[Squirrelloid]

Perhaps this is a bad idea, perhaps this is the product of some fever dream, or perhaps this is just destined for awesome.

I present my blueprints/concept design for the Ulmish Flying Machine. Based on nothing but concepts available to early renaissance Europe or earlier (specifically, the idea to use the 'air drill' for a flying machine dates to Leonardo DaVinci - its use in a child's toy is older, and that's the most recent technology involved), the Ulmish Flying Machine will give Ulm the ability to carry small groups of specially trained soldiers behind enemy lines.

It was long thought that the air guild of master smiths was touched. In the head. They kept babbling about man-powered flight, which never took off. They insisted they could get a man into the air solely on the basis of reason and science. The Ulmish Flying Machine is the final vindication of their efforts, and the first one that's actually worked.

Made possible by the relative lightness and superlative strength of blacksteel, plus the forging and welding skills of the Ulmish Master Smiths, the Ulmish Flying Machine powers a starched canvas air-drill on a lightweight hollow-tube blacksteel frame with an aeolipile fixed on a vertical axis and supplied by steam from a boiler below. The machine has a limited flight range, and cannot refuel in flight even if it did carry more water. In addition, the boiler must be allowed to cool before more water can be added, so significant downtime is required between flights. The crew of two is clad in blacksteel so that the machine can otherwise carry little armor.

The pilot sits in front and controls direction by manipulating sails to the sides (not shown at present). He also controls the machine's offensive weapon, a pair of tubes running off the top of the boiler that fill with superheated steam and can be opened to release that steam in an AoE centered in front of the machine.

The second crew member is an engineer who sits in the back. He controls forward thrust (via a pipe of superheated steam that can be opened to propel the machine forward), and watches the water level in the boiler. He and the pilot can communicate by means of a line about two pulleys to which they attach color-coded pieces of cloth, although the engineer can carefully make his way around the machine to speak with the pilot when necessary. In battle the engineer frequently just watches for waved colored cloth instead of using the line.

The platform can hold up to 15 (should be 10, but #poorleader is the closest i can get) additional soldiers sitting with legs over its edge and drop them into the battlefield. Only carefully trained soldiers are used in this fashion. (New unit, to be summoned with the flying machine)

Ulmish flying machines are neither especially safe nor reliable, and have been known to explode, especially after taking exceptional damage as the boiler can rupture.