Dense Air

A few words to know

There's some Air Force and Military terminology used in this story, so here's a few quick definitions (you can skip this if you want, but you might not fully understand a few things):

VTOL - Vertical Take Off and Landing, a VTOL plane can take off and land like a helicopter by pointing the engine exhaust straight down.

Thrust Vector - the angle downwards that a VTOL plane points its exhaust. 0% means like a normal plane, all the way forward, 100% means straight up.

Callsign - the name of a plane/pilot when talking on radio. In the Air Force, callsigns are usually nicknames. You don't pick your callsign, your friends/fellow pilots usually come up with one.

Afterburner - makes a plane go way faster, but uses a ton of fuel. When you see fire coming out the back of a plane, that's the afterburner. It makes a load roaring sound. When it's on, it's called flying "wet". When off, it's called flying "dry".

Fox 1/2/3 - What a pilot says on radio to let allies know they are firing a missile at a hostile aircraft. The number they say depends on the type of missile.

Splash - what a pilot says over radio to indicate that an enemy aircraft is completely destroyed. Falling out of the sky is not "splash", it's only when the aircraft has been completely destroyed, usually by either missile or hitting the ground. In case you're curious as to why they say this, it originates in world war 2 when in the pacific, an enemy plane would only be considered destroyed once it "splashed" into the water.

G force (aka "Gs") - gravitational force. When you go on a roller coaster and feel yourself get pulled down onto your seat as if gravity got stronger, that's g force. 1G = normal earth gravity. 0G = space, no gravity. When a plane maneuvers, it feels g force just like a rollercoaster. This can reach force as high as 14Gs sometimes, or 14 times earth's normal gravity. This can make the pilot go unconscious or even rip the wings off.

SRAAM - Short range air to air missile, the name is self explanatory.

Canopy - the top part of where the pilots sit in fighter jets that is see through. It opens for them to get in and out.

Mach - how fast a plane is going relative to the speed of sound. For example, Mach 1 is the speed of sound. Mach 0.8 is 80% of the speed of sound. Mach 1.8 is 180% the speed of sound.

Horizontal stabilizer - the big fin or fins at the back of a plane that stick up.

JASDF - Japan Air Self Defense Force. It's Japan's air force.

Ace - An extremely talented pilot with many victories. The average number of kills for a pilot in their career is one, at least during wartime. To be considered an ace, the generally accepted victory count is 5 kills.

Erich Hartmann - The most successful fighter ace in the history of aerial warfare. With 352 victories in World War 2 with the German air force, no pilot has ever shot down more aircraft than him to this day, not even anywhere close. Haya wants to be like him.

Harrier - a famous VTOL plane that is used by the US, the UK and more.

Yak-38 - a Russian VTOL plane that is similar to the Harrier in many ways, but faster. They're considered counterparts to each other.

F-11 - an American jet, not VTOL, and a little older than the Yak-38 and Harrier, but still an effective and powerful weapon. Famous for an incident where an F-11 accidentally shot itself down by shooting, then speeding up and hitting its own bullets.

F/A-18C (often referred to simply as "F18") - A jet that is currently the main fighter/bomber aircraft for all US Navy aircraft carriers. A very iconic plane that's way newer than every other plane in this story. I mean, who hasn't heard of an F-18?

Cessna 172 (aka "Skyhawk") - one of the most popular aircraft to learn to fly on in the world. It has a single engine with 150 horsepower. Very iconic in the aviation community.