Report 044: F-22 news

As the contest is over, and very soon it will be announced the winner, so it’s time to share more news.

While some of you are patiently waiting to other news that aren’t aircrafts, I ask you to wait a bit more, at this state the game is being polished for the final aesthetics, (UI and HUD included) so it probably won’t be any video until then

This post will be about a new family. And speaking of aircrafts, the reason as the usual aircrafts news have been a bit slow is because, as probably has been mentioned before, multiples aircrafts are being developed at the same time, so each family takes longer to be completed. However, like when it was in alpha funding, I was waiting for a family to be fully completed first before sharing it here.

But on second thought, I find it useful to post an incomplete family.
For those o have seen the Su-25 news post, I announced that aside from the campaign mode, all aircrafts must be unlocked in the Challenge mode before they can used. These challenges consist in completing a small number (3~7) of quick missions and after completion it will be reveled more aircrafts to unlock if they are a direct evolution.

So considering this, it is better not to disclose all aircrafts to maintain a certain degree of exploration and surprise, otherwise some players can be laser guided to unlock the branch that leads to variant they are aiming to. (This can still happen if you have some knowledge of the evolution of that family in reality)

Also something to note, although the aircraft counter as reached 200 in the last days, After seeing their presentation in the challenge mode, with their structured evolution, at least in my perspective, made them appear that suddenly aren’t that many after all, and it would have been more interesting if it had even more aircrafts to have countless braches that lead to a completely different evolution. But what is available it is already an interesting experience.

But now onto the aircrafts, as promised it is the F-22. But like it was mentioned above, this is not the complete list that will be present in the game.

This time we start with the most well know variant that in this case it was the only mass produced in this family.

I believe the F-22 doesn’t need any sort of presentation. The only part worth to point out is this is a fighter aimed only at the air superiority role.
Meaning that his attack capabilities are very lacking, but something that latter variants will try to improve.

This is the very common B variant that was also considered to be made for the F-22. Following the tradition, the B variant adds two seats to the base model.

As usual, the two seats are for flight training; maybe the cost of an each unit was decisive in abandoning this idea, so it is only a concept.
Something to be aware is that two seated variants usual have more defensive awareness than the single seated version, also in the game, the use trainer aircrafts help unlocking other variants faster.

The F/A-22 Spiral 5 is almost identical to the F-22A, the biggest difference it is in the avionics where it adds air to ground capabilities

With new upgraded electronics this F/A-22 Spiral 5 as become a true multi role variant. Since most of the changes were internal, it doesn’t have any significant change in performance.

The F-22V, with a more radical design improves the maneuverability of the aircraft with the expense of stealth.

The F-22V is a pure dogfighter and a fearful foe thanks to the asymmetric thrust vectored nozzles. Also while it lost some performance in the stealth department it remains as stealthier as other aircrafts of the same generation.

A natural evolution of the F-22 in expanding the multirole capabilities
Also something to note, this variant and most of the following aircrafts in this list are usually labeled as “FB-22”, to avoid confusion, variants with similar names were given alternative names. In this case this variant was renamed as F-22U.

The F-22U a multirole variant, it focuses more in the ground capabilities rather than air. But is still is one of the most balanced FB variants in this list.

F-22UL, a fictional variant tuned for high speed interceptions. It can be distinguished by other variants by the high sweep angle in the wings.

The F-22UL is, as stated above, a High speed interceptor; this variant’s avionics also has been tweaked to also maximize BVR engagements.

Another the FB concept, this variant can be easily recognized by some players, it can identified by the delta wings and new intakes that are very similar to the standard F-35.

The FB-22A is a strike aircraft, suited for supersonic flights. While still competent against other fighters, the greatest strength is really against ground targets.

A lesser know variant compared to the one above, but usually referred as the “Tailess FB-22”, on first impression is identical to the FB-22A, but without tail, however if you look carefully the layout for the moving parts are completely different to compensate the lack of a tail.

The FB-22C is another supersonic strike variant, without the tails to generate drag, this variant has slightly higher top speed than the FB-22A variant.
Also thanks to that subtraction, this variant is one of the stealthiest around, making it suitable for supersonics interdiction strikes. There is no mistake in perceive this variant as 5th generation F-117.

The FB-22-1 is also one variant that can be mistakenly identified with other if not looked carefully. On closer inspection it can be noticeable some elements that reveal that this units is overall larger than the standard F-22A.

The FB-22-1 is a multirole variant, and while this aircraft has a FB designation it not really more effective against ground targets than the Spiral 5.
Something notable is that this aircraft has tougher armor and carries more weapons in the weapons bay, however is has the same drawbacks as any heavier plane.

The FB-22-2 instead of going for the same direction as the -1, it has gone back to the base model stretched the length and added delta wings.
This variant is the easiest to identify from the back as it is the only in this with LO engines.

The FB-22-2 is a subsonic strike variant, differently than the FB-22A and FB-22C, the change in width and large wing spawn make it more suited for subsonic speeds. Also thanks to the more compact engine and enlarged body, it can carry more weapons in weapons bay.

The FB-22-3 as regressed again to the base model and this time it just adds a large wingspan. Besides improvements in the avionics, this aircraft has support to wing mounted weapon bays.

Like the one before, it is from here on, all the following variants, included the FB-22-3, focus exclusively in subsonic attacks. The large wing spawn it has creates a significant drag to lower the standard maximum speed.

The FB-22-3 finally solidified the path to take for the following iterations of the FB-# variant. With this, the FB-22-4 is a direct continuation of the ideas of its predecessor. The best way to identify this variant, besides the large width is the end tips of the wings being parallel with the body.

The FB-22-4, like the one that came after, is a subsonic attack aircraft. And thanks to the very large wing area it can reach a high service ceiling, this combined with the stealth capacities, it allows it to evade some defensive system by just sating high in the sky.

And the final variant of the FB-# line, the FB-22-5 takes the ideas of his predecessor, and tweaks them to the extreme. With the exception of the flying wings, it is very rare to find a fighter with a larger wingspan than this one and this is the widest of all F-22 variants.
This variant is also easy to identify thanks to the prolonged nose that was added to offer better visibility for the WSO.

The FB-22-5 is what it should be expected of the result of successive experimentations and iterations towards a specific goal.
This variant is a pure subsonic strike variant, it was made to perform exceptionally well in that regard, but is far from being suited to any other use.

And this is all the existing F-22 variants currently in the game. But don’t be surprised if you end you seeing more in the release of after it.
While these units have been reveled, it will not be show how the evolution braches are organized; this is to incentivize your experimentation with unknown variants.

Also, after seeing all these aircrafts, what is your favorite variant in this list?

Stay tuned, more reports will follow.