Vertical Take-Off and Landing) aircraft, molded after the Bell/Boeing V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor planes but twice as large with a length of over 100 feet (over 30 meters), wingspan of 175 feet (53 meters) and their twin-turboshaft tilt rotor engines topped four bladed propellers that were 50 feet (15.24 meters) long. Unlike normal Osprey aircraft, the Raptor's twin vertical tail stabilizers were mounted on it's fuselage (body) instead of it's swept-back rear horizontal wings as well as having noses made completely of heat resistant windows that were tapered in the back. The Raptors are cloud gray with jagged lines of purple and mauve on their backs and sides.

Abilities & Equipment

Reinforced Carbon-Carbon & Translucent Teflon

Raptor-One was almost completely covered in lightweight version of Reinforced carbon–carbon (RCC), the same material used by NASA to shield space shuttles from the heat and friction of atmospheric reentry, with it's cannons and missile bays also being covered and only exposed when when in use and it's propellers being made completely out of RCC. It's nose was completely comprised of transparencies (windows) of double panes of a revolutionary new Translucent Teflon allowing it's crew full view in almost any direction but behind the aircraft. The two materials allowed the Raptor-One to take direct hits of Godzilla's Atomic Breath with temperatures in excess of 1,200°F (648°C) without suffering any damage. Additional armor was added on after the Raptor's fight with Godzilla in preparation for it's fight with King Ghidorah.

Heat-Resistant Panels & Digital Camera

For additional protection for the Teflon windows, heat-resistant panels could be lowered to shield them. The Teflon windows were built to also work as digital monitors when the panels are lowered and are fed visual real-time images from hundreds of digital cameras on the fuselage and wings.

Camouflage

Both Raptor-One and Raptor-Two are painted cloud with jagged lines of purple and mauve on their backs and sides. Kaijuologist conjunctured that the jangled color scheme would make it harder for Godzilla to see the aircraft in the sky. The Modified CV-22 was likely given a similar paint job as the camouflage combined with it's much smaller size would make it a harder target to spot.

Flight

Being that they are based off the Osprey, both Raptors are capable of both traditional propeller plane flight and the hover, ascending/descending and banking of a helicopter using their twin turboshaft tilt-rotor propeller engines. Both Raptors are capable of a flight speed of 250 MPH. Though it's unknown how weighed down the converted CV-22 was when outfitted to be Raptor-Two's replacement, it possibly could have flown at a normal Osprey's max speed of 351 MPH.

Advance Radar & Navigation Systems

Both Raptors were equipped with advance radar & navigation systems capable of detecting Varan who was invisible to normal radar, though Raptor-One's was less advance than Raptor-Two's as Raptor-Two detected Varan before Raptor-One. Both are fed constant updates on their location by geopositional satellites. These computers can highlight parts of a computer-generated schematic to show where damage has occurred. After the loss of Raptor-Two a converted CV-22 was modified with Raptor-Two's advance equipment while Raptor-One would also be given upgrades to it's radar and avionics systems.

Weapons

30mm GAU-8/A Avenger Cannons

The fuselage of Raptor-One was lined with massive GAU-8/A Avenger Cannons capable of firing a variety of different types of ammunition, each cannon capable of firing 4,000 rounds per second. Depending on the ammo & fire mode being used the cannons combined can fire 40,000 to 42,000 rounds per second. While capable of fully automatic fire, controlled burst fire was recommended so the aircraft would not be slowed down by the guns recoil, so great was their firepower. Tracer rounds were an option to help with readjusting aim in night time skirmishes. Should one gun jam, all the ammo would be diverted to the non-jammed guns.

These cannons fired massive 30mm bullets and were mainly used to fire the controversial 30mm Explosive Armor-Piercing Depleted Uranium Shells. Depleted Uranium is very dense, is more aerodynamic than traditional lead bullets due to being smaller in diameter, has deeper penetration and also sharpens itself when going into a target as it "sheds" as well as ignite as an incendiary due to the friction of impact or shedding due to being flammable. While depleted uranium's beta radiation just bounces off skin, the particles that break off from impact can be breathed in, resulting in cancer or birth defects of future children. Part of the reason it was chosen is for having radiation too low to really do much should a nuclear powered monster absorb it, in much that drinking a raindrop won't do much to quench ones thirst. These bullets caused no viable injury on the monster Varan but concentrated fire on one injured spot on the creatures back from the Armor Piercing Rockets did cause enough shock to force the monster to land completely and also caused Godzilla pain when the cannons concentrated fire near sensitive spots such as his ears.

Before the battle with King Ghidorah the ammo would be switched out for the experimental, and less of health risk nightmare, 30mm Teflon-Coated Explosive Shells, bullets covered in a layer of Polytetrafluoroethylene, this reduced friction allowing bullets to slid in a target further before deforming or breaking, causing deeper penetration into a target. The bullets were surprisingly very effective, even more so than the Uranium rounds which caused minimum damage to Varan as the Teflon bullets shattered and splintered King Ghidorah's golden scales like glass.

Cadmium Missiles

Built into the wings of Raptor-One were armored missile bays that stored and fired various types of missiles and rockets such as Cadmium Missiles. Seeing that Cadmium Missiles fired from type 75 tanks did deplete some of Godzilla's energy during his attack on Japan in 1998, Raptor-One is armed with dozens Cadmium Missiles in the armored bays built in the wings themselves to drain any nuclear powered monsters of their energy though they had no visible effect on the alien King Ghidorah whose energy source is unkown.

Maverick Air-to-Surface Missiles

The armored missile bays built into the wings of Raptor-One also stored Maverick Air-To-Surface Missiles, precision-guided missiles that locks on to a target and has a heavyweight warhead fitted with a delayed-action fuze, which penetrates the target with its kinetic energy before detonating for damaging large armored targets.

Armored-Rocket Pods & Armor Piercing Rockets

Raptor-One's wing pylons can carry four large Aromored-Rocket Pods on it's wings, each one containing 50 Armor Piercing Rockets for a total of 200 small rockets made to punch into a monsters armored flesh and detonate. These are made to be the middle ground between the cannons and missiles, combining the rapid fire barrage and ammo capacity of the cannons with the explosive power of larger missiles. Though it did used this ability, it was never stated what kind of rockets were used, only that it was various types of armor piercing rockets, perhaps so analysts can study a fight and to determine which weapons are best for penetrating a monsters thick hide. These rockets hurt Varan causing enough of a shock to make the monster lose altitude and leaving injuries vulnerable to the GAU-8/A Avenger Cannons, forcing him to land completely.

Laser-Guided Smart Bombs

Raptor-One's has armored bomb bays built into the underside of it's wings that can be opened up to drop Laser-Guided Smart Bombs on a slow moving land bound monster. This ability went unused and the number of bombs is unknown though it is unknown it could carry and use a variety of them.

Hellfire Missiles

Alternatively the Raptor-One's wing pylons could carry a larger armored-rocket pods to carry larger rockets or missiles, sacrificing capacity for additional firepower such as 6 Hellfire Missiles. The Hellfire Missiles are a guided air-to-surface, anti-armor missiles. Because it is a fire-and-forget missile, it can lock on to a target even after being fired and does not need further assistance of a friendly unit to be in range of sight with the target, even able to lock on to targets in adverse visual conditions such as smoke clouds. Raptor-One fired all six of these missiles at a fuel tank under Varan's soft underbelly, resulting in a massive explosion that ignited the monsters internal gases and hydrogen filled air sacs.

Teflon-Needle Missiles

Raptor-One's wing pylons could carry two large cruise missiles, one under each wing. It's most powerful weapon was two Teflon-Needle Tomahawk Missiles, two subsonic Tomahawk Cruise Missiles that had been modified and specially equipped with surgically honed needle sharp tips made of Teflon. Using a laser-targeting system, they were made to punch into & bury themselves into a monster like giant hypodermic needles before unleashing a ship killing explosion. Just one of these had managed to punch through the hide of King Ghidorah, lodged at the base of his central neck, causing him to bleed golden blood profusely. King Ghidorah seemed to ignore or even be oblivious to this injury until this one missile detonated and generated a massive explosion that completely decapitated the central head and neck, fatally wounding the monster and knocking it down.

Support

Raptor-Two

The sister craft of Raptor-One, Raptor-Two is nearly identical to Raptor-One, save for it's lack of weapons and carrying more advance navigational and observational equipment than it's sister craft. Raptor-Two is a two man aircraft with one Pilot (Tobias Nelson) and an Air Caps (Air Combat Controller) (Lori Angelo) feeding commends to the helmet of Raptor One's weapons systems officer. Raptor-Two's job is to fly high above Raptor-One and the enemy, observe the fight and give Raptor-One's crew constant feedback and updates.

Modified CV-22 Osprey

After the loss of Raptor-Two, a normal Osprey had to be heavily modified with Raptor-Two's advance equipment to act as Raptor-One's new Air Caps, it's replacement crew consisting of General Jake Taggart and Colonel Bill Krupp. It's unknown what other changes, if any, were made to the aircraft such as armor.

Weaknesses

Raptor-One is for all intents and purposes a giant, flying ammunition bay. Because of this it's radar system was not as advance as it's sister ship. Raptor-Two would fly high above the battle giving Raptor-One constant updates and intel on the battle acting as second pair of eyes, should Raptor-Two be shot down then Raptor-One's situational awareness is reduced. Raptor-One's cannons could jam and while the ammo would be automatically diverted and fed to the reaming cannons this lowered the amount of rounds that could be fired at the same time. Additional armor put on for preparation in the upcoming fight with King Ghidorah resulted in additional weight on the weapons bay, with tests before the fight sometimes resulting in them jamming and not fully opening. While excellent against the heat of Godzilla and King Ghidorah's energy attacks, several of the heat resistant (RCC) tiles were blown off by the kinetic power of King Ghidorah's gravity beams.

While Raptor-One and it's missile bays are fully armored on the outside, the missiles bays insides are not nor are their payloads. When open they are fully exposed to high temperature attacks, such as when Godzilla's breath detonated a Hellfire missile in it's open rocket-pod resulting in a chain reaction that caused the lost of some ammo and damage to the Raptor. The Teflon-Needle Missiles could lose altitude, as they are just normal Tomahawk missiles not made to fly with the extra weight of the needles on their front and because they were modified mass produced weapons instead of specially made anti-kaiju armaments they were vurnable to malfunctions with one failing to detonate when it got lodged into King Ghidorah's neck, having to be shot with large caliber cannons to be forcibly detonated.

Being that is is made primarily as a surveillance support aircraft, Raptor-Two has far less armor than it's sister ship and no weapons to speak of. Raptor-Two was meant to stay high above the battle out of notice of a target monster but was shot down with a single hit of Godzilla's breath when forced to shield a news helicopter. The Modified CV-22 is just a normal Osprey, hasty converted to replace the Raptor-Two as Raptor-One's support after the former had been destroyed. It likely did not have any anti-kaiju weapons and due to it's small size probably had even less armor if it was even outfitted at all, so it could easily be destroyed.


Trivia

  • There is a bit of continuity error with how many GAU-8/A Avenger cannons Raptor-One has, with page 112 saying it had four but all other pages that mention it's number of cannons, pages 226 & 295, saying it has eight of these cannons though it is possible modifications were made to allow it to carry more cannons.
  • Like the Super-X and Super-X3, Raptor-One is equipped with Cadmium Missiles.
  • Raptor-One is similar to the Super-X in that is a more grounded take on an anti-kaiju weapon.

References

This is a list of references for Raptor-One. These citations are used to identify the reliable sources on which this article is based. These references appear inside articles in the form of superscript numbers, which look like this: [1]

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