False Prophet wrote: ↑Sun Nov 08, 2020 3:43 am
It's an interesting technical analysis you have been laying out over MacrossWorld. It makes me want to ask this though: Why is the design principles/cues of the SV-51 and VF-4 persisted for so long in General Galaxy? The people who designed these machines must have either died or retired by the time of Delta, right? Unless their students are still around and now are General Galaxy bigwigs.
Part of it is probably that the VF-4's trimaran-type design is a very efficient design in the sense that it allows for a very large usable wing area while also providing a good deal of usable internal space for things like fuel and weaponry. Its one major area of weakness is that it's more aerodynamically stable than the more traditional fighter designs used by the VF-1 and others so it isn't as maneuverable on its own in an atmosphere. Most VFs that see actual combat do so outside of a planetary atmosphere, where that isn't really an issue and the greater internal capacity is an asset.
That's why the VF-4 was a superb space fighter despite its indifferent atmospheric performance, and why the VF-14's loss in Project Nova didn't stop it from being widely adopted throughout the emigrant governments.
The carryover design cues from the SV-51 in General Galaxy's early works are no doubt the handiwork of its cofounder Alexei Kurakin, who worked on the SV-51 and was around at least long enough to have a significant hand in the design phase of the VF-9. I think some of that may be that Kurakin founded the SV Works to design new VFs around the idea that VF vs VF combat was inevitable, and that the SV-51 was arguably the first VF ever designed to fight over VFs and not
just aliens. In some cases, particularly the "conehead" design, I think that's just an aerodynamic convenience that comes from not being overly attached to the idea of the VF-1's basic transformation.
False Prophet wrote: ↑Sun Nov 08, 2020 3:43 am
And do you see a segmenting of the market, with Shinsei captured most of the mass-production market, while General Galaxy made high-performance VF for special forces and the like? It feels to me like that is the kind of production orientation they could push after the Vajra War.
Not as such.
Shinsei Industry has a dominant position in VF development for the New UN Forces in no small part because the three companies that merged to found it were the only act in town once the Zentradi finished. The Zentradi destroyed all the others, including the developers of the rival VF-X-3 that was tipped to win the 2nd Generation fighter competition at the prototype phase. With them gone, and the parties behind the SV-51 having effectively changed hands, they emerged in the aftermath of the First Space War in a dominant position in the market. They seem to have remained the favorite of the New UN Forces because their designs are more conservative.
General Galaxy emerged a few years after Shinsei Industry did, as a merger of surviving parts of OTEC and the various Destroid manufacturers. They were, and in large still are, a shipbuilding and advanced technology research outfit that moonlights in Variable Fighter design. General Galaxy broke into the VF market with the VF-9, a radical new VF design concept that was aimed at the rapidly emerging niche market of newly settled emigrant planets looking to update and supplement their defenses with a low-cost all-regime or atmospheric VF. They needed something that was cheap and easy to maintain that offered good cost performance, and the VF-9 was a bestseller in that regard. General Galaxy did not seriously attempt to compete with Shinsei until the 3rd Generation design competition, where they presented their own design that became the VF-14. It was a radical concept compared to the very traditional VF-11, but the very same virtues that made the VF-4 such a success were amplified in it and space-focused emigrant defense forces bought the VF-14 over the VF-11 despite the VF-11 being the next main fighter chosen by the central New UN Forces. Yet another success with a wild, unconventional design seems to have cemented the company's envelope-pushing identity in the realm of VF design. It's kind of ironic that their biggest commercial success was their least radical design: the VF-171 Nightmare Plus.
If I were to boil it down to one particular point, I'd say Shinsei Industry and General Galaxy's design philosophy differs in their attitude towards specialization. Shinsei Industry believes in a jack-of-all-trades approach: that it's better to be just pretty good at a lot of things than exceptional at one or two things and only so-so at others. They build to that "one VF fits all" sort of ethos with the idea that you can use things like FAST Packs and modular equipment to switch out roles while having one common airframe. General Galaxy, on the other hand, seems to believe it's better to have a couple of different VFs that all do one job or one particular set of jobs exceptionally well and cover each other's weak points.
What we're seeing c.2059 and beyond is Shinsei Industry reasserting its position as the dominant player in the design and manufacture of VFs after General Galaxy stole their thunder by successfully submitting the VF-171 as a 4th Gen main VF candidate after the New UN Forces and New UN Government decided to pass on the Super Nova VFs. Most of the galaxy is currently using the General Galaxy-made VF-171 and/or General Galaxy-made Ghosts. The Shinsei-based 5th Gen VFs are tipping the balance back in the other direction since General Galaxy seems to have let Shinsei get the better of them with the YF-24 Evolution. With Macross Galaxy's VF-27 probably not being widely sold due to the need for its pilot to be an illegally-enhanced cyborg, it almost looks like they're not really participating in the 5th Generation unless you count subunits of them like the SV Works marketing to third parties.
False Prophet wrote: ↑Sun Nov 08, 2020 3:43 am
And about the Macross Frontier concert, I thought that it should had been a Walkure one because of the upcoming movie. Are they making this concert for the 10th anniversary of the Frontier movies?
Walkure's had plenty, and their movie's still not quite "coming soon".
Frontier continues to be a strong seller, so it isn't surprising they're having a commemorative concert next year for the anniversary.