Spinners

Hawker Siddeley Harrier Mk.51 - People's Liberation Army Air Force, 1976 Interest in the Hawker P.1127 programme surged after the 1967 Six-Day War and whilst most interest faded within a few months the Chinese government kept an official observer status on the project until 1972 when they signed up for 60 Harrier Mk.51 aircraft. Apart from the PLAAF's genuine interest in the aircraft it was also clearly a political deal that saw the Chinese government officially recognise the British government's position on Hong Kong who, in turn, acknowledged China's position on Taiwan (albeit whilst not agreeing to it). The Chinese government also received permission to licence build the aircraft with the Shenyang Aircraft Corporation building a further 200 Harrier Mk.52's.

Republic F-84F Thunderstreak - 69 Sqd 'The Hammers', Israeli Air Force, 1967 The Armee de l'Air received its first F-84F Thunderstreaks in 1955 and it was in French service that the Thunderstreak saw its only actual combat during the Suez Crisis of October 1956. French Thunderstreaks from the 3rd Escadre moved to RAF Akrotiri on Cyprus whilst the 1st Escadre were deployed to the Israeli base at Lyddia where they supported the Israeli forces that invaded Sinai on October 29th. Despite seeing intensive action only one F-84F was lost and the tough and rugged aircraft so impressed the Israeli Air Force that they ordered 50 F-84F-70-RE aircraft before the end of 1956. The F-84F-70-RE featured the more powerful J65-W-7 rated at 7,800lbs thrust which helped with the initial climb rate and the combat ceiling and these were among the last Thunderstreak's to roll off the Farmingdale production line in the Summer of 1957. In 1962 the entire Israeli F-84F fleet was grounded due to the same corrosion of control rods that had affected the F-84F worldwide but they were soon restored to full operational capacity, eventually serving with distinction during the 1967 Six Day War and surviving in Israeli service until 1972 when stress corrosion eventually forced the retirement of the Israeli F-84F fleet. (I did release this one in SF2 but never did a backstory)

Not at the moment Daniel.

Shenyang J-31 Falcon Hawk - Korean People's Army Air Force, 2019 I made a simple skin for this and used a toned down version of the roundel and fin flash. At the moment, I've no modern 'red' weapons in my SF1 install so it all looks a bit bare.

Nesher

Bonsoir

Aw shucks!

Il-102 Brawny - Soviet Air Force, Afghanistan, 1984

Thanks Kevin. I'll try not to leave it so long between visits.

No, it was given to me to play with ; )

Hawker Hunter FGA9 - No. 112 Sqd, RAF Middle East Command, 1973

Mitsubishi Aerospace F-3A - 302nd Hikotai (Aggressor Flight), Japanese Air Self Defense Force, 2013 When Japan selected the F-16 to be it's new 'secondary fighter' in 1987 it had already been planned to produce a developed version of the F-16 to be manufactured by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries to replace the ageing Mitsubishi F-1 and F-4EJ and eventually supplement the F-15J. But even before production of the F-2 had started, senior JASDF officials requested a more capable aircraft to replace the F-15J and by late 1992 they had settled upon a revised version of the rejected General Dynamics ATF submission dating from the late 1980's. This promised to give Mitsubishi an opportunity to introduce technologies planned for the F-2 into the new F-3 'primary fighter' such as the co-cured technology used to create lighter composite structures and the F110-GE-129 engine. With rumours emerging of a probable merger between General Dynamics and Lockheed, Mitsubishi moved swiftly and controversially bought the GD design in early 1993 including long-term production licences regarded by many aerospace industry insiders as being grossly over-valued and leading to a unit price that eventually exceeded that of the F-22 Raptor. Despite this, development of the F-3 moved smoothly with the programme generally running about five years behind the F-2 and thus able to continue to incorporate innovations learnt from it's smaller predecessor. The first flight of the XF-3A took place on December 24th, 2000 with production F-3A aircraft entering service with 302nd Hikotai in early 2011. Julhelm's outstanding General Dynamics ATF Contender.