Aviation

China's lineup of domestic planes that were inspired by the aircraft of the Soviet Su-27 series, has gained another fighter. And this time it's not a carrier-based one like the J-15T. What we have here is the land-based multirole J-16 — a big, powerful, heavy, and very well armed multirole strike fighter.

The Gloster Meteor was the first operational jet fighter to enter Allied service, marking the United Kingdom’s transition into the jet age during the final phase of the Second World War. In Belgian service, it played a central role in the post-war reconstruction and modernization of the Belgian Air Force, equipping the nation’s first generation of jet fighter squadrons from the late 1940s through the early 1960s and forming the backbone of its emerging Cold War air defense capability. The Meteor operated both at home and abroad, most notably seeing combat during the Korean War. Although it was rapidly overtaken by more advanced swept-wing designs, the aircraft proved invaluable as a transitional platform, enabling Belgian pilots to develop proficiency in jet operations, air defense, and ground attack, while establishing the doctrinal and operational foundations for later aircraft such as the Hawker Hunter and SABCA F-104G Starfighter.

The de Havilland Sea Vixen is considered one of the most bizarre-looking aircraft ever employed by the Royal Navy, with an asymmetric side-by-side cockpit, no cannon armament, and a twin-boom design. In War Thunder, the Sea Vixen is one of the first examples many players will experience gunless jet combat with, and it introduces a completely new playstyle that throws the fundamentals of early jet combat out the window.

By the mid-1930s, Europe was once again caught up in an arms race. Before long, it spread to other parts of the world as well. The United States could not remain on the sidelines either. Events in Europe and Asia were making it increasingly clear that geographic isolation alone was no guarantee of security.

In the history of military aviation, it is rare to find instances of enemy air forces battling each other using the same aircraft. The British withdrawal from Palestine in 1948 is an example of such a rarity: Mustangs, Spitfires and Mosquitoes alike all took part in this conflict, as well as other R.A.F. and I.A.F. aircraft, which will be discussed here as well.

Some vehicles in War Thunder are especially long-awaited by players. A perfect example is this experimental General Dynamics project, which has finally made its way into the game as the main reward of the Space Program event. We’re talking, of course, about the F-16XL. Be honest, were you waiting for this one? Then welcome aboard!

The F-102A was set to become the U.S. Air Force’s ultimate interceptor. However, the first prototypes could not even reach supersonic speeds, so the aircraft was redesigned. The production models also failed to meet expectations, which is why the more advanced F-106, based on the F-102A, was developed. In War Thunder, the aircraft can carry up to six AIM-4 missiles, including radar-guided variants, in its bomb bay. However, it can only accelerate to Mach 1 at sea level and it lacks a cannon. So how does one play it?

The Soko J-22 Orao (Yugoslavia) and the IAR-93 Vultur (Romania) were twin-engine, subsonic ground-attack and reconnaissance aircraft. Jointly developed in the 1970s, they represented the industrial and military independence of both nations from the Soviet bloc; Yugoslavia and Romania signed an agreement to share costs and engineering under the codename “Project YuRom” (Yugoslavia-Romania) with the shared objective of creating a light tactical fighter capable of replacing Soviet ground-attack aircraft and operating from short or improvised dirt runways.

While we wait for the vehicles of the next update, this is a perfect time to dig into the far corners of the hangar and take out an old War Thunder veteran that recently got a reason to make a comeback. Today we’re looking at a fairly rare and often overlooked American carrier-based fighter, the F9F-8, better known by its rather fitting name, Cougar. Let’s take off!

War Thunder has plenty of strike aircraft that rely on forward-firing guns to attack ground targets. But one of them is truly special. It is, perhaps, the most legendary aircraft ever built around a large-caliber cannon. We are talking, of course, about the German Duck, the Hs 129 B-3.