Spinners

^ Hasegawa P-47D Razorback ************************************************************************************************** Skull-king around

Dry dock...

Ilyushin Il-10 'Beast' - 6th Attack Regiment, Parani Army Air Force, 1945 Skin Credit: Charles

Blackburn Firebrand FB.6 - No.45 Squadron, RAF Far East Air Force, 1949

Fantastic this. Well done to everyone. Nice burner effects too.

Photo Bird (Girl in the cockpit is sweet too)

Blackburn Firebrand FB.3

Ready to pounce

Illuminating the Desert (Operation Torch)

Curtiss P-40E Warhawk - No.2 Squadron (The Hawks), Royal Dhimari Air Force, 1943 After the Parani Army Air Forces gained total air superiority over the Mazadran Oil Fields and the Valley of Kerman during 'Operation Whirlwind' the Royal Dhimari Air Force were desperate for replacement aircraft to make good the heavy losses to the Hurricane and Vanguard squadrons. Whilst the UK kept promising to send Spitfires the planned delivery date kept rolling further away. By early October 1943 the situation was desperate leading to an impassioned plea by King Husani Al'Galbhi of Dhimar to US President Franklin Roosevelt for fighter aircraft and Roosevelt agreed to the immediate transfer of 50 P-40 Warhawk aircraft from USAAF Twelth Air Force stocks held in Tunisia. Whilst these aircraft were war-weary veterans of Operation Torch and the Desert War they were gratefully received by the Royal Dhimari Air Force who used the aircraft to replace the last two remaining P-66D Vanguard squadrons with No.2 Squadron becoming the first to become fully operational in December 1943. Skin Credit: Charles

Curtiss Tomahawk Mk.IA - No.264 Squadron, RAF Fighter Command, September 1940 No.264 squadron of RAF Fighter Command re-formed on October 30th 1939 with the Boulton Paul Defiant Mk.I "turret fighter" but did not commence operations until March 1940 when the squadron started convoy patrols over the English Channel. With no forward firing guns the Defiant crews worked out suitable tactics for air-to-air fighting but after some initial successes, the Luftwaffe soon discovered the Defiant's weaknesses and the squadron suffered such heavy losses that at the end of May 1940 the squadron was withdrawn from Southern RAF Pembrey in South Wales. In early July 1940 the squadron began to re-equip with the Curtis Tomahawk Mk.IA which had just started to enter service. The Tomahawks were from a large Armée de l'Air order for the Hawk 81A-1 export model but the defeat of France meant that the aircraft were diverted to the RAF in late June 1940 and although testing had shown that the Tomahawk did not have the medium to high altitude performance needed for use as a front-line fighter the Air Ministry simply did not have enough Hurricanes and Spitfires to go around all of Fighter Command's day fighter squadrons. After some teething problems with their new fighter the squadron was declared fully operational at the end of July 1940 but were kept in reserve for most of the frantic month of August. Sharing RAF Pembrey with the Spitfires of No.92 squadron the pilots of No.264 squadron were increasingly frustrated that all emergency scrambles in the western sector of 10 Group were tasked to the Spitfires of No.92 squadron. However all that changed in late August when, following a raid on Berlin by RAF Bomber Command, Hitler gave the go-ahead to a revenge bombing offensive on London and several other British cities. For RAF Fighter Command the break from Luftwaffe attacks on their airfields allowed them to recover somewhat. On August 31st, 1940 No.264 squadron were transferred to 11 Group moving into RAF Stapleford Tawney in Essex. After a few uneventful days they were in action on September 7th when the Luftwaffe launched a massive series of raids on the East End of London involving nearly four hundred bombers and more than six hundred fighters. No.264 squadron shot down two He-111's but were then engaged by Me-109E's losing two Tomahawks but both pilots parachuted safely. On September 15th, in a decisive action that would later be viewed as being the climax of the Battle of Britain, two massive waves of Luftwaffe attacks were repulsed by Fighter Command with 62 Luftwaffe aircraft being shot down for the loss of 28 RAF aircraft. For No.264 squadron it was another two-all draw with two more He-111's being knocked down for the loss of two Tomahawks to Me-109E's. Two days later Hitler postponed his preparations for the invasion of Britain and agreed to a shift from daylight bombing raids to night bombing. Ironically, this would lead to No.264 squadron converting back to their Boulton Paul Defiant Mk.I's in November 1940 and eventually receiving the improved Defiant Mk.II model fitted with AI Mk. IV radar and the Merlin XX engine in September 1941. Skin Credit: Charles

Tigershark!

Fully aware of that thanks Kevin. Indeed, I have released one as an IDF bird.

Yak-9D - 5th Fighter Regiment, Parani Army Air Force, 1946

Parani N1K2-J Shiden-Kai's

AC_M's IDF P-38L

Very good.

Martin-Baker Valente FR.II - No.680 Squadron, RAF Mediterranean and Middle East Command, 1947 The first flight of the Martin-Baker MB.5 prototype took place on May 23rd 1944 with Bryan Greensted (chief test pilot for the propeller manufacturer Rotol) at the controls. Greensted would fly the first prototype on several occasions and his view that it was a superb aircraft was echoed by the test pilots of the Aeroplane and Armament Experimental Establishment (A&AEE) at RAF Boscombe Down who enthused over its overall performance as it was both a highly maneuverable fighter for dogfighting but also an extremely stable gun platform. With a top speed of over 460 mph at 20,000 feet, an initial climb rate of 3,800 feet per minute, a service ceiling in excess of 40,000 feet and a range of over 1,000 miles the MB.5 was simply too good to ignore and in December 1944, even though victory in Europe was assured, a production order for 300 MB.5's was given to Martin-Baker Aircraft with the intention that the MB.5 would be deployed to the Far East as the RAF's standard fighter-bomber for 'Tiger Force'. In memory of company co-founder Valentine 'Val' Baker (who had been killed whilst flying the MB.3 prototype in 1942) James Martin of Martin-Baker asked air ministry officials to consider naming the MB.5 'Valentino' but this was not accepted. However, compromise was reached when air ministry officials announced that it was to be called 'Valente'. Development moved smoothly during 1945 but the sudden end of the Pacific War in August 1945 led to the cancellation of many production contracts and the Valente F.Mk.I order was reduced down to just 60 aircraft. With the Meteor and Vampire programmes both proceding well the RAF decided that it no longer needed a fighter or a fighter-bomber and instructed Martin-Baker to reconfigure the Valente for the photo-reconnaissance role specifying the carriage of two K-24 cameras with an oblique camera in the rear fuselage and a vertical camera placed in the mid-fuselage and just in front of the radiator. Entering RAF service in early 1946 as the Valente PR.II, the aircraft re-equipped No.208 squadron and No.680 squadron in the Middle East both initially flying surveying missions. No.680 Squadron moved to Ein Shemer in September 1946 and was immediately tasked with searching for ships bringing illegal Jewish immigrants from Europe. No.208 squadron moved to Petah Tiqva in December 1946 to also search for illegal shipping but both squadrons carried out anti-terrorist patrols and armed reconniassance missions in support of the 3rd Infantry Brigade from March 1947 onwards. By the end of the year, the UK Government had announced their intention to withdraw from Palestine as soon as possible with the United Nations susequently deciding to partition the country. From that point onwards both squadrons remained in Palestine to cover the final withdrawal of the remaining British forces until the Union Flag was finally lowered in Palestine on May 14th 1948. A few days later the RAF left Palestine forever.

1947: A new eye in the sky

Also check if there is a hidden transparency layer.

2560 x 1440

No not really. I'm not the greatest on that sort of thing and it doesn't help that the elderly game we love isn't optimised for modern hardware. When my W7/i5 PC went t1ts up in 2016 I could have bought something bigger and better but I took a long break away from Strike Fighters and came back in 2018 to play SF1 et al on an elderly XP machine before treating myself to a new W10 PC at the start of 2019 when I retired. I don't have any issues with frame rates but I do have an issue with hills and mountains on the far horizon being white - not brilliant in the desert or Vietnam!

Paran 1944 - The start of the Soviet era.

Aye up me duck.

1943: Tachikawa Ki-36's of the Parani Army Air Force support ground units in the push towards Najahafi.