Whats this? I hear you ask? A fictional STOL tactical transport? Of British origin, no less?

Yes. Yes it is. With Roundels and Props. This bucket has them in droves.

You see, gentle reader / downloader / user and (hopefully) upvoter, I hear rumors of a Gunship Challenge in the works and this, to put it in as difficult a way to understand as possible, is the Station Wagon to what will eventually be a Shooting Break.

Sorry - I think only Tang0five will understand that, and even then only maybe...

Anyway - back story!

The Short Sapphire C.1 is the culmination of a Europe wide program involving EADS and BAe, to replace the Tansall C-160. To cut a long story short, the break up of Spain and the subsequent departure into wide spread civil unrest, Brexit and the political unpleasantness that followed and the resurgence of the British aviation industry (including the re activation and re vitalization of, amount others, Shorts of Belfast, Hawker Siddeley, Britsol, Vickers Supermarine and English Electric) all conspired to induce BAe to drop the whole bloody mess and allow Shorts of Belfast to go it alone with their own design.

This was not a poor decision at all.

The Resulting Short Sapphire C.1 is, although smaller than the Transall C-160, an all together more capable machine. With excellent STOL and rough airstrip capabilities.

These capabilities lay mainly in the revolutionary engine tilt system. In conjunction with the deployment of the flaps, the entire engine assembly rotates upward by a maximum of 10 degrees. giving the Sapphire C.1 a limited "tilt rotor" capability.

When considered together with the rugged multi wheel landing gear, her advanced gyro stability system and her exceptional agility, landing, unloading and take off can be carried out within a few fuselage lengths.

Her agility and large carrying capacity, thanks to her 2 5,200 SHP Rolls Royce Tyne Mk21 turbo props turning 115 inch counter rotating props, make h the Sapphire an outstanding candidate for the RAFs FCAS (Future Close Air Support) program.

So - the controls;

AG 1,2 3, 4 are unused (reserved for FCAS project)
AG5 drops the external fuel tanks
AG6 activates the stability program. This gives the pilot authority over pitch (using trim), but otherwise dampens out pilot input in favor of holding the aircraft at a stable level attitude - for quick switch over to landing configuration.
AG6 + VTOL down drops flaps and rotates engine assemblies
AG7 + VTOL down lowers loading ramp
AG8 locks control surfaces - this is a feature that will become useful in the FCAS program as for now it is a place holder for future developments. Suffice to say - don't deactivate AG8.

Many thanks for reading this far and have fun!