[Labor Day Special!] USMC Marine Corps AV-8A Harrier with 4 AIM-9 missiles

[andrew123]

USMC Marine Corps. Buying jets made to kill since WW2.

This is their premier CAS (close air support) aircraft. The AV-8B revision is in the works.

I got a new jump jet VTOL harrier. It's rather maneuverable (which helps with standard non VTOL ground attacks and dogfights) and has excellent VTOL handling. It also carries four of my new short range AIM-9X missiles, which inflict similar damage to daemon's ships as my exocet, albeit at a much shorter range, but with A2A engagement as its principal role. Armor is going to have a terrible day...

And those armored ships can't run. This thing has 2.5 tanks per each of the two engines, it goes fast in both modes of flight, and it's made to survive the current standard SAM missiles used by other companies. The transitions from VTOL to level flight is almost seamless. I bet it could operate on carriers and even destroyers, since it weighs only 15 tons. It's 80 parts without the four missiles. All missiles are controllable.

Key toggles:

1. VTOL engines

2. Level flight engines

Download: https://www.dropbox.com/s/htlt00b50h2naki/AV-8A2%20Harrier%20Weapons%20Testbed.craft?dl=0

It's easily flyable without SAS, but don't let the plane wander around without the computer filter. An experienced pilot can easily do VTOL tricks and hover without SAS.

Gear undercarriage is extremely durable.

Missile away!

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Survivability testing. it passed with flying colors (Or flying and landing in VTOL mode with only half of the plane.) It still handled better than most vtols. It can also fly in VTOL with parts of its wings lost, and even in level flight without any type of SAS.

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SEMPER FIDELIS!

Edited September 1, 2014 by andrew123

[andrew123]

PS: This'll go nice with my new project.

[SpaceXray]

Pretty good, though I'd hide the VTOL engines in the body more, don't like how they poke out. Other than that great job!

[Megalodon 720]

The wings need to me angled down a little more.

The missiles are hard to aim when at full trottle and turn far too fast, they start oriented 90 degrees on their side and need to be rotated before you can even think about aiming them at the target, the plane is hard to fly in VTOL or horizontal mode when one missile has been fired as it changes where the centre of mass is, The missiles are much much much easier to use if you just point the plane itself at the target and use them as dumb fire missiles.

Edited September 2, 2014 by Megalodon 720

[andrew123]

The wings need to me angled down a little more.

The missiles are hard to aim when at full trottle and turn far too fast, they start oriented 90 degrees on their side and need to be rotated before you can even think about aiming them at the target, the plane is hard to fly in VTOL or horizontal mode when one missile has been fired as it changes where the centre of mass is, The missiles are much much much easier to use if you just point the plane itself at the target and use them as dumb fire missiles.

I must've practiced with my plane too much. I don't find the deficiencies of the missile-firing weight distribution as serious as you said.

Also, controlling the missiles is not as easy as the exocet. I shot a F/A-18 out of the sky, and the 90 degrees turn can't be avoided. Turning the probe core doesn't change the starting orientation.

Also, I considered angling the wings down more, but the aerodynamics got a bit wonky. I tried to optimize this design, but the game itself limits some of those abilities.

PS: I have the AV-8B revision. I'll try incorporating as many of your suggestions as possible, but even Zekes hit an airborne target with this missile.

[Megalodon 720]

I'm not a very good pilot but I couldn't even hit my largest battleship with those missiles.

[andrew123]

I'm not a very good pilot but I couldn't even hit my largest battleship with those missiles.

? I hit daemon's oni with it.

And then there's the original tests done with it.

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It's not that hard to control.

[Megalodon 720]

Like I say, I'm not a very good pilot.

[andrew123]

Like I say, I'm not a very good pilot.

I tried to make this missile and VTOL as easy to use as possible. To recover from a harrier spin, you have to maneuver pretty aggressively.

I guess you'll gain more flight time as you play more. Guided missile intercepts are the holy grail of my SAM program.

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I mitigated the balance issue by having a dedicated weapons officer in the jump seat. AV-8B.

PS: I won't change the wing angle. It screws with the aerodynamics, but I'm improving some other aspects.

Edited September 2, 2014 by andrew123

[andrew123]

The USS Wasp, my precursor to the USS Nimitz. This prototype is not easy to complete.

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Also, the two cockpit AV-8B R2. This new revision has hidden VTOL engines, better aerodynamics, and better handling. These modifications are for carrier ops on the USS Wasp and eventually the Nimitz.

Harrier squadrons will serve trial deployments aboard the USS Wasp.

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