[Refuelling and rearming times are way too long]

Maybe the hours-long delay is supposed to also include maintenance on the plane and mandatory downtime for the pilot, but yeah, it is ridiculous to ground a plane for hours when the airspace is filled with targets.

[Refuelling and rearming times are way too long]

Maybe there should be a research item named something like "streamlined turnaround times" for the interceptors that turns your ground crews into the equivalent of a formula one pit stop team...

[Pilot units in ground combat]

I think the only way where we have control over a pilot in ground combat should be when something has gone terribly wrong. Downed dropship/transport maybe, and we need to evacuate the pilot along with the survivors. Or a Search and Rescue mission for a fighter pilot after ejection. These are, however, very specific "negative" scenarios and not very applicable to the gameplay, I fear.

On the topic of stats and perks for the interceptor pilots: hell yeah, I'm all in! I don't know if perks should include special maneuvers, though, or it would end up like something along the lines of those Sid Meier's Ace Patrol games
What I do want, though, is painted UFO kill marks on the nose of each pilot's fighter craft. That would be so cool.

[Xenonauts-2 October 2022 Update]

Hello!
I've been itching for a looooong time to get going with Xenonauts 2, and I would have spent the money to do so willingly, but I think I missed the Kickstarter opportunity way back then. In the meantime, the only thing I could play was the combat demo that was up on gog.com.

I'm a long-term veteran player (veteran in the sense of "spent lots of time", not "has actual tactical wisdom") of the X-COM series. For me, it started with X-COM: UFO Defense that a mate from school introduced me to with a pirated bootleg version.
 

[Futuristic Weapons, Armors and Planes?]

I am very curious about what kind of "futuristic" alien and re-engineered human weapons, armour, equipment and vehicles will be implemented. Let's hope everything fits into the game's 1981 art style.