COMING 2023
Stay tuned to join us in the skies!
February 9, 2023
We are on Patreon! The link is above, just under the image!
We are looking forward to what this will do for our game and business!
Thank you everyone for the support and love!
January 30, 2023
Airships and aircraft carriers
As one news outlet recently reported, it as seems as though airships are used in media to signify an alternate history. Want to make a universe seem at once familiar while also communicating a difference from our own? Add a massive Zeppelin airship, pondering over a Victorian city. Want to really blow some minds? Imagine an airship that’s also an aircraft carrier that launches dozens of fighter planes while ominously casting a long shadow over that city. Maybe add some improbably sized battleship turrets and guns to really make the point. That’s what today’s post is about, the use of Zeppelins and in particular, Zeppelins that are also aircraft carriers. Because our game is set in an alternate history, the “oh, cool” factor of airships was too alluring to pass up when we were developing ideas for the game.
Flights of fancy
So, let’s start with Flying aircraft carriers, often considered science fiction. Whether it’s the massive Helicarrier from the Marvel cinematic universe, or the Royal Navy flying aircraft carrier featured in Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, they are often introduced to project a theme. In the case of Marvel, it’s used to express the size, reach, and whizbang-ery of the organization backing the Avengers. In the case of Sky Captain, it’s to drive home how wildly the different path taken by society in the alternate history of that universe was. In either case, they are usually introduced to engender a sense of awe in the viewer. In our modern world, real-world aircraft carriers are expensive pieces of military equipment deployed only by the wealthiest nation-states in the world. As force projection, they have been the cornerstone of wartime strategy since the second world war. To move these massive ships that are more like floating cities into the sky seems so fantastical that it couldn’t have any factual basis in history.
And yet, it does. Airships of different types, capable of launching fighters were designed by multiple branches of several militaries around the world. There were the impractical nuclear-powered giant flying planes that would have served as a mobile airbase designed by the storied folks at Lockheed Martin’s Skunkworks, designated CL-1201. Or the slightly less impractical but similarly-never-built Boeing 747, resigned to accommodate “parasite fighters” that would have been more of an airborne taxi than a carrier. Over the course of decades, several shots have been taken at flying carriers and none of them got past the pen-and-paper stage.
The USS Macon, in an undated photo. Possibly 1933 or 1934.
The USS Macon – a Hollywood trope made history.
One type of flying aircraft carrier that did actually make it to the real world was the USS Macon, a fascinating and terrifying example of this concept brought to life. It served as a reconnaissance platform capable of tracking ships at sea, an important asset to have before the age of radar. It was capable of launching and receiving five Curtiss F9C Sparrowhawk fighters, which were able to dock with the Macon via a trapeze and hook system that seemed like nightmare fuel for pilots in the program. To make matters worse, the planes often had their landing gear removed. If you missed the trapeze, the hook broke, or a dozen other things that could go awry went wrong you were likely headed to the other big blue, the sea. The USS Macon hit a storm off the coast of Point Sur, California, and was subsequently lost. The sister ship of the USS Macon called the USS Akron, arguably did worse. It had a series of accidents in its 2 years as a commissioned ship and finally crashed killing most aboard 2 months before the Macon entered active service. With the two ships lost the flying aircraft carrier program was dead and the concept retired, never to be revived.
In the world of our game, the flying aircraft carrier concept became more common after the dissolution of the United States. With the alternate history inventions of Tesla, a new type of Zeppelin took to the skies and became the dominant means of commercial trade and travel. As the infrastructure of the former United States dissolved or disintegrated as individual states carved out regional bases of power, the railroads that once spanned the North American continent were destroyed or left to ruins following the fall of the federal government. As commerce went skyward, so did the criminals who preyed upon it. In our game, Zeppelins are not just there for the “rule of cool,” they’re there as a vital lifeline to a continent shattered by war. When playing our game, we hope you marvel not just at what could have been, but at what really was. See you in the skies!
(Post by Micah)
A Curtiss F9C Sparrowhawk docked with the USS Macon
We are proud to officially announce Blazing Skies, our newest video game currently in production.
BLACKGUARD SQUADRON is a Diesel-punk RPG video game planned for PC, with more platforms to be announced in the future. Taking place in an alternate history of 1930’s America after the collapse of the United States, you play Roland Cooper, a famous aviator, fighter pilot, and at times notorious sky pirate who plays fast and loose with the rules. As the head of the Black Cats mercenary group of fliers, you sell your services as a top gun pilot to any nation or group with the cash to pay or the loot to promise. You’ll fly several different aircraft types, with the option to fully customize everything from the guns to the engines of every airplane you unlock, all inspired by actual designs from the era with an emphasis on the barnstorming derring-do and swashbuckling action of a classic Hollywood movie.
As the story unfolds, you’ll navigate a fully realized world where the inventions of Nikola Tesla have reshaped the globe. You and your loyal squad mates will fly into an America where the United States is gone and several warring, squabbling nations have emerged from its ashes in the aftermath. Unravel elaborate, sinister conspiracies and secret societies as a shadowy villain emerges to threaten the world. Take to the skies and outfly and outfight anyone who crosses your path. Save a world on fire and claim your fame and fortune in BLACKGUARD SQUADRON.
December 3, 2022
This is the first plane design we’re unveiling, and we hope it gives you an idea of some of what’s to come. Inspired by the real-world J7W Shinden, this fighter is designed to give the impression of speed and agility. In our game, this is the M-88, a sleek and compact fighter designed to fly high and fast as a thoroughbred bomber interceptor and pursuit plane. Nimble, swift, and well-armed it has won the hearts of many pilots in the world of Blazing Skies.
The M-88 pictured here is of the Mk I variety, a cheaper export version of the more expensive and well-appointed Mk II and III. Although outwardly similar to new variants of the design, the Mk I sports a less powerful engine and a smaller armament of triple center-line mounted .303-inch machine guns.
The M-88 pictured here is of the Mk I variety, a cheaper export version of the more expensive and well-appointed Mk II and III. Although outwardly similar to new variants of the design, the Mk I sports a less powerful engine and a smaller armament of triple center-line mounted .303-inch machine guns.
Stats: Maximum Cruising Speed at level flight: 290 miles per hour in level flight. Mark II and III are capable of up to 360 and 390 respectively.
First flight: early 1934, entered production by the end of that year.
Maneuverability: Excellent in later variants. The Mk I, pictured here, is considered fair to average in a slower-paced dogfight.
Hardpoints: None
Special characteristics: As a pusher plane with a large 6-bladed prop situated to the rear of the airframe, the M-88 doesn’t fire through its propellors, thus increasing gun accuracy, rate of fire, and reducing complexity. The M-88 was designed to serve on Zeppelin airships as a deployable fighter escort, and so was originally built to use a docking hook mid-air to return to its mothership. Although virtually all production M-88s have traditional retracting landing gear, it is at times removed entirely by crews to save on fuel and weight as well as to improve performance.