Well, first of all, I wasn't expecting this to happen but with how long this took, at this point I should begin with Merry Chirstmas, folks! I hope by the time I finish writing this description and post the actual plane I won't have exceeded the deadline, lol.

This is my entry for the Naval Attack Challenge. I'd like to apologize for submitting this last-moment, but I've been a lot busier than I had anticipated these days. The holidays are keeping me almost as busy as college did! I wasn't able to put nearly as much effort as I would've liked into this, and had to cut some corners from what I had originally planned here and there, but overall I'm happy with the result. It's got to be my prettiest-looking bird so far, and I'd wager second most realistically-performing (After the Demoiselle clone).

A watered-down, lower part count version with slightly improved handling will be coming one day. I planned on releasing both at once but this took much longer than I expected.

Aesthetically, it's inspired by the Mitsubishi F-1/T-2, the F-4 Phantom and the SEPECAT Jaguar. The basic concept behind it could indeed be described as an enlarged T-2/F-1, with notably larger engines and wings, to have roughly similar size and capabilities to the F/A-18C Hornet. The Jaguar influence makes itself present especially on the thick, sturdy looking landing gear (if only it was half as sturdy as it looks...). I wanted to include one very important characteristic of the Phantom in this bird - if you missed it, read the description until the end and you'll see!

Speaking about the gear, one important note - since this isn't the stock gear and I'm hilariously bad at making custom landing gear, make sure to not land front gear first, or too harshly - else the plane will suffer a severe case of instantaneous unplanned disassembly.

Also, due to the same reason, do not launch from the carrier catapult with afterburners on. You'll see some printscreens of me doing that but those were just aesthetic shots and I had to do some wizardry to be able to do that. In fact, sometimes it's best to launch from the aircraft carrier without using the catapult at all - in this case you may and should use afterburner.

This is a plane I had in the back of my mind for a long time, and really wanted to do. I love the Mitsubishi "Supersonic Reisen"'s aesthetics, and had been wanting to do an enlarged plane resembling it for the longest time. This challenge was the perfect opportunity to do so, but first of all my builds are done for fun! I sincerely hope you will enjoy flying this aircraft as much as I did.

Well, without further ado, let's get this going! Enjoy!

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Controls, Features, Warnings and Operational Notes (IMPORTANT)

ACTIVATION GROUPS, VTOL, TRIM:

AG 1: Deploy Drag Chute
AG 2: Afterburner On/Off
AG 3: Jettison External Fuel Tank
AG 4: EMER JETT (Jettisons all Air-To-Ground ordnance. See Note 1)
AG 5: Airbrakes
AG 6: Air-To-Air Missiles ARM ON
AG 7: Landing Hook
AG 7 + VTOL DOWN: Fold Wings
AG 8: Nav Lights On/Off
VTOL UP: Flaps Down
TRIM: Not hard to guess

NOTES:

Note 1: EMER JETT (AG 4) initiates a jettisoning sequence of almost all pylons (except for the centreline pylon holding the fuel tank and the wingtip rails with air-to-air missiles) which lasts 0.6 seconds. It is recommended to not pitch your aircraft down or roll in any way during this time. A slight, constant pitch up might help. What happens: The outer fuselage pylons and outboard wing pylons are jettisoned first without delay. Then the AShMs on the mid pylons are jettisoned after 0.3 seconds, and finally the inboard AGM racks are jettisoned at 0.6 seconds. This is done to ensure safe weapons separation from the aircraft without collisions.

Note 2: The weapons have been tested, but not as much as I'd have liked to. Please report any problems, suggestions, or complaints of instantaneous unscheduled disassembly.

Note 3: Cockpit lights:

RECOMMENDED OPERATIONAL PROCEDURES:

TAKEOFF:
- Flaps down 1/2 VTOL up halfway);
- Afterburner ON (AG 2).

LANDING:
- Check landing gear down;
- Flaps down full (VTOL up);
- Airbrakes deployed (AG 5);
- Touch down with main wheels first, at lowest possible speed.
- Apply brakes after all wheels have contacted ground and aircraft is stable.
- If a quicker stop is desired, deploy drag chute (AG 1).

CARRIER LANDING:
- Check landing gear down;
- Flaps down full (VTOL up);
- Tail hook down (AG 7);
- Airbrakes deployed (AG 5);
- Approach very slow and very gently;
- Pray that the landing gear does not explode.

ENTERING AIR-TO-GROUND COMBAT:
- Jettison external fuel tanks (AG 3);
- Check nav lights off (AG 8);
- Ensure correct weapon is selected. More details on "Weapons" section.
- Remember: Afterburner is toggled by AG 2.

ENTERING AIR-TO-AIR COMBAT:
- Jettison external fuel tanks (AG 3);
- Jettison air-to-ground stores (AG 4);
- Check nav lights off (AG 8);
- If using missiles: Toggle missile arm switch ON (AG 6). The cockpit missile arm indicator light will light up.
- Remember: Afterburner is toggled by AG 2.

Quirks, limitations and SimplePlanes shenanigans

• As explained in the introduction, the landing gear is... an amateurish job. Coupled with SimplePlanes physics, this will result in big booms every time you try to land this aircraft a bit too roughly or launch from the carrier catapult in full A/B. Be gentle with that gear.

• In order to get the intended performance in speed from this craft, I had to go a bit hamfist on the engines. This may result in excessive performance at high altitude; however, due to its nature as an attacker, this plane was built for low/medium-low altitudes anyways. Performance is "tuned" to that altitude range.

• The main engines also had their throttle input cut to reduce fuel consumption as SP engines drink fuel like no one's business. Their power had to be further increased as a result. Afterburners, however, had their throttle input increased - they're supposed to drink fuel, and while I'm not sure of the specific fuel consumption of anything in SP, I tried to at least balance it in a way that's fun.

Weapons:

Now comes the fun part. In this particular aircraft, you have five different types of weapons at your disposal:

Guns
Two French DEFA 554 30mm guns.

MAA-5E Coral Air-To-Air Missile x2
An advanced short-range infrared-guided missile with decent off-boresight capability.

MANA-2 Anzol Anti-Ship Missile x2
A heavy anti-ship missile with a potent warhead.

MAR-4B Lobo Anti-Radiation Missile x2
A fast, Mach 3 capable air-to-ground missile intended to take on hostile air defenses at long range.

MAS-89G Terrier EO Air-To-Ground Missile x4
An electro-optically guided missile intended to destroy hostile armored vehicles.

70mm Rockets x28
Just your plain old unguided rockets, fitted in two UB-14 rocket pods.

Details on their specifics and backstory further ahead in the description under the "Backstory" section. This is just meant to be a quick guide for people who want to go and fly right off without reading too much, so they can better understand what they have at their disposal.

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Details and Backstory

Manufacturer:
Socrux Indústria Aeroespacial Ltda. (Defense subdivision)

First Flight:
July 1982 (YF-275)

Introduction:
November 1985 (FA-275A Peixe-Espada)
June 1999 (FA-275P Swordfish, shown at Paris-Le Bourget Air Show)

The FA-275 Peixe-Espada (Swordfish) is a carrierborne strike aircraft with secondary air-to-air capability. It was designed to replace two older Socrux designs, the A-125 Adaga and the ill-fated FA-240 Gavião. The Gavião was supposed to replace the Adaga, but failed to live up to expectations and was plagued with problems throughout its service, forcing the tiny Adagas to soldier on in service all the way from the early 60's. A new aircraft was required; one that could be as agile and easy to maintain as the Adaga, as fast and hard-hitting as the Gavião, and with a size in-between both, being compact enough to operate in large numbers from medium and small carriers.

An FA-275P rests on its natural habitat.

The resulting aircraft was a high-wing, twin-engined two-seater, with six underwing and three fuselage hardpoints plus two wingtip stations. Its wings had full-span flaps, divided in two sections by the wing folding mechanism; the inboard flaps extended further, while the outboard flaps were fixed flaperons, which aided in roll control. However, most roll control was provided by a pair of spoilerons in each wing.

Flaps and slats full down.

Carrier launch.

Maneuvering clean with spolierons.

The aircraft was chirstened the FA-275 Peixe-Espada (Swordfish), and three years after the first flight of the prototype, it was put into service. Roughly comparable to the US Navy F/A-18C Hornet, it is a flexible and capable tactical strike aircraft, and although it lacks in the air-to-air department, especially due to its not exactly spectacularly large radar, it was still capable of performing air defense roles in a pinch. Its use quickly spread from a purely naval role to a both sea and land-based aircraft, equipping several strike squadrons in remote areas.

Much effort was spent in keeping the aircraft simple, and development was hurried. Over the years, many potential customers found the aircraft was lacking, and opted for superior and more easily accessible designs such as the Hornet. With this in mind, in the 90's Socrux decided to develop a beefed-up version specifically for export, featuring vastly improved avionics while still keeping a lower price tag than comparable aircraft. The FA-275P Swordfish, now named in its cooler-sounding English name for overseas customers, was born.

FA-275P at 1999 Paris Air Show

The new version toured the world, notably starting at none less than the 1999 Paris Air Show, with a tail painting featuring Socrux's "Southern Cross" logo.

The Swordfish shows its tail markings

It featured, among other improvements, an IFR (In-Flight Refueling) probe, a Forward-Looking Infrared sensor, improved ECM equipment and MAWS (Missile Approach Warning System) sensors installed in blisters throughout the aircraft for nearly 360-degree coverage. These changes, which include a fairing on top of the vertical stabilizer for EW equipment, give the aircraft a distinctive look over its predecessor.

Apart from these externally visible changes, the aircraft was fitted with a new PESA radar and additional electronics to allow usage of a much wider array of weapons.

A full loadout can be seen in this banking Swordfish

The FA-275P Swordfish that toured Paris-Le Bourget was carrying mock-ups of a variety of weapons offered by Socrux, which were expected to be the aircraft's main weapons combination for a "full" loadout.

The Swordfish shows its teeth

These include:

MAA-5E Coral

The MAA-5 Coral (MAA: Míssil Ar-Ar, Air-to-Air Missile; named after the Coral snake) is one of the latest families of short-range air-to-air missiles developed by Socrux. Its development was a reaction to the realization of the Soviet AA-11 Archer's full capabilities after the fall of the USSR. Its E version is primarily intended for export and is not as capable as other variants, but is still a highly agile and lethal weapon with 65-degree off-boresight capability.

An YFA-275 prototype converted for testing roles fires off a MAA-5 during the very first trials of the missile in 1993

Head-on shot against target confirms all-aspect capability

An FA-275P shoots down a target drone with a MAA-5E during a live fire demonstration

MANA-2 Anzol

The MANA-2 Anzol (MANA: Míssil Anti-Navio Aerolançado, Air-Launched Anti-Ship Missile; Anzol: Fishing Hook) is an anti-ship missile designed to be used by tactical aircraft. Slightly larger than comparable Western designs, the Anzol is slightly shorter-ranged than comparable types like the Exocet, trading it for a slightly higher speed and an abnormally large warhead. It was designed to be effective against the Soviet Kirov-class battlecruisers.

An FA-275P pulls up after launching a MANA-2 Anzol anti-ship missile from an altitude of 70 ft in level flight

MAS-89G Terrier

The MAS-89 Terrier (MAS: Míssil Ar-Superfície, Air-To-Surface Missile) is a family of air-to-ground missiles with various types of warheads. In its G variant, one of the most recent types, the Terrier is equipped with an electro-optical seeker and is intended to be used against hostile vehicles. Mounted in a special double rail in the Swordfish, this is a flexible and capable anti-tank weapon. Originally developed in the late 60's, this weapon continues to see extensive use to this day.

A Swordfish fires a "Golf" Terrier at a mock ground target during a live fire demonstration

MAR-4B Lobo

The MAR-4 Lobo (MAR: Míssil Anti-Radiação, Anti-Radiation Missile; Lobo: Wolf) is a relatively compact anti-radiation missile intended to be fired by tactical aircraft. In order to be effective against long-ranged surface-to-air missile emplacements, the Lobo is designed to be sleek and fast, allowing an aircraft illuminated by hostile radar to respond quickly.

MAR-4B dashing towards a target radar

VERY IMPORTANT IMAGE:

:D