Hodo

I honestly am amazed at people stripping fuel out of their fighters to less than Bingo levels just to gain a slight advantage. Each time it has happened the craft has ran out of fuel. I personally think if the aircraft doesnt have at least a half hour of fuel left it is no longer combat effective.

The first combat space craft will be simple, no-frills, function over form designs. Much like early orbiter designs. As technology improves and the need grows, so will the designs. Look at the leap from WWI in the early 1900s to the planes of WWII in the late 1940s. They went from being simple open cockpit bi-plane designs that were an engine, gun, and pilot, to aluminum and steel, with the ability to push the limits of the speed of sound. Then from the WWII planes to the jets of the Cold War. You started seeing fighters becoming less about function over form and more about the "look" and still maintaining the function. There is a common saying in the fighter pilot community, "If it looks right, it will fly right." But I imagine early space combat vehicles looking more like TIE fighters, without the massive panels on the sides. They will be simple pods that can be stowed and recovered easily. Later designs will be more aggressive looking and far more "fighter" like.

Oh I could make some minor adjustments to the F-119C/A Akula and drop about half of the fuel, tweak the auto pilot. And I am sure it will beat almost everything out there. I have no doubts in that aircraft. There is a reason why it is the oldest fighter SSTO in my inventory.

I see, either way, great fights there. Congrats to the D-6!

For some reason the F-119 wasnt turning the way it did previously in other fights. Was there a change to the DCA settings?

I like that D-6. Good looking craft there.

I prefer procedural parts for that very reason. - - - Updated - - - It did the last time I checked.

Night Raven. And it wasnt a VTOL if I recall.

I found there is quite a bit of freedom in this challenge, but I love the fact it has turned into an improvement and optimization thread on aircraft design. Just look at some of the early aircraft in this thread and see how they have evolved into true 4.5gen to 5th gen fighters.

Funny thing is I was going to say the same about your craft and the F3C, those are great examples to follow for designs. They are smooth, fly great, and are amazingly agile aircraft.

You can just call it the Akula or Shark. Oh one request Wanderfound, can you put the number of air victories it has beside it in the first post, so we can have a "greatest of their generation".

Are the wings connected to the aircraft body or to something else and then the body?

I dont know I was thinking from the stand point of the heat plume from two engines vs one engine. And that last fight was REAL short, that surprised me a lot.

And just to think, that is the non-SSTO version. I have been using that airframe for a year now as my primary "stock" parts fighter. I have yet to design something that works better. Oh and does that mean the F-119C/A is the new champion?

I dont have that Dynamic Deflection mod installed yet, haven't even messed with it. But I think it handles much like the real MiG-21.

I didnt mean to be mean. It is just that craft actually is to unstable, that was the reason why it suffered in those fights. It might have actually been better if it was a hair more stable, I would try shifting some of the mass a bit forward of the CoL, or right at it. This would help with its stability and it may actually improve the overall performance. Because I think your craft may actually be one of the best in here, IF it were a bit more stable.

Wow that K-18 is about as stable as a 1 legged fatguy in a 6inch stiletto heel. I am wondering how my F-119C/A does, and Wanderfound what are your system specs, what recording software are you using, and is it that low of a frame rate when you are recording?

So for the fun of it, the F-119C/A Akula has been modified from its SSTO version to a smaller lighter, faster, meaner atmospheric version. I wonder what inspired it?? F-119C/A

I may also redesign one of my OLD SSTO fighters to atmospheric use only to see how it does. It turned like a truck before so I imagine it will still turn like a truck now. But it was a single engine SSTO fighter that was more than capable of doing multi-role combat aircraft duties. As for reducing the counter measures. I would reduce it to 1 per engine on the craft. If you have 2 engines you can have 2 flare launchers and 2 chaff dispensers. 1 engine, 1 of each. This way you are not gimping yourself with 1 engine designs any more than you already are.

LOL, I was impressed it survived as long as it did. I could add canards to the front it would turn on a dime but with DRE, the pilots die at 15G+. So it is hard for me to test it.

I would love to see how it does against your turbojet model. Later I may come up with a turbojet model, but wanted to see how basic gets do, as the turbojets give it WAY to much power for its mass. I cant get your craft to work in my install, DRE kills the pilot. LOL Here is the download for the F-152A with turbojets. F-152A.craft

So I finally came up with something I would like to enter with. Not sure how it will do, it is running basic jet engines so should be interesting to say the least. F-152 F-152

The trick is simple. You have to place the control surfaces then set their settings before you move them into place. It is tedious but very effective.

I am currently working on updating my last fighter competitor to the new BD Armory parts. I have to rebalance the airframe after the changes in masses on some parts.

The wobble is because the rear gear are not exactly level. The camber on them is off just a hair. Try hitting the auto-alignment button in the gear when you are done moving them. Sometimes you may need to rotate with the stock rotation system.