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What kind of new interceptor at start


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Aw, now I just look mad. And I so hate revealing that I am...

Yeah, I couldn't stand Macross 7. Thank pasta for Frontier. It even gave us a Koenig Monster (squee) I adore overkill.

Being a bit more serious, it wasn't introduced for a few more years after the start of Xenonauts, but I'd drool over a Flanker (Sukhoi Su-27)

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1985 as far as I'm aware. They started designing what would become it in 1970 though, to act as a counterpart for the F-15, but it took a while to stop it from being crap. The first prototype flew in '77 but had... issues, so it was eventually redesigned and started test-flying in '81 and moving to full production in '85.

Arguably the xenonauts stealing the design for the Flanker instead of the MiG-29 would have made more sense, as the two were developed concurrently (or at least both came from the same program), with the Flanker being the primary. After the full range of requirements proved to be too ambitious, the development was split into 'light' and 'heavy' roles, from which the MiG-29 was the short-range tactical 'light' fighter developed on the new track, and the original development track was redefined to be slightly less ambitious and focused on the 'heavy' role, and led to the Su-27. At that, the Flanker came into service only two years after the MiG-29, which wasn't 'out' until '83.

Too late to change it now, of course, but I maintain it would have been a better option.

Edited by Elydo
Typos
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Interesting stuff. I knew that the Su-27 was out much later than the F-15, so it would have made more sense to use it, as it's far better suited for the role the F-17 Condor is in. As for the "heavy" ordnance, the F-14 was designed to carry the AIM-54. But it's a carrier bird.

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Eh, it really isn't that big a deal. The only people who would even think twice about it are enthusiasts and at that Goldhawk picked an appropriate aircraft from the time period which is more than some developers (would) have done. Neither the Su-27 or the MiG-29, or any other aircraft, are capable of the range of the Foxtrot, and no aircraft is as limited in loadout. So the differences between reality and the game overshadow the more nuanced differences between two real aircraft either of which could have served as the inspiration for creating something impossible.

The Flanker looks so much more badass though. There's an adage in the aersopace community: If it looks right, it's Right. One of the reasons why the Boeing X-32 lost the Joint Strike Fighter contest; it just looks kinda dorky. Not the official or even a deciding factor certainly, but trust me, it WAS a factor.

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Well, you can name only F-14 or F-15 actually. Because that is the very beginning of the forth generation of jet fighters and only 4 aircrafts of that generation were available at 1979: F-14, F-15, F-16 and MiG-31. Everything else were in prototype phase mostly and went into production phase only in '82-'83 like F/A-18, MiG-29 or Mirage 2000.

Funny thing will be to see some space magic conversion of Tu-22M Backfire into UFO interceptor. It has a great combat radius, high max speed (2 Mach) and lots of missiles. The only problem is that T-22M was actually a bomber :D But having an aircraft that can shoot down any huge UFO by itself is great.

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