Meet the QF-65 Redback, your new wingman!

Rainier Aerospace's first complete design.

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FEATURES:

• Extreme agility (without using TVC)
• Afterburner
• Able to achieve mach 1 flight.
• Fully functional weapons bay.
• Stealthy design
• Custom lights
• Simple controls
• Sleek and efficient design
• Low stall speed
  

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OPERATIONS:

AG-1 = Engage Afterburner
AG-2 = ---
AG-3 = ---
AG-4 = ---
AG-5 = ---
AG-6 = ---
AG-7 = ---
AG-8 = Nav, Beacon, and Strobe Lights
Trim = Trim
VTOL = ---
Throttle = Throttle/Power
Landing Gear = Landing Gear Deploy/Retract & Activates Landing Lights

Control Layout

Afterburner

Custom Light Patterns

Internal Weapons Bay

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ARMAMENT:

4x AIM-9X Sidewinders
2x AIM-120D AMRAAMs
1x M61 Vulcan

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NOTES/TIPS:

• This aircraft is a little nose-heavy so you'll have to apply trim to correct it's flight path for it to fly straight.

• This UCAV is an excellent dogfighter, but it's got a huge weakness, and that is high altitude combat. Pulling extreme maneuvers at altitudes above +40,000 feet could put the aircraft into a spin, or in some other form of control loss.

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VARIANTS/PAINT JOBS:

Original Rainier Prototype

Rainier Demonstrator

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BACK STORY:

First off, this UCAV is part of Blue Team.

There are 3 timelines in which this aircraft was developed. The main timeline is the first one. The second and third timelines are just for fun; Me inserting my design into my favorite storylines. :)

Timeline #1 (Main Canon)

Rainier QF/X-65 Redback, first flown in late 2018.

The Rainier Redback was Rainier Aerospace's first official contract by the USAF. The Redback program, code named "Project Buddy" by the USAF, was a UCAV program that aimed at the goal of creating a high-agility UCAV that would be dedicated to air-to-air combat (unlike the X-45, X-47B, and the MQ-25) and could potentially serve as a "wingman" aircraft controlled by a host such as an AWACS plane or even the F-35A Lightning II. Inside Rainier Aerospace, the Redback is officially the successor to the ill-fated Black Fox UCAV program. The Black Fox was a failed UCAV design that lacked needed maneuverability for simplicity and speed. Lessons learned from Rainier's first UCAV program were applied to the Redback.

Actually, Rainier Aerospace first approached the USAF with their new UCAV design and the concept behind it. The Redback promised high-agility, simplicity, internal weapons, stealth, and advanced electronic capabilities. The USAF decided to give Rainier Aerospace a small contract of 1x prototype and 1x demonstrator, and it was to be given the designation "X-65" as an experimental aircraft.

The first prototype was unveiled to the USAF in mid-2018 at Rainier's main hangar at Grant County International (KMWH) in Moses Lake, Washington during midnight hours, in secrecy. The X-65 was then transported via flatbed truck to nearby Fairchild AFB for it's first flight, due to the secrecy of the project and the radical design and technologies the X-65 possessed. The USAF didn't want Rainier flying it out of a public airport such as Moses Lake.

Shortly after Rainier established a small maintenance hangar for the X-65, the X-65 first flew some time between July and August of 2018. It's first flight took place in the early morning hours of 4 AM to decrease it's chances of being caught by the public eye (Spokane is right next to Fairchild AFB). The X-65 program continued to go smoothly and Rainier eventually completed a second X-65, this time a more complete demonstrator, bearing it's signature "Redback" paint scheme inspired by it's namesake.

The USAF was greatly pleased with the results of the X-65, but had no intentions of awarding a full contract to develop it into a production airplane. It was more of a contract to see what Rainier could do, and if they were up to the same mantle as Boeing, Northrop Grumman, and Lockheed Martin.

The program is still in progress, and it's unlikely the USAF would drop it any time soon, as China has recently made great UCAV advancements with their new "Darksword" UCAV.

Timeline #2

In this timeline, it's similar to timeline #1 except it takes place in the Yukikaze universe.

Rainier Aerospace wasn't formed until 2018, so by then the JAM war was already raging for the past 12 years (estimated).

When Rainier approached the USAF with their Redback design, the USAF awarded them a contract to develop it as an experimental fighter and designated it as the X-65. The following happens much like in timeline #1, except the USAF shifted focus from China to the JAM threat.

After the X-65 program was completed in 2020, the USAF gave Rainier the go-ahead to begin developing it into a production "QF-65". The QF-65 finished testing and began production in 2021 and was fielded by the USAF to combat the JAM force. The QF-65's proved extremely valuable in combat as there were no worries of pilots getting killed when a QF-65 was shot down. With it's hyper-maneuverability and intelligent AI control system with the air-frame cameras, it proved to be the perfect rival against the JAM, and the JAM would start losing in dogfights against it. However the JAM eventually combated the QF-65 not with another fighter, but they ramped up their electronic warfare jamming capabilities to JAM the QF-65's. The QF-65 started to fade as more reliable, manned fighters were favored for their being a pilot controlling them.

Once humanity beat the JAM back through the portal, the new "Faery Air Force" upped their electronic warfare capabilities as well, and found a way to operate the QF-65's in a more secure and jam-resistant way. The QF-65 design was tweaked for the atmosphere of Farey and other improvements were made. Rainier would eventually develop their own fighter for the FAF to combat the JAM with, and this new fighter featured a powerful electronics suite designed to securely command a squadron of QF-65's. The QF-65 and the "command fighter" proved useful in combat until more advanced designs such as the FA-2 Fand II and Flip Knight System were developed.

But the QF-65 would be known as the pioneer of air-to-air UCAV's and a predecessor to the Flip Knight System.

Timeline #3

The Redback UCAV was developed by Osea during the Lighthouse War to counter Erusea's UCAV advancements.

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I plan on further developing this UCAV with more detail and more weapon variety outside this challenge, and I plan on adding a fully-functioning HUD for it.

Enjoy and happy flying!