The AP-24D Marksman!

It might not look like much, but further research shows that this is quite the unique aircraft.

Where it all began

Originally, during the early days of Red V Green, I had the idea to make an aircraft that could take out targets from miles away with ease. However, being that the peak of Red V Green takes place during the 1940/50s, I wanted to ensure that it could do so with no missiles. Thus, the AP-24 Marksman was born. The original one, linked in this blue text, was an AP-24A variant. And although the idea and concept were pretty cool, the execution was sub-par. I did make an AP-24B and AP-24C, the latter of which heavily improved on the Marksman's capabilities, but what was really the last of the Marksmen...

Until recently. Between the overuse of nukes and elimination of nukes, I decided to whip out this old thing to show people the power- and fun- of precision hunting. Of course, though, I'm not the kind of guy to go back and edit an old plane. So I built the AP-24D from the ground up, using the original design as a reference. After roughly five to six hours of work (albeit not straight), I was literally able to finish the new AP-24D overnight.

So, what does he do?

As I said, the AP-24's purpose is to attack targets from long distances, but with high-precision, and utilizing a cannon as opposed to missiles (because missiles used against aircraft are often kinda boring imo). Henceforth the second part of his name: Long Range Heavy Artillery Aircraft.

How to function it, you ask? Simple (but not easy):

-Activation Group 1 turns on the offensive machine guns. In retrospect they don't really need the Activation Group toggle, but I had planned to make a slow-firing machine gun to reinforce the main cannon, but that didn't happen because the main cannon is chad.

-Activation Group 2 opens the outer pylons, dropping the fuel tanks. This doesn't effect your rocket launches, and to everyone's dismay albeit knowledge, no, you can't un-drop the fuel tanks.

-Activation Group 7 opens the canopy. Really just for aesthetic purposes.

You can fly with the canopy open.

-Activation Group 8 toggles the lights. Again, really no purpose aside from aesthetics. Note that the orange light doesn't turn off. The reason? Although virtually impossible to implement in SimplePlanes, that orange light is an indicator to show if the aircraft's communications are active; if the communications are functioning, the light will be on, but if the radio is down, so will the orange light be.

Fun Fact Time!

-As of the lore, the AP-24A (the original Marksman) was made in the 1940s, specifically 1942-1943 in terms of the design-to-flight process. However, this specific variant of the Marksman, the AP-24D, was made in 1951, hence why the tags say "Decade 1940s" and "Decade 1950s."

-You may notice a green panel being the pilot's area. This is a pad of bulletproof glass, to further ensure the pilot's safety in the case that bullets should go through there.

-This is my second ever intentional attempt at a VR plane, the first being the F-10A Tanto. Somebody wanna help curate this?

The cockpit in question.

-The AP-24D is a testament to how futuristic Red and Green are. This cannon, in spite of using completely conventional gunpowder, still gets results similar to a railgun.

Getting this shot required pinpoint reaction time.

-Despite the AP-24D being designed for long-range attacks on ground targets, it was more than capable of close air support and dogfighting. However, CAS and air-to-air combat combined accounted for roughly 85% of all AP-24s lost to enemy fire during the Red V Green War, with less than 15% being shot down while "lurking," as they call it.

An actual picture from the Red V Green War as an AP-24D dives down to attack unsuspecting Red tanks. Yes, RvG is so futuristic they even had color cameras back in the 1940/50s.

That's all! Happy hunting!