First of all, I apologize for my slight inactivity over the last week, school's been ramping up and I've been quite busy. But I'm happy to finally present my plans for my special Platinum build to you guys. Behold:

As you can see, I've got a new concept/blueprint of sorts drawn up for my 25k special plane, the B.P26 Heavy Intercontinental Bomber (or Project HIB, if that sticks) as illustrated with the B.P22 Heavy Bomber and F.P2 Escort Fighter for scale. It is completely fictional, and will serve as the previously-unplanned finale of my Signature Series line of airplanes. I've designed it around the mindset and competition of the likes of Boeing, Convair, and Northrop in the late 1940s to mid 1950s. It'll have by far the widest wingspan and heaviest bomb load that I've ever integrated into an aircraft. It'll have by far the most power output of any aircraft I've designed. It'll be the most heavily armed, with the most advanced turret control. And it'll probably have the most parts of any aircraft I've designed, and definitely the first plane that I'll have to leave iOS and move into OSX in order to build and test it without substantial lag. If you're still here reading this, I appreciate it (lol) so let's move into the in-depth specifications!

PERFORMANCE
I've pitched a pretty ambitious goal performance-wise for this airplane. I'm shooting for a cruising speed of 250 mph with a range of 2500 miles at 25,000 feet. It's just easy to remember that way, and serves well as a fixed set of standards for me to engineer this aircraft to meet. The climb rate will be slow, inevitably, but not quite as slow as you might imagine, which we'll come back to later. Roll and pitch will be restricted, as this is a bomber, and in real life we'd see wings getting torn off left and right if bombers could maneuver like they can in this game. Also, steady control adds to improved stability, which provides a better defensive gun platform.

DIMENSIONS
As the diagram illustrates, the B.P26 will have a wingspan of around 180 feet, a length of around 120 feet, and a maximum height of around 40 feet. Almost twice as wide as the B.P22, with the ability to carry almost five F.P2s on its wings. This is far and away the largest airplane I've ever built in terms of overall size, but that's just the beginning of it. This aircraft will be truly gargantuan in terms of weight. In order to sustain such a long range, an absurd amount of fuel needs to be carried on board. In this case, if she cruises at 250 mph, about 6000 gallons of fuel are necessary. Which equates to almost 40,000 lbs (the same as the dry weight of the B.P22) in fuel alone.

ARMAMENT
Guns, guns, guns. The B.P26 will be absolutely bristling with defensive firepower. As the illustration shows, two dorsal turrets, two ventral turrets, two waist twin gun mounts and a twin gun mount in the tail. A forward-firing cannon might also be provided for the pilot, and an optional chin gun may be added further down the line for the bombardier (not illustrated in the diagram). This adds up to a total of between seven and eight rotatable defensive positions and between 14 and 19 individual guns. In one bomber. A maximum bomb load of 25,000 lbs (consisting of fifty Boom50s) will be stored in a bomb bay with operational doors.

POWERPLANT
This is the last subject I felt like addressing, and as unimportant as it may seem in this context, the powerplant of this aircraft is like none other I've built before (there seems to be a pattern here). Six "engines" will be mounted to the wings of the behemoth, but there will probably be too much weight for six in-game T1000s to realistically carry on their own. So instead of adding more and more engines, what we're going to do is simply layer T1000s over each other, so we can keep the engine count at six while still increasing power output. Which saves space and stays loyal to my original vision for the B.P26. Anywhere between 9,000 and 12,000 horsepower will be the total displacement of this aircraft.

In conclusion, I hope you guys are happy with what I've come up. Times are tough, but I'll try my hardest to get this baby out by June 1st, exactly one month since the initial launch of my Signature Series, so we can tie this whole thing together. Again, thank you guys so much for all the support and encouragement, you're the best. I wouldn't have come nearly this far without each and every one of you. Whereas I dedicated the twelve previous airplanes of my Signature Series to my old friends on SimplePlanes, this final airplane is for all of you :) Thank you.

-bsk