What If Screenshot Thread.......

[+Cliff7600 1,222]

On 08/05/2025 at 3:03 PM, Stratos said:

A Taiwanese F-103 mod would be cool!

It would require some new missiles edited for export because the weapon bays are empty 

[Stratos 3,258]

21 hours ago, Cliff7600 said:

It would require some new missiles edited for export because the weapon bays are empty 

 

Love it!

[Stratos 3,258]

Today I experienced a thing that was new to me. While testing @Cliff7600 skin for the F-103 intercepting some Harbin H-5 Beagles, I got hit by a tail gunner and caught fire, fire was extinguished after some seconds, but my engine was dead so as I was high and fast started to glide to a nearby airfield, when I tried to hit CTRL + I and the engine restarted!! I made a controlled landing with power and man that was fun and rewarding!

[+yakarov79 11,541]

[+Gepard 12,428]

MiG-23FA

MiG-23FA is a dogfight optimized version of the Flogger. It has no swing wings, but swept wings with a sweep of 38° leading edge. By omitting the swing wing the plane was made one ton lighter. By selecting the 38° wing sweep, the danger of flat spinning that occurs with the 45° sweep was avoided. Two additional hardpoints under the wings were installed.

Negative points were the lower top speed of Mach 1.7 and the higher landing speed compared with the swing wing Floggers.

Positive were better agility, bigger weapon load and easier handling behaviour.

The MiG-23FA was made for the soviet Frontline Aviation (FA) and was comparable with the latest Mirage F.1 versions.

[+Gepard 12,428]

MiG-21F-13M2

The MiG-21F-13M2 was an upgrade program made by East Germany and Czechoslovakia. The maiden flight was in 1978. It was developed to counter the F-16 and to bridge the time till MiG-29 arriving.

The Czech were responsible to integrate leading edge flaps and two additional hardpoints on the wings. They also installed the R-25-300 engine, which had the same dry thrust as the older R-13-300, but the afterburner gave 69 kN and it had a special dogfight regime which gave enormous 97.1 kN thrust for 5 minutes. With this thrust the MiG-21F-13M2 accelerates faster as any other fighter plane in Europe. With the new designed wing and the strong engine the maneuverability of the plane was dramatically increased.

The East Germans integrated a small but powerfull radar in the nose cone, which had a maximum detection range of 45 km and were able to detect a fighter size target at 22 km. They gave this bird the ability to carry a SPS-141 jamming pod. And they integrated the R-60 missile into the weapon system. In the late 1980th the missile R-73 became part of the weapon system. At the same time the plane was fitted with a helmet mounted sight for the pilot.

Positive was: The plane was agile, nimble and highly maneuverable. It accelerated very fast and had a very good climb speed.

Negative was: The plane had a short range and a short flight time. It was not able to use radar guided missiles.

Edited May 26 by Gepard

[+Coupi 4,569]

1956... the MD 560 Mystère Delta II  "03" high altitude test flight ! 

From a modified mod by Cocas 

 

Edited June 1 by Coupi

[+allenjb42 4,336]

What if the 42ECS, which provides USAF personnel to the USN growler squadrons, gained it's own aircraft and deployed to RAF Upper Heyford in homage to it's historic EF-111A deployment.. 

But of course, that's a what-if because RAF Upper Heyford closed in the early/mid 1990's for redevelopment, and the 42ECS instead became part of the 48FW at RAF Lakenheath...

The squadron joined the other USAF Superhornets units based there, namely 493FS flying the F/A-18E, together with 492Fs and 494FS operating the 2-seat F/A-18F

[+Gepard 12,428]

F2J-GN Super Fury on board of german carrier Graf Zeppelin in mid 1960th.