Editing Setting:Nutopia/Fluff (section)

===Air===

Like land transit the traditional methods of air travel are still around, acquiring everything from a Cessna to an old milsurp Mi-24 Hind to even a 747 can be accomplished if one looks hard enough. In terms of new technology, however, air travel has evolved in several major sectors. The most obvious to anyone living ACE is the prevalence of nimble, high speed VTOL aircraft as a means of transportation. The advances in materials sciences and production that were made due to the introduction of nanofabriction allowed the creation of lighter, more powerful and all together much more efficient aircraft of all stripes. VTOLs benefited from strong, but lightweight airframes, and advances like the shrouded rotor that turned via the use of linear motors rather than a traditional turbojet engine, lowering heat and noise signatures to negligible levels. Coupled with advanced computers and some of the same servo/synthetic muscle architecture that made legged vehicles possible it became much easier for these vehicles to safely switch between vertical and horizontal flight configurations rapidly and remain stable. This allowed for the creation of cargo and troop transports larger than anything that could pull into a hover in previous eras of engineering. Additionally, Close Air Support aircraft became a terror to behold. Quick, almost unnaturally agile, heavily armored and armed to the teeth, these craft could sit on station for hours, gliding on collapsible wings made from memory material and thin carbon tube spines. They could descend without warning, gliding in on an attack vector, retracting their wings and pulling out of a dive into a hover in moments, the only announcement of their arrival being rotor wash, rocket exhaust plumes and cannon fire.

While VTOL craft gained prevalence as the chief means of transport and aerial combat, more "traditional" airframes maintained a niche in the areas of heavy transport, high speed travel and air superiority. Heavy fixed wing transports served to lift goods that needed speed or flexibility that sea or rail transport could not provide. Private supersonic aircraft gained some ground, along with novelties like low orbit "puddle jumpers" that could provide around the world service in a couple of hours. Both cargo and personal transport were typically handled by drones; the most radical advancements took place in the military sector. The invention of CSC technology meant that the capabilities of an aircraft were no longer restricted by the physical limits of the pilot. Only the airframes intrinsic ability to survive high speed maneuvering held them back. Soon craft capable of cruising at hypersonic speeds became the norm, streaking across the sky using scramjets and aerospike boosters. The difficulty of maneuvering at such extreme speeds using current control surfaces was countered by a comeback of variable geometry technology, aided by the same advances that had made improved VTOL flight possible. Vectored thrust and large numbers of articulated control surfaces allowed craft the size of a school bus to dance through the sky like a mach 5 humming bird. Individually these craft represented a great investment of resources, and their defensive measures reflected that. radar deflection was of course a must, as was a refractive coating that made the craft difficult to lase properly. Decoy drones and nanochaff designed to play hell with nearly any tracking method imaginable were also common features. With armament ranging from cruise missiles and small diameter bombs to scramjet AA missiles and railcannons the most powerful attack aircraft of the end days of the Common era were by many metrics the most powerful military machines in existence.

The final and most radical permutations were individual flight capability and the reemergence of such novelties as the Vacuum Envelope. Short range individual flight could be attained by a number of means. While such ostentatious methods as biomodding for massive bird or bat wings were not unheard of those lay more in the realm of fashion statement than practical method of mobility. Far more common were collapsible ultralight craft that could be broken down and folded into something the size of an overlarge golf caddy, allowing leisurely touring or covert egress at a moments notice. The most advanced form of that technology was actually developed after the Fall, originating from the heights of South Africa's Spire settlement. A combination of a dedicated VI, a very small monotask maker and a few muscle/servo motors allowed for the creation of a set of the same glider wings used by some VTOL craft, but in a package the size of a small hardened backpack. On their own these flight packs allowed up to 300 pounds to drift gracefully through the air, coupled with miniaturized LMR nacels a person with such a rig could attain actual flight. The Vacuum Envelope, on the other hand, is with one notable exception very much a novelty. Maintaining a vacuum within a large envelope was a technology only made possible through the use of carbon nanotube construction, and then at no small cost. The blimps and zeppelins that could be created with this technology exhibited buoyancy greater than that which any normal lighter than air craft could provide, but they were simply not cost effective as anything more than a toy of the idle rich. Such things as aerial yachts or zeppelin cruises did exist, but in limited numbers. The greatest achievement of the technology would only become widely known after the Fall. Armacor had experimented extensively with the idea, and the penultimate result of their research was a prototype airborne aircraft carrier known as "The Hive". Comprised of a massive network of vacuum envelopes and huge LMR nacels The Hive is powered by solar surfaces as well as its own miniature fission reactor. Its intended purpose was to allow VTOL craft to have a roost that allowed them to refuel, rearm and repair, and could move along with them in an evolving battlefront. Shortly before the base commanding the flying structure disappeared in a flash of nuclear flame it was given a default patrol order, and now it floats lazily over northern Europe on a constant circuit. A number of mercenary VTOLs have taken up residence in its hangars, using it as a raiding base. Assaulting it directly has proved extremely difficult, not only due to the mercs residing upon it, but the automated point defense turrets and missiles, including a network of chemical lasers the can actually vaporize and disperse railgun projectiles with a projected 87% success rate. In light of that and the tendency of the resident mercs to pillage most anything in the immediate area surrounding the slow moving station the standard policy has simply become one of avoidance. The station moves in predictable patterns, and just moving away from it is the easiest method of preventing danger. However, after 25 years of nomadic lifestyle many are beginning to favor some sort of attack, tired of picking up stakes as soon as the Hive comes to call.

==Sea== With the advent of technology came new and improved weapons, as guided missile destroyers slowly grew to fit more toys inside. Rail and coil powered more destructive guns. New armor materials protected ships as better defensive equipment was added. Missiles were made to fire faster by tossing them from rails, and CSC made for incredibly accurate defensive fire and offensive trajectories. For the more civilized human, some watercraft evolved to use hydrofoil.

[[Category:Homebrew Settings]]
[[Category:Nutopia]]