My latest adventure into the indie flight game scene has led me to a cutesy planetoid in need of irrigation, bug swatting, and a long-eared pilot hero. Hare Fare is a simple arcade flight shooter created by Gumboot studio, with audio support from Ockpii. It was created as a part of the 46th Ludum Dare, a long-running series of game jam competitions that typically last two to three days. Each game jam has a theme or set of requirements that creators are recommended to follow to score higher in the competition. The theme for Ludum Dare 46 was "keep it alive," implying the act of protecting or enabling the function or existence of something being a core part of the submitted games. Gumboot's entry was a cartoonish flight game featuring a rabbit piloting a propeller-driven aircraft. From a small airfield on the ocean, the player patrols a planetoid in support of the populations living on Leek, Lemon, and Petal islands. Players deploy a net-shaped device that captures moisture from inside dark rain clouds while the aircraft flies through them. This water can then be air dropped onto each island to sustain the islanders' carrot-laden fields. This same water source is also needed to power the aircraft's onboard water guns to defend the islands. Swarms of dastardly Fly Guys cross the sky from island to island. Their goal is to steal carrots and decimate each island's water supply. Once the water supply is completely drained, the island name is crossed out and it cannot be revitalized. As the Fly Guys approach and attack the islands, their residences call for their flying long-eared savior to shoot down the pesky invaders with water guns (this is where the "carrot combat air patrol" joke comes in). The most effective strategy for handling them is intercepting them over the ocean, well away from the islands when able. Thinning out their numbers or taking out entire swarms before reaching the islands is ideal. As time goes on, the swarms increase in size, making it harder to defend the islands while resupplying them with water and occasionally flying to the home airport to refuel the aircraft quickly. Gameplay-wise it's as simple as can be. Basic controls for throttle, pitch, and roll with buttons for firing the water gun and dropping water containers from the aircraft. There is also no need to deploy landing gear to land and refuel. Simply flying beneath the flags at the home airfield will refuel the plane. While the lack of yaw makes using the water guns very awkward at times, an automatically adjusting aiming reticle somewhat makes up for it. Due to the low speed of the Fly Guys and their tendency to circle the terrain of the islands at low altitudes, slashing attacks through their groups are highly effective. Darting around this admittedly cute small game is another good example of the types of things you can find from indie flight game developers. Whether they're game jam entries turned into full-fledged projects or one-off limited-scale games made to test an idea, I recommend the occasional dive into the world wide web to find unique flying experiences. You never know what you'll find. About the Writer Aaron "Ribbon-Blue" Mendoza Co-founder of Skyward Flight Media. After founding Electrosphere.info, the first English Ace Combat database, he has been involved in creating flight game-related websites, communities, and events since 2005. He explores past and present flight games and simulators with his extensive collection of game consoles and computers. Read Staff Profile.

Featured in volume 2 of Miles Above Magazine produced by Electrosphere.info in May 2015. This interview was lost with the website's closure later that year. ​We present a interview with the group behind the only on going multi-year translation project in the Ace Combat Community. Team NEMO is the group behind the fan based translation of the original version of Ace Combat 3: Electrosphere. The  translation project as a whole is known as “Project NEMO”. ​The original version of Ace Combat 3 is not to be confused with the export version of the game, which was only one disc long with a vast proportion of its content removed. After many years, a major mile stone in the timeline of the project has been reached. The release of Team NEMO’s AC3 International Edition demo would come on December 25th, 2014; nearly five years after the project began.  ​ In this interview with Team NEMO we ask questions about various aspects of the project throughout their history. Our questions are answered through DragonSpikeXIII, who is the leader of the translation team. The interviewer being Aaron "Ribbon-Blue" Mendoza, formerly of Electrosphere.info. Greetings. I'm glad we're finally doing this. ​It's great to be here for an interview, ask away! Project Nemo has been around for quite some time now. With so much effort going into this translation over such a long amount of time, the first question that comes to mind is "Why AC3?" ​It had to be AC3 because of how unique it is and it being the only Ace Combat that was never REALLY translated for English-speaking audiences. Me and the rest of the team believe this game is worth the effort and I believe it has something to offer unlike any game before or after, be it AC or not. ​ ​When more recent fans of the series hear about Project Nemo, a few questions come up, “Why translate a game that was released so long ago?”, “What's the difference between the two that makes Project Nemo's translation efforts so important?” “It was already translated, wasn't it?” The game may be more than 15 years old but even though the game was localized, most of its original qualities were dropped during localization, back in 2000. Even as I played the stripped-down and streamlined U.S. version, there was always a feeling that something was missing. It felt like it had taken great steps forward in graphics, design and sound but there was no narrative, nor characters to populate the world they had created for AC3. It was a strange mix of going forward and backwards when compared to AC2. When I finally discovered, back in 2006 or 2007, that my suspicions were actually founded all along, it was an amazing discovery. After that a year passed and I just couldn't wait any more, someone had to at least try and start a fan-translation project for this game. How did the effort to translate Ace Combat 3 begin? ​ My memory's a little hazy but the project had its official start when I met a like-minded fan, Iceman-UK, on the GameFAQS AC3 forum. I had posted a topic where I talked about my plan to crowd fund a translation for this game but he changed all that. At the time Iceman-UK was part of the team that had translated Front Mission 5 and was also translating Front Mission 2, so he had critical know-how that I simply lacked. He was the one who found a translator willing to help us out, BRPXQZME, and so in early 2009 the original game's translation finally began. Meeting these individuals and the progress being made with translation would lead to the creation of the Project Nemo website and Usea Today blog, correct? What impact has the website and blog had on the project over the years? Yes, the creation of our homepage and blog signaled the official start of Project NEMO. Our homepage is our official presence on the Internet, so to speak, while USEA Today, our blog, was created so we had a platform where we could post any kind of information not only about project but, more importantly, about the game itself. Ultimately they've allowed us to reach our audience and finally put AC3 on the map, in a way. So if someone wanted to find out more about AC3 and its fan-translation, there finally was place for that. Promotional poster for the project. Tell us a bit about Team Nemo themselves. How many have been on the team since it was founded? What were their roles in the project? We were just three at first, me, Iceman-UK and BRPXQZME. Those two were already known and active in the fan-translation community when Project NEMO began. Over the years we gradually welcomed more people who joined the team proper, like pmt7ar, translator and spot-checker and Gipphe, the first one who took a look at the programming side of the game. After a few years of hiatus, where there was little to no progress, the project had the luck to welcome Dashman, our typesetter, and esperknight, the programmer who made it possible to insert our translation into the game. A few months into 2014, another programmer simply called "me", whose contributions were critical to our fan-translation project, joined us. We're currently eight in all, each member being absolutely crucial to this project. The mission and in-game broadcast transcripts were the first items translated by the team. The time between these translations and the release of the AC3E IE demo was quite large. What were some of the obstacles that prevented these translations from being applied at first? The game's compression is the main culprit. Simply put, the developers packed the game with so much content that they had to compress almost everything in order to cram it all on 2 discs. That meant that if we wanted to gain access to the text files, which are actually stored as images (TIM), we had to get past the compression. It took a really talented and experienced programmer like esperknight to crack it. It's a pretty hard game to work with on a technical level. Of course I wish we'd all been able to reach this much progress back in 2009 or 2010, but finding help has always proven difficult for us. The fact we've been able to get this far is something of a miracle actually. That certainly puts everything in perspective. The playable demo for the first four missions of AC3E IE was released on Christmas Day of 2014. It was certainly quite the Christmas gift for Ace Combat fans everywhere. How do the members of Team NEMO and yourself feel about getting a solid, playable release available to the public? Years ago I thought that since I speak Italian and Portuguese fluently, that I could translate the game from English to those languages in order to reach those audiences. That was a completely personal side-project I had in mind as Team NEMO is working to translate the game into English only. So it's sort of an unofficial side-project. Little did I know how much time and effort would be required in order to get the game translated even once into English. By the time I had uploaded the video containing the additional translations I knew that I wouldn't be able to do it by myself so I downgraded the idea to a " tentative side-project." Our tools have all been made available to the public since day one also because we'd love to see the game translated into even more languages but at this point I can't promise anything since the game's proving a handful just to translate it once. ​ Thank you for this interview and giving us all a better insight into Project NEMO. And again, thank you very much for the playable demo. Is there anything you'd like to say to the Ace Combat fan base out there? We'd like to thank those who have followed our project since the beginning and who are waiting patiently for the they can finally play the real AC3 in English. We hope every AC fan, hardcore or casual, will give it a try once it's out! Promotional poster for the project. About the Interviewer Aaron "Ribbon-Blue" Mendoza Co-founder of Skyward Flight Media. After founding Electrosphere.info, the first English Ace Combat database, he has been involved in creating flight game-related websites, communities, and events since 2005. He explores past and present flight games and simulators with his extensive collection of game consoles and computers. Read Staff Profile.

As the credits began to roll, I turned to look at Aaron (Ribbon-Blue) and asked him, “Have you ever seen Wayne’s World 2”? He answered in the affirmative, probably wondering what I was on about. I replied earnestly: “Wayne’s World 2 is a rare sequel for a successful and iconic film that manages to differentiate itself enough to be strong all on its own.” Top Gun: Maverick (TGM) is another one of those rare sequels. I’m sure many people can word this more simply than I: It’s an 80’s movie made in the 21st century, and it owns every minute of it. But it’s the “feel” that’s hard to explain. It’s nostalgic and novel all at once. Perhaps not as quotable… yet. Perhaps a soundtrack that’s not as iconic… yet. Perhaps not as culturally influential… yet. But here’s what I will say: Cruise’s decision to delay the movie for this long to get it on the big screen was absolutely the right call. I think this movie could be pointed at as a swan song for the cinema—it’s what makes movies great. And what does it distill to that makes it so great? Some of the best aerial combat sequences we’ve seen since 2005’s Les Chevaliers du Ciel. Wherever they possibly could, they used a real aircraft. The F/A-18E/F is on full display here as the knife-fighter it is reputable for. But even more impressive is the respect it gives to its audience and its subject without slowing down the movie’s pace. There are sequences highlighted that will put a wide grin on a DCS flyer’s face but masterfully presents them so that someone less familiar with these technicalities infers what is happening rapidly. I’d have to say that none of this was what I expected. I went it with light reservations, but expecting it to walk away from a modern remake of an old classic, never as recognized as the original. But you know… It may very well be. We’ll see where the future takes us. But in the present—the hype is real, and it carries over to the unprecedented media tie-ins that have been released to celebrate the occasion. Like NFT’s! ... I’m serious. There are NFT’s. But that’s not what I mean. I mean the game tie-ins. The release of Top Gun: Maverick comes along side multiple official collaborations and well-timed Top Gun related announcements with high profile flight games and simulators. War Thunder released a teaser for their "Danger Zone" update which is finally bringing the long-sought after F-14 Tomcat to the game. With its arrival questions about how its massive radar range, AIM-54 Phoenix missiles and how it all fits with War Thunder's World War II sized maps. With the Tomcat available in the dev server, various content creators has been giving their first impressions and opinions on how the aircraft may fair in the near future. Eagle Dynamics presented an excellent "Turn and Burn | Be A Maverick" video for Digital Combat Simulator World. The video acting as an announcement for a free Open Beta update that added TGM themed liveries for the F/A-18C Hornet and F-14A/B Tomcat. Furthermore, for a very limited time of just three days, two bundles that provide a discount for the Hornet, Tomcat and/or Super Carrier are available. A further nod to TGM's release in theaters. Shout out to Eagle Dynamics for using "Mighty Wings" by Cheap Trick rather than the frequently idolized "Danger Zone" by Kenny Loggins. The official collaboration between Top Gun and Ace Combat launched with much fanfare. While Ace Combat is no stranger to collaborations with many other intellectual properties, the TGM collab is a very high profile event in its 26 year history. It includes remixed versions of "Danger Zone" and "Top Gun Anthem" by composer Keiki Kobayashi, special wallpapers, movie related nicknames and emblems and new aircraft. The F-14A Tomcat, the F/A-18E Super Hornet, fictional Dark Star hypersonic aircraft and the "5th Generation Fighter" (read: Su-57 variant) joined the roster of Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown. Of note are the specifically labelled "TGM" variants of the Tomcat and Super Hornet having highly increased maneuverability, allowing them to perform absolutely crazy post-stall maneuvers as an homage to certain maneuvers presented in the movies. Funnily enough, the Dark Star is so fast it can traverse multiple singleplayer and multiplayer maps within a minute, making it somewhat hard to reach and maintain its hypersonic speeds. The last official collaboration with Microsoft Flight Simulator added the Top Gun: Maverick expansion pack. Though already available in the simulator for a long time now, the F/A-18E Super Hornet received Maverick's CAG bird style livery and multiple new challenges. As a non-combat simulator, some questioned what it could offer. The bulk of what is offered in this collab involves training missions to learn the Super Hornet and low altitude, high speed challenges inspired by events from the movie. Our buddies over at Stormbirds have put up a great video as an example. Furthermore, the Dark Star in this simulator does benefit from having plenty of altitude and distance to cover. This being highlighted by the stratospheric flight mission which has the player flying from NAWS China Lake to Cape Canaveral, Florida at hypersonic speeds. The entire trip being just a little over half-an-hour. If only all flights were that fast. If nothing else, Top Gun: Maverick heavily benefited from a type of online collaboration the first movie could never have dreamed of having. Perhaps that too will add to its potential status as a classic in the making. About the Writer T.J. "Millie" Archer A Life-long realist and aviation enthusiast. Once the co-founding Administrator of the Electrosphere.info English Ace Combat Database. In the present day he is freelance, roving the internet in search of the latest aviation news and entertainment. Read Staff Profile.

An opinion piece from the perspective of a decades long fan of the Ace Combat series, aviation simulators and flight action games in general. At one time, TJ "Millie" Archer was an administrator of an English Ace Combat database, but chose to step away from the online community to pursue a new path in life. The release of Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown and the subsequent reception of it inspired him to write an article to present his evaluation of the value of AC7 in a down to earth perspective. Ace Combat 7 is a mess. A disjointed story, a myriad of “gimmick” missions and mechanics, cheesy dialogue, and amped difficulty rooted in game-breaking AI and missile spam. Bias reeks in this statement, but even the most casual follower of the series can’t help but see these same critiques parroted throughout the little corners of the internet the community calls home. ​And who am I to disagree? I’ve levied the same criticisms and am just as vocal about it. I oft feel like a foreigner in my own nation when I hear defenses being levied for the game, and the series, that was used sparsely if at all in context of discussion 15 years ago. “The game is just an anime, and it’s always been that way,” seems to be an appealing fallback. But the vocal critics like myself will argue until we’re dark blue the fallacy presented to us. And we’ll continue doing so because we’re old like that. Some of us might be crotchety old cooks at this point, pining for a series that left us behind. Two camps seem to be at odds here, two sides of the same coin, looking similar, but never seeing face-to-face. These skies have been shattered for some time, and with real-world decoys tossed into the mix to distract us in the past such as Ace Combat: Assault Horizon and Ace Combat X2: Joint Assault, I don’t think we realized how the tone, function, and feel of the core game had shifted its appeal since 2004.    And it’s with the whining of wildly fluctuating game dialogue, harsh mission design, incoherent story structure, and FPS mechanics with a dose of schizophrenic world-building we can’t seem to break through the fog and realize that we’ve made a safe return home.    Ace Combat 7 is a triumph. Not just for Ace Combat mind you, but for video games in the modern age, the dedication and love with which it was developed should not go unsung. ​ Kazutoki Kono’s personal Iliad on Twitter chronicling the fiery hell this game was developed in should serve as a lesson to armchair aces and video gamers alike. The game is like a gorgeous time capsule of an era long past, and to get it to shelves required a barrage of willpower, dedication, and grit that can only be admired.    Stand back and look at this game for what it is. Take in not just the gorgeous scenery, but the fine detail that proves those working on this game love aviation and fighter aircraft almost as much as the engineers, designers, mechanics, and pilots that work with them every day around the globe.    And then shift your perspective and feel the creativity—not just the references to obscure Ace Combat lore, but the subtle expansion of the universe. The liberal addition of energy weapons on legacy aircraft--nearly unacknowledged within the game itself--as though it were perfectly normal, harkens back to a pre-millennial era where we were made to accept bizarre and unexplained phenomena in video games as though it were a walk in the park—and we just went with it because it was cool! Can the F-15C support laser weaponry? Who cares? It’s awesome! And despite it, there is the utmost respect taken to the aircraft themselves. Down to minute details as the proper orientation of all-moving canards in a turn or the dials in the cockpits delivering accurate readings. This demonstrates that the designers, programmers, and modelers are more than willing to refine their knowledge of real-world aircraft and make their control accessible to those who just want the action of the fight without the management of reality. Despite the obvious fantasy of the flight, it is so wonderfully, strangely real in how it presents itself to the player. This is not something that we have been able to take for granted in recent years. In how often we’ve lost control of our aircraft--whether through on-rails mechanics, limited processing power, or simply not being able to pay-to-play, there’s real justification in wondering if we were going to be taken for a ride at any time. But we never were—ever. We are back in the cockpit in an admirably crafted virtual recreation.     The linear design of the game feels like an old friend, and its simplicity has been sorely missed. This is not something sought after in game design today with open-world addiction and player-on-player connectivity, but it is a classic formula that fits the game like a glove. In a game like Ace Combat, where winning the war is the goal, a guided strategy with defined start and endpoints enhances the glamour of being a fighter pilot, where tactical prowess is your forte.     And let’s not forget—it almost seems like a miracle to see a game completed once its gone gold. Day-one patches are the norm, and we’ve reluctantly succumbed to this reality. It seems that Project Aces missed the memo. Did you notice it? No patches, no hotfixes on day one—a working game out of the box. Sometimes the old ways are truly better.     Is it perfect? No. God no. But it’s exactly what we needed, all of us. It’s a reminder of what brought many of us into games in the first place. It’s both defiant and traditional in the face of expectations.     Ace Combat 7 succeeds in developing a video game that matches those of the golden age. Before pay-to-win—before pointless grinding—before forced open-world--before the day-one patch.     Dare I say; it hearkens to a time when video games were simple and fun.     The age of the internet is here—information is accessible, experiences are plenty. We’ll always find time to nitpick about the smallest or largest detail that keeps us up at night. But let’s not let that detract from what’s actually in front of us: A sleek machine of supersonic success. About the Writer T.J. "Millie" Archer A Life-long realist and aviation enthusiast. Once the co-founding Administrator of the Electrosphere.info English Ace Combat Database. In the present day he is freelance, roving the internet in search of the latest aviation news and entertainment. Read Staff Profile.

As one of the first third party modules available on DCS World, the Fishbed set the bar for quality with its release back in 2014. It was developed by Leatherneck Simulations, the company that housed many of the developers that would later become part of Heatblur Simulations after the split that resulted in both Heatblur and Magnitude 3/Leatherneck becoming separate studios. The Fishbed has proven to be an aircraft that, despite its age and system limitations, still holds a very important role in the DCS arena as one of the only high fidelity Redfor aircraft currently in the sim, JF-17 aside. The older brothers of the Fishbed, the MiG-15 Fagot and the MiG-19 Farmer, are also available but neither of them have the multirole capabilities of this manned missile. In this review I will tackle all areas which I personally look at before buying a module so that you, the reader, can make an informed decision as to if this Soviet era workhorse is for you. These areas are the following: External and internal 3D models Visual effects and sound design Flight modeling Mission capability Armament Ease of use and learning curve Bugs and Magnitude 3's plan Is this aircraft for you? Thanks go to my friend Hueman for his assistance on this review. Minor revision and screenshot update: 9/14/2022 EXTERNAL AND INTERNAL 3D MODELS This module has got to have one of the most beautiful 3D modeling assets in DCS. Even more when you consider that, despite being updated somewhat recently on the Phase 1 update, this module is 8 years old! Every nook and cranny, every bolt and rivet has been masterfully represented on the external model, making it either a pleasure or a displeasure to look at depending on what you think of this aircraft's design features. Its long hump and tubular design make it instantly recognizable, to which Leatherneck went far and beyond to make it accurate. BEAUTIFULLY UGLY To the right there is a small gallery of what I consider to be some of the details that make this module's 3D artwork masterful. From the antennas and the pitot tube, to the spectacular texture work on the bare metal skins and complex meshes of the Tumansky R-25 engine. This is just a feast for the eyes to those that know this craft. There is one exception to this beauty and that is that some of the liveries have certain mistakes on the roughmets. This is specifically noticeable as some of the painted liveries, such as the Slovakian-1998 livery, still have remnants of the Russian warning markings which are not on the skins as these countries have eliminated them and replaced them with their own language. An example of this can be found below on the Bugs section of this review. Now, cockpit-wise, this aircraft has some of the best 3D artwork out there but it is one that is, in certain aspects, not completely to current DCS standards. It doesn't look new but rather heavily used. Textures still hold up wonderfully and instrument lighting, which has seen changes as DCS improves its lighting engine, looks stunning. I'll stop talking and I will let you take a look for yourself with the following gallery: VISUAL EFFECTS AND SOUND DESIGN External effects such as over-wing vapor, which is not the best I have seen in DCS, and a very unique afterburner, are present in this module. The afterburner effect was changed as part of the Phase 1 update, which made it much more distinct. Aside from that, the Fishbed lacks any kind of vapor vortexes like the ones present on the Harrier, Tomcat, Hornet and Viper. Although, none of the videos that I have watched of the Fishbed flying show vortexes forming on the wings, so it seems to be accurate to a certain degree. Sound-wise, this module will either be your favorite or you will hate it. This was one of the first aircraft in DCS which exaggerates the engine sounds in the cockpit for the sake of pilot feedback. This is, in my honest opinion, one of the best things a module can do as it increases the pilot's awareness of what their engine is doing at any point of its RPM range. Be it idle, military or full afterburner, you will know. The sound of the switches is pretty snappy, and varies depending on what you are clicking, but not that much. One complaint that I have with the sound is the way that the engine sound transitions from military power to full afterburner. In my opinion, it is way too sudden and sounds artificial. It is not terrible by any means, just something where I thought this module would have done better. The only other complaint I have is with the external sound and the way that it handles the throttle changes at a distance. From a mile and a half away you can clearly hear what RPM range the engine is, which is not something that should happen. Here are the examples taken with maximum volume and no post processing: Engine while on the ground: (Idle-->Full Afterburner-->Idle) Listen to those breaks too! Engine while in-flight: (Idle-->Full Afterburner-->Idle) Fly-by at 510 knots, full afterburner: (Volume warning) Notice the sound of throttle movements at the end! FLIGHT MODELING This is, once again, an area in which I have to clarify that I have neither flown fighters or have been involved with military aircraft in real life. Most of my experience is derived from simulators and from theoretical knowledge about aerodynamics and flight dynamic simulation. That being said, I am kind of divided on its flight model. On one hand it does not seem to have scripted behavior on stalls or high angles of attack. On the other, it does seem to have some very weird behavior when both at low speed and high angles of attack. If I were to overly-simplify this, I'd say that it simulates 95% of the flight regime to a very high degree but the other 5% feels a bit strange. Here is an example of that strange behavior I have noticed. Aerodynamically, neither I or a very dear friend of mine that's an aeronautical engineer undergrad (Hueman) can not make sense of what is happening here. The movements could be generated by a yaw instability at high AoA, a characteristic that Fishbed does possess and the reason why they have a ventral fin. To be honest, this is a minor gripe; but it does not remove the fact that the event feels artificial in nature. That is just my subjective opinion, mind you. Aside from this, the flight model does not have any other major "flaws". Landings are tricky at first due to the way the aircraft behaves while on glide slope but you will get used to them. To me it is, generally, a pleasure to fly not because it is easy but because it is an aircraft that requires your attention. Additionally, I have not seen a real Fishbed pilot complain about the accuracy of this flight model, but the ones I see complaining are other players such as myself. MISSION CAPABILITY This little bird can do most of what you ask of it. From interceptions/air to air, at which it excels since it is what this aircraft was mostly used for despite its awful radar, to air to ground attack and recon. Due to the way the soviets treated this aircraft, being a frontline fighter, it can carry a variety of weaponry of different shapes, sizes and capabilities. Your main limitations will be both range and precision capability. You lack any kind of laser or TV guided bombs/missiles with your only guided air to ground missile being the beam-riding Grom missile. You will have to rely on the good ol' Mk.1 eyeball to land most of your air to ground shots. But even with that said, operational range will be your major hindrance seeing as the Fishbed has short legs. No air-to-air refueling either, so you better plan your missions with a fuel stop or two. You can also do STOL operations thanks to your RATO pods. Have a look: Now, onto the armament! ARMAMENT GsH-23 CANNON Your internal cannon, even with its limited ammunition, it is more than capable of dealing with aerial and lightly armored ground targets. You will learn how to love this thing! UPK-23-250 GUNPODS AIR TO AIR MISSILES Your main line of defense/offense against air targets, you have four types to choose from. They are not the most modern line-up but they get the job done. Do not underestimate them. R-60 and R-60M (As modern as you will get) R-13 (The soviet equivalent of an AIM-9P, they are good but not as good as an R-60M) R-3S and R-3R (IR and Radar guided respectively, these are the oldest ones in your inventory) UNGUIDED BOMBS From cluster munitions to your typical soviet line-up, these are as effective as your aim is. The Fishbed does not have a CCIP indicator, so aside of some computer assistance with the pipper, you will be the one calculating your drops so make them count! FAB-100, FAB-250/FAB-250 TU and FAB-500 M62 (your high-explosive munitions) RBK-250 PTAB-2.5M (Cluster Bomb) SAB-100 (Illumination bomb) BetAB-500 (Bunker buster) BL755 (Cluster bomb) RBK-500 PTAB-10-5 (Cluster bomb) UNGUIDED ROCKETS These are what I use for most of my ground attack missions as they allow me more time on station. You have a small variety to choose from, almost the same as any other soviet fighter. S-5 Rockets on pods of 16 (UB-16UM) or 32 (UB-32) per pod. S-24 Rockets Kh-66 "GROM" MISSILE A radar guided/beam riding missile. This is your only guided ground munition, and quite the good one. Point your pipper, press lock and fire away; as simple as that. This missile also has quite a large warhead so you will be able to engage smaller ships and armored target. RN-24 AND RN-28 NUCLEAR BOMBS This is the only aircraft in DCS that is capable of carrying tactical nuclear bombs. They do not have any special effect and their effectiveness is disappointingly low, but they are there! When deployed on multiplayer servers, if they are not banned, then please mind the explosive radius as it can kill air, including allied ones, units as far as 15 nautical miles. RP-22SMA "SAPFIR" RADAR This piece of soviet engineering has got to be one of the worse, if not the worst, air intercept radars I have ever had the displeasure of using. It is clunky and gets easily confused by both cloud and ground clutter as well as jamming. You aim it by aiming the entire aircraft, no TDC here. Oh, and did I forget that it is cooled by alcohol which gives it a run time of 20 minutes? I love it and the way it is implemented, but it is not pleasant to use. DEFENSIVE EQUIPMENT You will inevitably be shot at some point. But don't fret as you do have your trusty SPS-141-100 Electronic Warfare pod/Chaff and Flares pod and your AS0-2 Dispensers. These will give you a bit more chance to evade missiles, as long as they have ammo. Don't forget your SPO-10 "Sirena-3" RWR, which should give you an idea of where and when you are getting shot at/locked. EASE OF USE AND LEARNING CURVE I'll be honest. This is not a beginner friendly aircraft. From its very soviet way of taxiing to its illogical system locations (by western standards), this aircraft has a steeper curve than other DCS modules. For reference: the F-5E, which many consider to be the western analog to the Fishbed, has a much more friendly learning curve due to its logical cockpit layout. Tasks which are easier on the Tiger, such as bombing, become a bit more tedious on the Fishbed but not by much. You will have to put more time into learning the quirks and features of this fighter, primarily the positions of all the switches for each weapon employment. Once you get over those difficulties, I assure you that the Fishbed is well worth your time as it offers a very different experience that no other fighter can offer in DCS as of the time of writing. SOME BUGS AND MAGNITUDE 3'S PLAN This is one of those modules on which I have found the weirdest of bugs. Not weird because of their obscurity but weird because of how easy they are to find. Here are three of the what I would consider "hard to miss bugs": 1- (ABOVE) Nosewheel tire clips through the ground when break is applied while taxiing at close to MTOW (Maximum Take-Off Weight). This causes the geometry on the nose wheel strut to hit the ground and causes sparks to come out. EDIT 9/14/2022: This bug has been solved at the time of writing this edit. 2- (ABOVE) Problem light animation hovers if problem light is lit and pressed. 3. (ABOVE) Liveries utilize incorrect roughmets that do not correspond to their skin. This is evident on skins such as "Slovakia-1998", which has Russian text still present on the roughmets that does not correspond to the text on the skin. This leaves a "ghost image" of the Russian text when light reflects on the aircraft. Now, these are only three of the bugs I felt like they were worth mentioning. They are not game-breaking nor do they make the Fishbed a bad module; but since the developers paid so much attention to detail in so many different areas, it feels odd to see these bugs are still a thing. Leatherneck, now Magnitude 3, are still rolling out changes to the external assets of the Fishbed in two phases. Phase one was rolled out late last year, as I previously mentioned at the start of the review. Let's hope that some or all of these issues will be fixed with that patch. EDIT (9/14/2022): As of time of writing this edit, I managed to find another bug that kind of concerned me. The RATO cans do not work, period. The effect seems to detach from the can itself when it then proceeds to tumble and it the ground below the aircraft, which causes damage to it. (PICTURED ABOVE) IS THIS AIRCRAFT FOR YOU? If what you want in a module is: A challenging learning experience that requires your attention. A third-generation multirole aircraft. The feeling of being strapped to a missile. A good dogfighter with poor visibility so that you can feel better when you shoot something down. If you don't mind: The very soviet design and way of operation. Not having screens of any type to do modern jet stuff. The limited guided air-to-ground capability. The feeling of being strapped to a missile. The quirks of a very, very old design. If all or some of the above is what you want, then Magnitude 3's MiG-21 Bis is for you About the writer: Santiago "Cubeboy" Cuberos Longtime aviation fanatic with particular preference towards military aviation and its history. Said interests date back to the early 2000's leading into his livelong dive into civil and combat flight simulators. He has been involved in a few communities but only started being active around the mid 2010's. Joined as a Spanish to English translator in 2017, he has been active as the co-founder, writer and content manager ever since. Twitter | Discord: Cubeboy #9034

We're happy to announce that starting today Skyward Flight Media has a pair of important releases related to Flight of Nova. INTERVIEW On July 8th, 2022 we are posting our interview with Aerovery Labs, the developer of Flight of Nova. This interview was originally planned as a pre-early access release, but with the impending release of the game on May 31st, 2022, the decision to move it back until after the release of the game. Though, in the interm, Skyward Flight Media received pre-release copies of the game for a first impression review. We'll be giving away the rest of these copies as a part of a giveaway ahead of the interview. GIVEAWAY We have two (2) copies of Flight of Nova to give away from July 4th to July 8th, 2022, the giveaway will be active. These are the ways you can enter the giveaway: Follow SkywardFM on Twitter and like our pinned tweet about the giveaway. Retweeting is not required, but helping spread the word is appreciated. For those that do not have a Twitter account, they can fill out the Contact form on our website. Please include your Name and/or Screen Name, email address and that you are entering the Flight of Nova giveaway. The winners of the giveaway will be announced before the interview begins. Winners will be contacted via direct message or email to receive their prize on July 8th, 2022. Thanks for your continued support of our operations. Good luck on winning! Sincerely, Skyward Flight Media Staff

AVAILABLE IN TWO WEEKS Ｐｌａｃｅｈｏｌｄｅｒ Ｔｅｘｔ [ April Fools Day 2021. It is just a joke! ] See all of our actual Digital Combat Simulator content here: https://www.skywardfm.com/digital-combat-simulator About this Memelord Aaron "Ribbon-Blue" Mendoza A guy that tried playing simulators when he was too young to understand them but liked flying just as much as the crashing. Fell in love with aviation shortly before watching Top Gun for the first time at an impressionable age (tragic). May or may not have solidified his lifetime interest in flight sims with Battlehawks 1942 on a computer older than he is. Former Ace Combat Stan turned I'll-fly-everywhere-phile. Probably doomed to spend more money on button boxes than flight hours. Twitter | Discord: RibbonBlue#8870 |

Black Aces May 2022 2v2 Dogfight Tournament Sponsored by Skyward Flight Media In a first for VRChat aviation, Skyward Flight Media is sponsoring a event hosted by the VRC Black Aces; the largest VRC aviation community known for their airshows and tournaments. On May 21st and May 28th, 2022 starting at 9:00 PM CST each day, the Black Aces are hosting a guns only 2v2 Dogfight Tournament featuring the F/A-18F Block III Super Hornet. Skyward Flight Media is sponsoring the event, providing a total prize pool of 170.00 USD. The prize pool is being split in the following manner: 100.00 USD for the winning team. 50.00USD for second place. 20.00 USD for third place. For follow on information, signing up to participate, and eventual links to livestreams, see the VRC Black Aces official Discord or Twitter page. While none of the Skyward Flight Media staff will be competing in the tournament, three of them will be flying as a part of the airshow after the first day of the tournament is over. This will be the third airshow they have flown as pilots for. Website Updates Various website updates are being done. Some of the more notable updates include: Downloads in Blog: For the sake of easier access and having items appear in the search bar, existing downloads have been added to the general content area with appropriate tags applied. Updating Translation Webpages: With Ace Combat: Ikaros in the Sky translations being re-introduced, other existing translation web pages will begin receiving basic updates in May 2022. Where possible, some of them will be converted to blog post if they do not require specialized formatting. Content Tags: we have been actively deleting and combining tags in an effort to simply things and make out tag cloud more manageable. All content on the website has also gradually been receiving tag updates. Because of the volume of articles available, this has been an on going process for weeks. Please excuse any unusual tagging that remains, as it is most likely a work in progress. Mobile Version: Changes to menus in the mobile version of the website is in progress. Certain links may be deleted or replaced with a more effective option. Topic Specific Webpages: Certain popular topics on our website are to receive standalone webpages. Similar to how Flight Arcade and Flight Simulation have webpages of their own. Banners for those pages will begin to appear on the front page and other locations in the near future. Skyward Staff Updates We are making changes and additions to our content creation staff in May 2022. Some of these are already starting to appear on our About page. The two most notable changes are the addition of two staff members who have always flown with us and assisted us in some way, so this is more of a formal acknowledgement: RaptorDad86 Life long aviation and aviation gaming enthusiast. Joined Active Duty Air Force in 2009 as an Aircraft Maintenance Officer. Separated in 2015 and decided to become a Reservist in 2020. Participated in the GGL Ace Combat 6 Tournament winning the Military side and placing 3rd in the Battle Royal. Started playing DCS in 2020 and made the jump to competition in late 2021 flying for the 18th Sparrows and now the Bushido Fighter Group. As of 2022, he is a photographer for Skyward who provides screenshots and video. Instagram | Twitter | Twitch KOSMOS 1 A friend of some of Skyward's staff going back to 2009. Since Skyward was founded in 2020, he has flown in support of its operations in multiple games and simulators as a member of our flight team. Whether it's part of research projects, combat missions, photo ops or even airshows, he's ready to fly. We would like to thank everyone for their continued support of our operations. Regards, Skyward Flight Media Staff

Two free to download Skyward themed liveries for the F-14B Tomcat in Digital Combat Simulator. F-14B Skyward CAG Designer : Cubeboy Release Date : 1/2/2022 F-14B Skyward Low-vis Designer : Cubeboy Release Date : 1/2/2022

Português translation re-hosted, other languages to come. After receiving multiple requests from our viewers in emails and direct messages over the past few months, Skyward Flight Media has restarted the transfer of existing translations of Ace Combat: Ikaros in the Sky to our website. The complete Português language translation of the novel is now available. Small changes were also made to the webpage for the English translation with groundwork laid to quickly bring the other available translations to our website. About Ikaros in the Sky Ace Combat: Ikaros in the Sky was published on March 28th, 2012 by ASCII Media Works. This book is a 228-page Japanese only release authored by Heijiro Yamamoto with illustrations by Yūsuke Kozaki. The story within this book takes place in the same version of Earth seen in Ace Combat: Assault Horizon. Ensign Kei Nagase of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force is chosen to become a test pilot with the Advanced Support Fighter-X Project Team flying a prototype aircraft code name "Shinden II". However, political intrigue, industrial competition and other dangerous elements​ complicate the testing and development of this aircraft in ways no one was prepared for. ​ 2017 - 2018 Translation Project ​In December 2017, Project: Lighthouse, an Ace Combat focused fan website, started early attempts to create an unofficial, but highly accurate translation of this novel. In April 2018 an offer to continue the project as a collaborative effort was proposed by Ace Combat Fan, a well known video content creator with a focus on the Ace Combat series. This collaboration gathered new members to translate the book in multiple languages, including the pivotal Japanese to English translation by TaskForce 23 which opened the project up for translations to other languages. On January 2nd, 2019, full translations in English, Español and Português were made available with partial translations available in other languages. ​ 2020 Skyward Maintaining Translations Following the closure of Project: Lighthouse, the translations of Ace Combat: Ikaros in the Sky were to be hosted on the Skyward Flight Media website. Only the English translation was brought over early on with no other actions taken since then. Due to multiple requests throughout the past few months, Skyward is now restarting our efforts to re-host the other existing translations on our website. We would like to formally thank those that sent in messages about this translation for their continued interest, even in our older projects. -Skyward Flight Media Staff

The story within this book takes place in the same version of Earth seen in Ace Combat: Assault Horizon. Ensign Kei Nagase of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force is chosen to become a test pilot with the Advanced Support Fighter-X Project Team flying a prototype aircraft code name "Shinden II". ​​Project: Lighthouse began this fan translation project as an English only venture in December 2017. [Read More] Skyward Flight Media does not claim ownership of copyright of the source material used to create these translations.

Scans of four unique illustrations from the Japanese Ace Combat 2: Namco Official Guide Book. Images are scanned in extremely high resolution and available for download. File Size: 122MB

It has now been officially 2 years ever since we started operations here at Skyward Flight Media! We would like to thank everyone for their support and for visiting us consistently. The growth that we have seen these past two years has far surpassed our expectations and we could not be more thankful for it. This last year we also had several opportunities to work directly with game developers working on flight-related titles, which has been an honor. These opportunities and our growth as a platform has motivated us to continue pursuing this project of ours. Aaron, Santiago and the rest of our contributors would like to extend our gratitude as we look forward to our third year of operations. Here's to many more! Giveaway Winners For our second anniversary we decided to give away prizes to two (2) randomly selected winners! For those that are interested, we used the Google Random Number Generator to select the winners for this giveaway. For example: if number 12 was selected by the generation we then opened the list of likes on the giveaway post, counted 12 names from the top downwards and the 12th person received the prize. Here are the handles of the winners: @labourgriffin on Twitter @JavisUpdate on Twitter These people will be contacted via Twitter direct message or email to begin the process of selecting and delivering their prizes to them. Though our first giveaway is focused on Digital Combat Simulator World, our future giveaways will most likely be more diverse. Look forward to them! THE FUTURE We have no intention of stopping our creative efforts. That means that you can look forward to a myriad of articles and even videos. We plan on expanding our team and, slowly but steadily, getting more content our for you to enjoy. So stay tuned. We appreciate your viewership so thanks for accompanying us on this journey.

Three free to download Skyward Flight Media themed liveries for the F-16C Viper in Digital Combat Simulator World. F-16C Skyward Airshow Designer: Cubeboy Engine Textures: Mach3DS Release Date: 14/12/2021 Update: 2/1/2022 F-16C Skyward High-Vis Designer: Cubeboy Engine Textures: Mach3DS Release Date: 14/12/2021 Update: 2/1/2022 F-16C Skyward Low-Vis Designer: Cubeboy Engine Textures: Mach3DS Release Date: 14/12/2021 Update: 2/1/2022

Hind Giveaway Winner Selected Coinciding with the launch of the Mi-24P Hind-F by Eagle Dynamics for DCS World, Skyward started up a Twitter only giveaway between June 17th-24th, 2021. One winner has been randomly selected using a random number generator. Exactly how our 1st anniversary giveaway was done. The winner of our Mi-24P Hind giveaway has been selected! Congratulations to Twitter user Mouaz Osama. They will be contacted via direct message on Twitter to work out the final details needed to get the prize to them. Congratulations! In July 2021, Skyward plans to run another giveaway which will be somewhat larger than this month's giveaway. More information on this next month. Flight Sim Expo 2021 Media Partnership Confirmed Skyward Flight Media is proud to formally announce that we are a media partner for Flight Sim Expo 2021. Our co-founder, Aaron "Ribbon-Blue" Mendoza, will be in attendance in person with co-founder Santiago "Cubeboy" Cuberos and other Skyward members participating in online events. Skyward Flight Media plans to publish a series of content related to Flight Sim Expo leading up to the event. Flight Sim Expo (FSE) is an annual flight simulation conference and tradeshow designed to showcase the power of flight simulation to pilots, air traffic controllers, students, simmers, and industry developers. In June 2019, the second-annual Flight Sim Expo welcomed 1,650 simmers and pilots to Orlando. Flight Sim Expo 2021 takes place on September 24th-26th, 2021, at Town and Country Resort in San Diego, California, USA. As North America's community-driven flight conference, Flight Sim Expo is proudly produced by active participants of the flight simulation community. Today the initial exhibitor list was made public with more than 25 confirmed sponsors and exhibitors. Gleim Aviation, Honeycomb Aeronautical, Prepar3D/Lockheed Martin, RealSimGear, SKALARKI electronics Ltd, Sky Blue Radio, SoFly, TFDi Design, Thrustmaster, VATSIM, X-Plane, and Yaw VR Ltd are some of the many organizations involved with this hybrid online and in-person event. Though Microsoft has yet to be confirmed as of the time this article has been published, the organizers of FSE 2021 have released the following statement: "We invite Microsoft to join flight simulation developers like GeoFS, Prepar3D, and X-Plane, along with more than 25 confirmed sponsors and exhibitors, at this year's FlightSimExpo, in-person or remotely. The release of Microsoft Flight Simulator has had an incredible impact in our community. We know the show won't be the same without their participation." Following delays related to public safety due to the effect of COVID-19 on the world, FSE co-founder Evan Reiter made a point to address this directly, saying: "We know people are excited to get back to travel and events[.] We're looking forward to meeting face-to-face at what might be the only large flight simulation get-together this year! But we also know there is still uncertainty around global travel that may preclude some exhibitors from participating in-person. Through weekly social media updates and our upcoming YouTube Live Q&A, we'll keep the community completely up-to-date on attendee and exhibitor participation rates so everyone can make an informed decision." With that being said, it is highly recommended anyone interested in attending this event or learning more about Flight Sim Expo to visit the official website while following either their Facebook or Twitter profiles for more information about the event schedule and updates directly from the event organizers. On June 28th, 2021, a Q&A livestream will be held by the co-founders of the event to discuss various parts of this year's expo. This is a good opportunity for people with more pressing questions about the venue, travel or the expo in general. We want to thank our viewers for their continued support of Skyward Flight Media and our endeavors to cover flight games and simulators across all levels of realism from past and present. Becoming a media partner for FSE 2021 is a significant achievement for us and it is the support we receive that propels us ever forward. Skyward Flight Media Staff

In one week, Skyward Flight Media will be celebrating its second anniversary. As usual we will be doing a giveaway! This year's giveaway will be more flexible in how people can enter the giveaway and the type of prize they can win. TIMELINE This giveaway will run from March 17th, 2022 to March 24th, 2022. The giveaway winners will be announced on March 24th, 2022. PRIZES With the AH-64D Apache for Digital Combat Simulator World now released, it is certainly being offered as a prize, however winners will have options to convert that prize to something else. There will be two (2) winners. First Winner Eagle Dynamics AH-64D for DCS World OR 65.00 USD Steam Gift Card. Second Winner Eagle Dynamics AH-64D for DCS World OR 65.00 USD Steam Gift Card. HOW TO ENTER This year we have two ways to enter this giveaway. Follow SkywardFM on Twitter and like our pinned 2nd anniversary giveaway tweet. Retweeting is not required, but helping spread the word is appreciated. For those that do not have a Twitter account, they can fill out the Contact form on our website. Please include your Name and/or Screen Name, email address and that you are entering the giveaway so we can contact you if you win. Skyward Flight Media will announce the winners publicly in a tweet and blog post on March 24th, 2022. Winners will also be contacted via direct message or email as well to receive their prize. Thanks for joining our giveaway and supporting our two year celebration efforts, Skyward Flight Media Staff

​ Ace Combat: Northern Wings was released in December 2011 as game for mobile phones. After this game was no longer available for download commercially, Northern Wings resurfaced by way of Java J2ME emulators. With fans of the Ace Combat series now pursuing emulation to experience this game, we reached out to the Northern Wings Game Vehicle Artist, Costin Benescu for an interview. Our social media manager, Growler, conducted the interview. First and foremost, can you introduce yourself and your team? Hello to everyone reading this! So I am Costin Benescu and my very small team at Namco was composed of: Dan Oprea (Senior Art Director), Daniel Horia (Junior Art Director), Adrian Ichim (level design art and icon design, FX, UI and we worked together on porting), Alexandru Borcanescu (Lead Designer) and Daniel Ciocilteu. (Game Designer), Cristian Boghina (Game Developer) and Bogdan Bodistean. (Game Developer). Some people came and went but this was the core team hands on working on the game most of the time. I truly hope I did not forget anyone important! ​ Can you tell us how you got involved with this project? How I got involved with the project was kind of interesting. Usually at Namco Bandai Networks Romania people work on multiple projects at the same time. But for this project they wanted a dedicated team, so I was asked something like “hey do you want to work on this airplane simulator game?” And I must have replied: “Airplanes, hell yes!” Before I helped on production for Puzzle Quest 2, Galaga, Pac Man Party, Final Fantasy 2, Soul Calibur Mobile so this was an interesting change.  ​ Did you have any experience with Ace Combat series before? Do you have a favorite Ace Combat game? No previous experience and no favourite AC game, sorry to disappoint, I am not an avid gamer. My father worked in the Romanian army and he always dreamed of being an airplane pilot. So he used to bring a lot of model kits at home back in the 80’s. I vividly remember working on a Huey helicopter kit with him back in the day… so my excitement slash nostalgia pumped me up to work passionately on this game. ​ Why did the dev team choose a Norse Mythology theme for the game? (title of the game, name of the protagonist's squadron, name of the plane, etc) I honestly don’t remember. Might have been a discussion where I was out of the loop. Many of ACNW's aircraft designs take cues from real aircraft such as F-22, Su-47. As the game's artist, was it difficult to design those planes? What is the hardest part of the job? ​ ​ Yes it was a difficult experience for me but I got a lot of help from my team and outside it. Alex (Lead Designer) was very knowledgeable about all things aircraft so that helped immensely! I think the hardest part was figuring out the pipeline. I ended up modeling and texturing, rigging, animating and rendering in 3DS Max then bringing the renders in Photoshop, indexing the sprites to a limited color number BMP files and then clean-up the artwork to a pixel perfect asset for multiple resolution sets. ​ Did you need to study real aircraft designs first before making those models? What's the most complicated model of the game that you made? ​ Yes, I had to study models and blueprints and learn 3D modelling, rigging and rendering to make this happen. I am not sure what was the most complex model but… it’s a close tie between Arvakr V-55 and the super weapon (the big ground boss crab-like with the force shield). Talking about planes, what's your favorite aircraft both in the game and in real life? ​ Hm, that’s a tough one! I really love the Arvarkr V-55 (so F35) for the functional coolness of it but for looks I think the Vargr P-46 (inspired by the Su-47 Berkut) is my favourite, has such a beautiful profile! What was your most memorable moment when designing vehicles for the game? ​ Hm, I think the most memorable moment for me was when I showed my first draft renders of the boats and planes and the Art Director was “…so these are placeholders, right?” That’s when I decided I need to learn a lot more about rendering! ​ One of the most unique moments of Northern Wings is the mission where you control the Arkbird, the superweapon from Ace Combat 5. Why did the dev team choose to bring it into the game and let player control it? ​If I remember correctly Alex (Lead Designer) was really pushing for this multilayered gameplay that is rarely seen in a mobile flight simulator. So I think choosing to let the player control to Arkbird but also fight against it through the levels added much more depth to the gameplay experience! ​ About the gameplay, ACNW has some familiar gameplay features from  such as Air Strike mode, Countermaneuver and Flares. Why did the dev team choose to implement these features in the game?​ I think I can answer this one same as before, to offer a rich gameplay multilayered experience.​ ACNW's gameplay is very similar to other shoot'em up games such as Aero Fighters and Strikers 1945. Was inspiration taken from these games? ​ To be completely honest I don’t know, was not part of those discussions. I personally did not get inspired from any other games except previous Ace Combat games for visual reference on the airships. Besides ACNW which other games have you worked on? Do you have any ongoing projects at the moment?​ So at Namco I also worked on Soul Calibur, Final Fantasy 2, Puzzle Quest 2, Pac Man. After leaving Namco in mid 2011 I worked on a freelance Facebook game project Love Factory. It was condom factory management game, I learned much more about rendering and texturing with various materials. After that I also worked at King helping them adapt Bubble Witch Saga to mobile (2012-2013). Since 2014 to mid 2016 I worked in Malta as a Game Art Manager for a small Swedish company called Yggdrasil. There I art-directed a bunch of video slot games like Magic Mushrooms, Cazino Zeppelin, Fruitoids, Pyrons, Draglings etc. Since 2016 I started to work in the toy industry as a Concept Designer in Denmark, I helped with the 2018 re-branding of LEGO Friends. But my most recent project is MechXhibition - a curating effort that brings together kit bashing, 3d prints, VR art, sculpture, painting and digital art. If you are interested in what I am up to just check out my instagram! ​Thank you for having me for this interview! Image Gallery

The ever-advancing VRChat aviation community continues forward. As mentioned in our previous articles on this subject, the worlds vary in many ways. All of them shaped by the intentions of their creators. These creators usually try to balance authentic feeling aircraft controls with enough space for fun, arcade flight sim style air combat. However, a particular world in the VRChat aviation scene has set itself apart by pursuing a more realistic presentation of combat aviation. Developed by world creator Leopard (れおぱぁど, VRChat, Twitter), the F-35B FlightSimulator is probably the most realistic and advanced military aviation flight world in VRChat at this time. Released to the public on December 26th, 2020, from the start, its inclusion of a working Panoramic Multifunction Display and the F-35B's conversion to short take-off and vertical landing configuration were immediate attention grabbers. While there is a launch trailer for this world, a more recent advertisement for an air combat tournament in June 2021 is a better representation of its current build: In this case, "realistic" is defined by systems made available to the pilots and other external systems present within the world itself. Ultimately, all of this exists within a platform that's not tailor-made for these types of flight simulation, making all of this world creator's work that much more impressive. As I explain the details of this world, how advanced it is will become more apparent. Starting with the surroundings, the primary launch point is from an amphibious assault ship with a full-scale airport and a short landing strip. The player spawn points include information boards in both English and Japanese languages. The boards present introductory information for basic flight controls, cockpit system operations, and credits for the materials used and people that assisted in creating the world. Settings for wind, gusts, weather conditions, time of day and radios are also available. Outside of player vs player combat, there are a number airborne and surface targets and non-combat challenges. Fast travel between all three locations is possible with aircraft spawners available, giving players the option to immediately perform land-based operations if they wish. While there are no navigation or landing assistance systems on the short airfield, the airport and assault ship have a tactical air navigation system (TACAN), improved fresnel lens optical landing system (IFLOLS), precision approach path indicator (PAPI), and instrument landing systems (ILS). When used in conjunction with weather and wind settings that players can adjust, these systems are accurate enough to reliably land a Lightning II even in the worst possible conditions, day or night. Flight characteristic-wise, the F-35Bs feel heavier and less maneuverable than most fixed-wing combat aircraft in other VRC aviation worlds. It's a noticeable difference compared to the more arcade-style flight handling found in a majority of the other aviation worlds that let aircraft pull high energy and post-stall maneuvers and quickly recover from them with just a few seconds of afterburner. Other notable flight characteristics include the moments of instability transitioning to and from short take-off and landing (STOL) configuration. During mid-air conversion, the engine is swiveled to angle downwards, the lift fan door is opened, and flaps and gear are lowered. The change in how the aircraft handles is immediate and requires careful management. Initiating a conversion at the wrong altitude, speed, or altitude can result in loss of flight control and lead to a crash. A picture in picture example of landing in the VRC F-35B is shown below with audio and video of an actual F-35B landing shown in the smaller screen. Vertical landing is possible when certain conditions are met. First, the aircraft must have less than 25% fuel onboard with any external JDAMs (bombs) and missiles expended. At this lightweight, the F-35B can come into a hover. Its throttle now controls minor changes in forward speed, and the flight stick controls roll, yaw, ascent, and descent commands. Two other unexpected functions to see working is an Auto Ground Collision Avoidance System (Auto GCAS), which allows the aircraft to take control from the pilot to bring the aircraft back to safety. Even in full-scale combat flight sims, this is a function that's hardly seen. The example below shows side by side video and audio from the simulated version and a real Auto GCAS incident. There's even an interpretation of the F-35's highly advanced ability to "look through" the aircraft with the assistance of information from the aircraft's Electro-Optical Distributed Aperture System (DAS). To dig deeper into this world's portrayal of the Lightning II would best be done by looking at its 19-page manual (available on Google Drive as of June 9th, 2021). It is only available in Japanese but has been written in a way that can easily be translated by software services like DeepL or Google Translate. The user manual covers everything for symbology displayed on the PCD, heads-up display and helmet-mounted display, and cockpit layout. Attack and defense systems are also explained with radar max and minimum ranges, bearing-range-altitude readouts, and IFF information. A loadout diagram shows all possible configurations the F-35B can equip while it is landed in a serviceable area. Sections near the end of the user manual describe how to use the anti-craft weapons onboard the amphibious assault ship and personnel held FIM-92 Stinger systems. Everything described in this article truly comes alive with a virtual reality headset and a pair of hand controllers. While even users with full body VR setups can move their feet to control the rudder pedals, users that have a monitor and keyboard-mouse can still give it a try. While this simlite world is an outlier in the whole of #VRChat Aviation, it is the wonder of seeing aviation brought to this unusual platform that frequently brings me back to it. In a place where passion, hard work, and willingness to learn can enable creators to materialize their visions, it's energizing to see aviation enthusiasts from around the world create things like this. To end this article, I reached out to the world creator for a statement to let their own thoughts be expressed: "Hi, I'm Leopard (れおぱぁど), creator of the F-35BFlightSimulator. I've been visiting Sacchan's Test Pilots quite a few times since I started VRchat. This flight system is very realistic, and I'm very impressed with it. "One day, I thought to myself, "If the instruments worked, could I make a more realistic flight simulator?" So, while gathering materials and studying programming, I created this world. I changed the concept of this world from a "fighter jet game" to a "flight simulator" and adjusted the game to achieve realistic behavior and systems. We have recreated every aspect of the aircraft, from the basic navigation system to the systems using the latest technology found only in the F-35." "I hope that by playing in this world, you will be able to experience the fun and difficulty of flying. The VRchat aviation community has developed from Sacc's Flight and Vehicles [Prefab] to include acrobatic teams, battles in science fiction worlds, and many other fields. I'm very happy to see that many VRchatters are interested in airplanes, as I was too. I look forward to the further development of the aviation community in VRchat." About the Writer Aaron "Ribbon-Blue" Mendoza Co-founder of Skyward Flight Media. A lifelong aviation enthusiast with a special interest in flight simulators and games. After founding Electrosphere.info, the first English Ace Combat database, he has been involved in creating aviation related websites, communities, and events since 2005. He continues to explore past and present flight games and sims with his extensive collection of game consoles and computers. | Twitter | Discord: RibbonBlue#8870 |

Hello, Thank you for your interest in Skyward Flight Media and supporting us. Starting in January 2021, we have created a Ko‑fi account for viewers that would like to back us financially. First, we think it is important that we take a look at how Skyward came to be. Our core team was initially active under the name Project Lighthouse (2017-2019). What had started as a group of international Ace Combat fans writing about their beloved series began to evolve into something beyond focusing on a specific aviation game series. Following our interview with Ace Combat series brand director Kazutoki Kono and covering the launch weekend of Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown at PAX South 2019, we felt inspired to go for something more significant. But to achieve that, we felt as though the way to branch out beyond our single series focus and open possibilities for future ventures was to rebrand. This is how Skyward Flight Media came to be. Following our rebrand in March 2020, we have elevated our content frequency and variety to levels we did not reach during our first years of operation. Today our content includes interviews with developers and other creators, thoughtful pieces on current and retro aviation games, reviews of software/hardware, and many other different and unique articles about digital aviation as a whole. As we continue to expand both our content and viewership, supporting us through Ko‑fi is one of a few ways you can help support our efforts. Funds gathered via Ko‑fi will be used for website operations and efforts to expand our variety of content. For example, one of our main goals this year is the start of video creation efforts. From simple recordings to more elaborate videos on topics that deserve them. We would like to make clear that none of our primary content will ever be locked behind a paywall. It will always be accessible for you; be it one of our articles, reviews or our videos. We might create some secondary content for our backers but that content will never detract or reduce the quality of our primary content. Thank you for your interest and consideration.

As you might have seen, we always like decorating the aircraft that we fly with the colors of this website. Our co-founder, Cubeboy, started making them as soon as the website became public, two of these have been available to download for quite a while now. We would like to present something that we have been wanting to do for quite a while now but haven't gotten to it due to time constraints. More DCS World liveries! They are still only for the F/A-18C Hornet and F-16C Viper modules, but they have now been overhauled. The designs are pretty similar but now they come in three flavors which should make it easier for you to use them with your friends. We now include more military-oriented designs with Cube's spin like the use of dark blue instead of Air Superiority Gray (ASG), if you want to download them, they are publicly available right now: Here are a couple of screenshots of each so you can judge them yourself, more screenshots are available by clicking the button above which redirects you to the download page. 1. Airshow and Original F/A-18C Skyward CAG Original F-16C Skyward Airshow Livery 2. High visibility/CAG bird-style F/A-18 Skyward CAG New F-16C Skyward CAG New 3. Low Visibility F/A-18 Skyward Low-Vis F-16C Skyward Low-Vis

With 95 posts published to our website which is around double of what we managed to put out in 2020, media partnership with Flight Sim Expo, sponsorship from Fox 3 Managed Solutions and our ever expanding coverage of flight games and simulators, 2021 was an immensely productive year for Skyward Flight Media. Our end of year video shows some of these highlights and gives a glimpse into our flying adventures this year, with what we feel were some of the most significant titles we touched upon. We are feeling confident as we look forward and want to push things even further. Happy Holidays, Happy New Year and see you in 2022! Regards, Skyward Flight Media Staff

Skyward Flight Media is excited to announce our official sponsorship with Fox 3 Managed Solutions (Fox 3 MS) for our Digital Combat Simulator World server hosting needs. While this sponsorship opportunity is brand new, one of the Skyward co-founders has privately used Fox 3 MS services since July 2021 as an everyday paying customer. Skyward has accepted the sponsorship offer because of this positive and unbiased experience. Fox 3 Managed Solutions is staffed by individuals with over 30 years of tech industry experience and countless hours in Digital Combat Simulator World. The result is a company specializing in hosting DCS servers from the point of view of people that fly in DCS World and are familiar with what is required for a stable server experience. Fox 3 MS currently has data centers in Europe, North America, and the Asia Pacific region recently. Skyward first heard about Fox 3 Managed Solutions from a few Spudknocker videos. Before this, we searched for DCS World hosting services that were relatively easy to access. We had minimal experience with hosting and managing a server for this simulator. After ordering a subscription from Fox 3 MS, the company's co-owners began direct communication. Within less than 24 hours, the server was up and running without the customer needing to lift a finger. Admittedly feeling a bit daunted by somehow messing something up, we found it easy just to ask questions and receive responses that were straight to the point and easy to understand. For example, after initially inquiring about how to upload missions to the server and run them, one of the Fox 3 MS owners did a brief screen sharing session to demonstrate a few things. Besides that, the staff has assisted us with answers or video demonstrations with even our most minor questions and hypothetical scenarios. The Skyward team has operated the DCS server with little to no assistance from Fox 3 MS staff for months now. A testament to how accessible they've made things. Customer service wise the past five months have been smooth sailing. We've had two to three short periods of downtime, each lasting a few minutes, throughout our Fox 3 Managed Solutions servers subscription. These disruptions were caused by an open beta patch being in the middle of a download, a slight hiccup at one of their data centers that was resolved just by rebooting the server, and a self-made error caused by one of our staff members changing a mission while using an unstable mobile connection. When talking about hosting services in general, these downtime instances are hardly worth mentioning. After reading the documentation and understanding the user flow, uploading a mission and running it on one of their DCS servers takes no more than a few minutes. Switching missions already uploaded to the server is as simple as clicking "run" on the desired mission and giving it a minute or two to start up. Users can upload third-party mods, support Liberation Missions, Tacview, and LotATC with Simple Radio Standalone (SRS) added as a default to all of their server plans. Skyward has used our server for many things so far. Photo and video shoots for content creation, running open-ended PVE missions with friends, training sorties for players new to DCS World, experienced players wanting to practice in a controlled environment, and sharing server time with mutual friend groups. The capacity to have private and semi-public sessions in DCS World has been helpful in ways we did not expect. While we choose to use a smaller service plan for our needs, Fox 3 MS has more extensive server options for communities of all sizes. There are also extended services for livery uploads and one-time event servers. For more information on all of their services and what's possible with their servers, we recommend visiting their website or sending an email to talk server details and capabilities that may suit your exact needs. In the future, Skyward Flight Media will continue using the stable servers of Fox 3 Managed Solutions for our DCS World content creation and operations. We would like to thank Fox 3 Managed Solutions for this opportunity and their services.

We would like to thank everyone who has followed us on Twitter, regardless if you have been following us since the Project Lighthouse days or if you just followed us recently. As Twitter is our main way to interact and grow, we really appreciate the fact that we have now reached 4,000 followers. It might not sound like much in a world where some individuals and groups have hundreds of thousands if not millions of followers, but for us it means a lot. The more people that know about and care for flight games as a whole, the better! Here's to more. To celebrate this milestone, Santiago (Cubeboy) created the skin below: If you would like a copy of this fancy A-4E aircraft livery for yourself, please message us via direct message on Twitter, Discord, website form or to our email (staff@skywardfm). It's free, of course. 4K Follower September 2021 Giveaway in Planning Phase Additionally, we will most likely be doing another giveaway in September 2021. Keep your eyes peeled for that! Aesthetic and QoL Improvements for the Website By now you must have noticed that the website has received an aesthetic overhaul! Aaron (RibbonBlue) has been tweaking it here and there but the design is mostly final now. It should be easier now to find the content you come for thanks to a few key features. First, we're using lightboxes to bring users to see all of our tags and sort our content by the title of whichever flight game or sim you're interested in: Second, the related posts section being implemented at the foot of every blog post allowing you to jump in and read articles related to the one you were already reading. You have probably noticed it about the featured content section of our posts: Further more, the mobile version of the website has a quick access function to important website features, as shown below: We hope you like the new style and if you have any suggestions, let us know by contacting us on our About page or leaving us a message through Twitter. We take feedback into account for all of these changes.

From August 9th through August 16th, 2021, we will be having our second giveaway of the year. With Skyward Flight Media planning to creating content about Microsoft Flight Simulator this year, we are now offering two winners the chance to win either a copy of Microsoft Flight Simulator: Standard Edition (any platform) or a single (1) DCS World module (any platform). This giveaway follows our standard social media format of following us on Twitter and liking the giveaway Tweet below:

Hello everyone, First of all we wanted to thank everyone for their support throughout this year of operations. It has been truly amazing to see the reception that some of our articles have had. We are just over a week away from our one year anniversary. It’s an important date for us for various reasons. As a part of our celebration, we are formally announcing our first giveaway of 2021. And it’s a big one at that! The giveaway This time around we wanted to focus our giveaway on one of the simulators that has propelled us forward, DCS World. The following prizes can be for users on either the standalone launcher or Steam versions of DCS World, so don’t worry about which version you are playing. There will be a total of four (4) winners. The prizes will be as follows: Two winners will win one (1) campaign of their choice (each) from the following list: Raven One, Resolve 79', Horrido!, Blue Nosed B., Serpent's Head, Sky Warrior, Zone 5, Red Flag 21-1, Agg. BFM, Enemy Within. One winner will win a medium prize consisting of a DCS map of their choosing. One winner will win the grand prize: an aircraft module of their choosing with a custom livery of their choosing, made by Cubeboy, our content director. How to enter From March 15th to March 23rd, 2021, any of our viewers that follow us on Twitter and like this Tweet will be eligible to win one of four possible prizes related to Digital Combat Simulator World. The tweet below is the Tweet we are referring to: Winners On March 24th, 2021, the day of our anniversary, the four (4) winners will be selected randomly from this Tweet and their Twitter names will be announced on both social media and our website. Each winner will be contacted via direct message from our official @SkywardFM account to then discuss prizes and how to deliver their prize to them. We hope that you have enjoyed this year of Skyward, there is plenty more to come. Let’s keep flying skywards and enjoying our hobbies the best we can.

Thank you for visiting us as we celebrate one year of operations! Though our roots can be traced back many years, this day marks the first full year we've been in operation as Skyward Flight Media. Our love of aviation anywhere it can be found drove us not only to become who we are today but also to diversify the content we've been creating. It is because of the support we receive from all of you that we've been able to continue forward. Whether it's social media interaction, viewing our content or even contributing to our Ko-fi - we appreciate it all! With one solid year behind us, we continue skyward into our second year with more confidence than we've ever had before. Giveaway Winners The highlight of our first anniversary is without a doubt our first giveaway. For those that are interested, we used the Google Random Number Generator to select the winners for this giveaway. For example: if number 12 was selected by the generation we then opened the list of likes on the giveaway post, counted 12 names from the top downwards and the 12th person received the prize. Here are the Twitter handles of the winners: @chamchullo - 1st Campaign Winner @QuiquagMC - 2nd Campaign Winner @mwd222 - DCS Map @SS2Maximilian - DCS Module with Custom Livery These people will be contacted via Twitter direct message to begin the process of selecting and delivering their prizes to them. Though our first giveaway is focused on Digital Combat Simulator World, our future giveaways will most likely be more diverse. Look forward to them! DCS F/A-18C Skyward Livery Available for Download As seen in some of our reviews, Tweets and website banners, Skyward has a growing number of DCS World skins that we use for promotional purposes. This year we plan on releasing them for public use. The first of the liveries made available is for the DCS: F/A-18C Hornet. This skin was made by Cubeboy, our Content Director. Download it and future skins from our new DCSWorld Liveries page in our downloads section. Information about the upcoming DCS skins for release and other downloads will be announced ahead of time. Media and Official Accounts Starting in April 2021 we'll be posting more video, screenshots and gifs using our accounts on the following platforms: Twitter, YouTube, and Imgur. We also have a Facebook account on standby but it is not active at this time. Our front page and contact page will be updated to reflect these and begin showing updates from these accounts soon. Future Giveaways and Other Feedback In the next few weeks we'll be putting up some polls and gathering feedback on a variety of things, including giveaways, the type of content viewers would like to see and more. 1st Anniversary Social Media Banners For posterity, here are the banners we used on our Twitter page during the lead up to this day. And finally, thanks once again for all the support we receive. Here's to another year!

As part of the Steam Game Festival: Summer Edition event going on right now, tons of upcoming games have released demos so that people can check them out. I happened to stumble upon Balsa Model Flight Simulator and decided to see how it played. So what is Balsa Model Flight Simulator? From the game's Steam page: "Balsa is a detailed Model Flight Simulator with a powerful editor where you can design, build, fly, and battle with model aircraft. Developed by the creator of Kerbal Space Program, Balsa is a virtual flight experience like no other." So, think Kerbal Space Program, but instead of building your very own aerospace vehicles, you are building and flying your very own model RC planes. The Workshop The workshop is where you go to build your plane. I have not played Kerbal Space Program, but I have played SimplePlanes, and the building mechanics are similar. You have a library of parts organized by categories like fuselages, cockpits, engines, etc. and they’re drag and drop. “Nodes” on the parts automatically align with each other so they can snap on easily, and various options for symmetry and angle snapping are also available at the top of the screen to make your life easier. Positional fine-tuning is also available with the offset and rotate tools. And once everything is finished, you can paint your plane with a variety of solid colors. There are only a limited amount of parts available in the demo version, but parts like some fuselages and wings are customizable, so you can adjust the parameters for these by right-clicking them. However, the parameters are displayed as percentage values from a scale of 0 to 100 so the amount that you can modify them is pretty limited. Additionally, it makes it difficult to determine or specify certain design parameters, so if you want a specific wing sweep or span, you can only really do it by moving the camera around and checking to see if it looks right with relation to the rest of the plane. This would be problematic if you were recreating a real aircraft since there are no rulers or protractors to check if the dimensions are correct. Personally, I think they should have a system where you can input exact values instead of using percent values. It’s a little hard to see here, but I had to use two wing sections to create what I needed, and lining them up was pretty tedious. To enable powered flight, you have to select a motor, propeller, and a battery. Placing these items inside the plane is enabled by toggling the internal view switch. Having built a few RC planes in the past, I knew the importance of placing components in the right place so that the center of mass (CoM) was forward of the center of lift so that the plane has positive stability. The workshop actually has three tools that show you the CoM, center of thrust, and pitch stability. Since there is no indicator for center of lift, the CoM tool isn’t all that helpful, but the pitch stability tool is really nice once you understand how to use it. This tool shows up as a curved ruler in front of the plane and shows the restorative forces at different angles of attack, and you can check how these forces change with speed as well. Generally, you want there to be a blue profile on the forward part of the ruler that curves gradually towards the middle. This will give you a stable airplane, and I used this to fine-tune the position of my wings, control surfaces, and internals. This is a great tool, and I hope they add more things like this for the roll and yaw as well. Overall, it’s a solid builder with some quirks here and there. Sometimes I would have trouble moving parts exactly where I wanted them to go, but the offset and rotate tools solved those issues. There were some occasions where my mouse and buttons stopped working and I couldn’t manipulate anything, but leaving the workshop and coming back solved those. Since the game is in early access, it’s understandable for bugs to exist, and I expect these to be fixed when the game actually releases. Some features that I would love to see added are values for engine power and weight of parts/whole aircraft since there is no way to determine the power to weight ratio at the moment other than flying and seeing how it performs. Flight Model and Physics Once you have a plane built, or you just want to test how it flies, you can hit the green “Go!” button. You have to manually turn on the engine, pick up the plane, and throw it by increasing throttle and releasing. However, the default control scheme has you using the A/D buttons as yaw and Q/E buttons for roll, which was counter intuitive for me, so I had to change the bindings in the settings. While we’re on the topic of controls, the game seems to support most controllers with Xinput. There was an option to bind controls to an Xbox controller, and I tested out my Thrustmaster T.16000 joystick with no problems. I have also been told that other people that have RC transmitters with USB connections used those to control their planes, so that’s pretty neat as well. For controlling the plane, you get the option of a third-person chase view with the option to move the camera around, or a first-person view from the ground with the transmitter in your hands. The flight model seems to be very much a work in progress. Pitch behavior seems to be fine, but the plane behaves weirdly in the roll and yaw directions in my experience. The planes I created were low-wing monoplanes, so naturally I gave them dihedral so that the plane would roll back to a neutral state automatically. In Balsa however, if I roll 10 degrees, the plane remains glued at 10 degrees until I roll the plane manually. On the other hand, giving any yaw input resulted in the plane shaking side to side and yawing a tiny bit while rolling in that direction. It was almost like the plane had a rubber band tied down its length, and would resist moving in the direction you wanted it to go. The Steam page for the game boasts a “physics-based flight model,” so I really hope they fix these in the final game. One thing that seems to be working realistically is the damage model. Clipping or crashing into the buildings/the ground will result in the propeller snapping off, control surfaces flying off, etc. Hit things hard enough and your entire fuselage might break apart! Fortunately, you can easily recover the plane and try again, or go back into the workshop to make changes. However, crashing too hard causes some bugs like your wreckage bouncing up and down uncontrollably or going under the map. Again, they are likely working on fixing these bugs and I hope the physics engine is modified so that the plane performs more realistically. Final Thoughts Balsa Model Flight Simulator has a lot of things to work on, but I believe it has great potential. Even as an early access demo with some bugs and graphical issues, there are solid mechanics for building and testing planes, and I can’t wait to see the other features listed on their site such as modding support, a single-player career mode, and online paintball dogfights, just to name a few. I definitely will be keeping an eye on this, and since it will be coming to Steam Early Access sometime this summer, I recommend checking out their demo while you still can during the Steam Game Festival. Check out their Steam page here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/977920/Balsa_Model_Flight_Simulator/

2 months ago, I got to try out the demo for Balsa Model Flight Simulator and had a pretty fun time. (check out the first impressions piece for the demo here!) This time, I got to play around with the more feature-rich beta. Here are my thoughts on the content and some things I would like to see going forward. NEW CONTENT One thing that immediately caught my eye was the addition of 3 more maps to fly around in: Glider's Cay is a small island with a large hill that's perfect for testing glider designs; Wirraway Bay was in the demo, and has a nice urban port surrounded by some mountains; Weatherfall Islands is a wide-open arctic map with some neat icebergs; and Rovin Harbor is a large city which allows for some challenging urban flying. I personally liked Weatherfall Islands since it feels vast and some of the icebergs have natural arches/holes to fly through and do stunts around. I appreciated the variety in the landscapes and scenery in these maps and hope to see more in the future. Another new feature was the addition of action figures. I think these are meant to be collectibles that are unlocked in the Career Mode, but they are available for any scenario. Though they look really cartoon-ish, you can add them to your plane (as long as you added seats) to give a sense of scale for your plane and really bring your creations to life. I think the best feature of these action figures is that they allow you to fly your plane in first person view. Since there are small cameras and FPV goggle kits that people add to their RC planes in real life, I think this is a really neat feature, and is especially useful for dogfighting. Also as a nice touch, the player model sports FPV goggles whenever an action figure is added to the plane. Speaking of dogfighting, there beta officially added parts for weapons. Well, they're paintball guns, but they're pretty satisfying to fire. There are two types of guns so far, the hard-hitting "Thud" cannon and the fast-firing "Hailstorm" that deals less damage. Each pod has 58 and 240 rounds respectively, and though the "Hailstorm" is technically weaker, I prefer it over the "Thud" since that fast fire rate allows for more hits against nimble RC planes. Learn to aim it well and it can deal critical damage to enemies. Just be aware that these pods are pretty heavy, and will affect the center of mass and performance of your plane. The game also allows you to create weapon groups, so in case your plane can carry both kinds of guns, you could map your keys in a way that allows you to fire the different gun pods separately or together. Interestingly enough, you can place these pods so that they're entirely hidden inside your aircraft and still be able to shoot paintballs, almost as if they phase through your airplane. Not sure if this is a bug, but it's something that I personally think the game should keep as is, since it allows your aircraft to look cleaner. Now, if there were some targets to shoot at... Thankfully, there are some new "Scenarios" added in addition to the free flight mode for each map, and these are "Free for All," "PvE Combat," and "Team PvP Combat." In these modes, the map is populated by AI planes that you can use as target practice. For the combat modes, you choose a team and attempt to shoot down enemy planes. If the enemy crashes or gets shot down, they lose a point, and vice versa. The team that reaches zero first is then defeated. Since I couldn't find people online, I didn't really play the PvP mode that much, but it seemed identical to the PvE mode except that actual players can join the enemy team. I didn't play long enough to see what the ultimate result screen looks like, but you can have some good fun and learn how to aim the guns. In terms of on-screen information, a reticle is displayed in front of your plane in third person view if you have guns installed, but for first person, you'll need to equip the gun reticle part in the cockpit. Enemies also have brackets around them that makes spotting easier, and the plane name and their distance away from you are displayed as well. All in all, these are some pretty fun, laid-back modes. NEW MODES There were two new modes added to the beta: Career mode Online mode. The online mode allows players to host lobbies for up to 16 people, though you can limit the maximum amount of players when setting up a room. The game also allows you to name and add descriptions to rooms so people know what to expect. I would've liked to test for any connection issues, but sadly no one was on when I was playing around. The career mode will be the bread and butter of the single player aspect of the game, and also serves as a tutorial. You start off in Glider's Cay and learn how to move around, pick up your glider, and throw it. As you get more used to the controls, the various events and missions ramp up in difficulty as you learn to pilot powered planes and practice taking off and landing on a runway. Each event also has optional objectives that allow you to get higher ranks. This nets you more "funds" which are used as in-game currency to buy planes, action figures, and unlock new maps which will let you fly in more events. This cycle of flying, getting funds, creating/buying more capable planes, and flying in even more challenging missions is really fun, and the sense of progression you get is pretty satisfying. I wasn't able to progress too far the career mode, but I'm excited to see what they will add in the future. One thing that I think would be a cool addition is monthly limited-time events or challenges when the game goes live to keep players coming back. I hear a race mode will be added down the line, so I'm excited for that. One thing to note, all parts are available for you to use when creating planes in the workshop and making the planes themselves are free. However, in order to be able to fly them, you will need to purchase the aircraft. Be aware the more complicated/more parts your plane has, the more funds you will need to be able to buy it. Each part has an associated cost that is listed when you're building, so keep your eye on that. You can go back and edit vehicles that you have already purchased, but be aware that if you add more parts, the cost will increase. WORKSHOP Now let's see if there were any changes to the other core aspects of the game. The one thing I really wanted from the demo was improved aerodynamic stability tools, and the beta did a great job of implementing them. You now have indicators for both the center of mass and center of lift, which gives you a much better idea on the stability of the plane you're building. When used with the stability graph at different airspeeds, you can determine the overall pitch behavior of the aircraft without leaving the workshop to flight test it. Here, you can see how the center of lift changes vectors at different airspeeds, along with how unstable the design is with the stability graph. The orange indicates that the plane wants to diverge from the direction of flight, which in this case is desirable since the X-02S Strike Wyvern is supposed to be highly maneuverable at lower speeds. Along with all of these changes, the mass of certain parts seemed to have been reworked as well, since the position of the batteries affect the center of mass MUCH more than they did in the demo. Since batteries tend to be one of the more heavier items in an RC plane, I'm really glad they fixed this. Speaking of batteries, the beta also added a "Connect" tool that visualizes and how the electrical/power components are hooked up and allows you to edit these connections. This was also a nice addition since a major part of RC plane building is determining the optimal way to connect all of your components. Of course, it's much more complex in real life, with having to acquire the right connectors, using batteries with the correct voltage, etc. but it's still nice that there is a tool that emulates this. The workshop tool automatically connects the parts together, but you have the option of changing this if you desire. For example, my X-02S has the batteries and motors connected in serial, but I can choose to have one battery powering each motor separately. After all of this tinkering, it would be nice if you could give your plane a fancy paint job... Oh, the beta added decals? Nice! The workshop now features a "Decals" tab, and at least in my testing, seems to let you add as many decals as you want. Combined with the "Paint" tab, you can create some really flashy liveries. There are numbers, letters, and various icons that you can rotate, scale, and change color however you see fit and lets your creativity run wild. The decals also don't seem to affect the cost of your airplane, so that's a nice feature. One thing I would like to see is some sort of text box editor, since at the moment you have to move and place each letter separately, and could get time consuming. FLIGHT MODEL I wasn't too impressed with the flight model in the demo, and it doesn't seem to have changed much in this beta since I'm still seeing some stiff yaw and roll movements as well as some violent shaking on occasion. The X-02S I made isn't the most stable thing, I get that, but I don't think the plane should be moving like this when all I'm doing is pitching up at an angle: Even in more stable aircraft, there is a weird wobbling going on, especially at higher speeds. I know the aerodynamic forces and physics on RC planes are vastly different than on full-scale aircraft, but it's not quite right yet. Really hope they adjust the flight model or physics of the game so things don't feel so shaky. It doesn't have to be perfect, but as long as the stiff yaw and roll reactions are fixed, I'll be happy. Other than that, the flight model is fine. CONCLUSION All in all, I had an really enjoyable time with the Balsa beta. The new additions like the career mode and workshop tools worked well for me and and made me excited for the full game. There are still some kinks in the flight model and physics that I would like to see fixed, and some other changes like replacing percentage sliders with actual measurements in the workshop, but I'm sure those will be addressed. I'm definitely excited to see how this game evolves! If you're interested in this game and want to support it, I recommend wishlisting on Steam since it's supposed to be released as early access soon. Writer: TaskForce23

Today at Flight Sim Expo 2021, Nicki Repenning, CEO and Founder of Honeycomb Aeronautical, announced a couple of new pieces of hardware. Aside from their standard civilian-focused gear, some of these announcements are in a completely different side of flight simulation and represent their entry into different markets. Civilian Focused Hardware A new series of hardware named Alpha-Bravo-Charlie (ABC) which consists of three separate pieces of gear that go together, these are: Alpha Flight Controls XPC: Center Console for Bravo Throttle Quadrant: Charlie Rudder Pedals: And lastly, a civilian focused HOTAS system: Tango Foxtrot XPC. Sigma Tau: First Entry into Military Simulation But there was one announcement which were extremely important for Honeycomb Aeronautical, which is the announcement of their entry into military flight simulation with the Sigma Tau HOTAS. This system was only teased but some of their expectations for the product and believed that it "would have incredible functionality that has never been done. Technology used that has never been done on flight sticks, military or civilian[...]" . Honeycomb expects that the stick would be ready by Q1 2022 and the Throttle quadrant by Q2 2022, so keep an eye out for those. More information on this product will be available later this weekend. Force Feedback Inquiry Late in the presentation, Aaron “Ribbon-Blue” Mendoza of Skyward Flight Media asked if, “future Honeycomb military flight sim hardware products will have force feedback to provide tactile information to the pilot?” According to Nicki Repenning, the company is working on force feedback products. However, Honeycomb’s philosophy is that everything has to be affordable. Currently the cheapest force feedback yoke on the market is around $1300 USD. Honeycomb is working to get a force feedback product into the market below $500 USD, but it is very difficult. Precision Flight Controls, now a development partner with Honeycomb Aeronautical, are leading experts in this field. Precision Flight Controls is far along and Nicki Repenning hopes that Honeycomb can announce a product “before Christmas” with a timeline for production. Xbox Hub: Expanding Hardware Compatibility to Xbox Game Consoles Though this blurry picture from the Alpha Flight Control XPC slide doesn't seem impressive, its maximum potential more than makes up for it. The second most interesting announcement from today's presentation was the development of an "Xbox Hub". It is described as a hub that enables players and pilots to use non-Xbox certified products on Xbox game consoles. Examples of supported products mentioned are Honeycomb Aeronautical's Bravo throttle quadrant and soon to be released Charlie rudder pedals. Furthermore, a partnership with Logitech will also allow their USB throttle quadrants and USB rudder pedals to be compatible through the Xbox Hub and through the Alpha flight controls XPC which will then be recognizable by the game console. Nicki Repenning explains that this partnership between the two companies was forged to bring more affordable solutions and different price levels that people can afford into the market. The result is more choices for flight simmers on game consoles as well. Thanks for reading our coverage of Flight Sim Expo 2021 Day 1. More to come. Article written by Aaron "Ribbon-Blue" Mendoza and Santiago "Cubeboy" Cuberos

New lore material was released along with the 1:144 scale ADFX-10F model kit by Kotobukiya on March 26, 2020. What new information did Project Aces include about the enemy we fight in Mission 10 of Ace Combat 7? Let's find out. The ADFX-10F is a large fighter that served as a test platform for the Gründer I.G. “ADF-11F Raven.” Its nickname is “Prototype Raven.” The EASA (Erusean Air and Space Administration) defined the concept of “ultimate survivability” for the new aircraft in the ADF series which would be categorized as seventh generation fighters, and planned for the simultaneous development of an autonomous unmanned model as well as a manned model. These aircraft were developed at an EASA test site in eastern Usea as a testbed for evaluating weapons that could be used by the unmanned aircraft as well as the attachment/detachment mechanism with the large wing unit (RAW-F). Only a small number of them were built. The ADFX-10 refers to the nose unit itself, and is structured in a way that by equipping the F-type wing unit (RAW-F), it becomes a fighter. This system, which allows for the selection and installation of different types of wing units that correspond to the operation, is designed to give the aircraft multi-purpose capabilities on the battlefield. Additionally, the nose unit has a mechanism that allows it to become a small fighter that can fly independently by extending the strakes and using them as wings in an emergency. This feature was devised so that if the aircraft took considerable damage, the wing unit could be detached and [the nose unit] could fly away to safer areas at the back [of the combat zone] to prevent the loss of the combat AI’s accumulated experience. For this reason, [the nose unit] only has simple skids for the landing gear. This aircraft was specialized as an autonomous unmanned craft, and in order to demonstrate its ability to use weapons in conditions where it is maneuvering rapidly, the nose unit had an autocannon as fixed armament and highly maneuverable missiles were installed in the internal weapon bays and underwing pylons on the wing unit. The nose is equipped with a radar and infrared searching equipment for the fire control system, and the entire airframe is given a smart skin. The objective for this aircraft was to obtain data about its maneuverability and its flight controls when separating [from the wing unit], so it does not have features like the exterior composite optical sensors, high power tactical laser, and pulse laser system present on its evolution, the ADF-11F. Nevertheless, in a simulated air battle, it shot down 10 MQ-99 combat drones in 2 minutes by itself, showing that a new generation of drones had arrived. “Z.O.E.,” an artificial intelligence development program created by Gründer I.G. was utilized for this aircraft, and emphasis was placed on the implementation of a learning-type control AI. This is a self-growth program that uses deep learning mainly on actual flight/combat data collected from human pilots to formulate aircraft controls and actions that are more suited for drones. As a result, it possesses exceptional maneuverability and outstanding capabilities for executing operations autonomously. From a security point of view, the accumulated combat data is not transmitted via normal tactical data links, and is only transmitted to specific milli-wave antennas installed at air and communications bases. In August 2019, some aircraft that were conducting test flights at the EASA test site crashed and were lost due to an Osean Air Defense Force reconnaissance attack in the skies above Borgo dell'Est in eastern Usea. About the Translator TaskForce 23 Japanese Translator with Skyard Flight Media and fan of all things aviation. #PurdueEngineering alum. Shares birthday with AWACS SkyEye. 日本人ですが英語の方が楽です。無言フォロー失礼します。| Twitter |

On March 26th, 2020, Famtisu aired the Ace Combat 25th Anniversary livestream featuring Kazutoki Kono the (brand director of the Ace Combat Series) and Manabu Shimomoto (Producer for Ace Combat 7). Kazutoki Kono is now infamous for the slides he brings with him to these kinds of livestreams, which include inside jokes and memes. Since Kono makes these himself and no one at Project Aces reviews these prior to being shown, it provides quite the entertainment for all involved. This time was no different. Let’s take a deeper look at what he created this time. Here’s just a generic Bandai Namco logo, but Kono begins by saying the all-too familiar phrase heard in Japanese television: “This program has been brought to you by the following sponsor(s),” and introduces Bandai Namco Entertainment. Here he congratulates the team on their coming 25th anniversary by showing the Project Aces logo. This image was actually tweeted by him when he wished everyone a happy new year. This Mizuhiki style of decoration is often used for celebrations. Pretty wholesome so far. And the fun begins. Kono starts talking about their “brand,” but shows this slide real quick before moving on to the Ace Combat slide. This is probably just a personal joke by Kono, but this is a mosquito repellant called “Earth Nomat.” In Japanese it sounds more like “Ahce no-matto,” and is basically a terrible pun for “Ace Combat.” The Ace Combat series, which has a history spanning 25 years. In 1995, the household game software “Ace Combat (or Air Combat)” was released, which would become the first in the series. With the arrival of the newest work “Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown” in 2019, a total of 13 games were/are being circulated worldwide. Nothing too crazy here. Although I do find it funny that Assault Horizon is included. The “Weight” of 25 years Here, Kono expressed that he wanted the fans and people to understand the “weight” of 25 years, and what that means. Getting pretty philosophical now. Kono calls the aircraft in the first slide here the XF-2, since that’s one of the liveries of the F-2 prototypes. He says, “what 25 years means is that this boy....turns into this, it grows up into this” and shows the production F-2. Shimomoto interrupts, saying “most of your point isn’t getting across...” since a lot of people don’t know the development history/timeline of this plane. However, Kono pushes on and we see Wiseman saying, “not bad” before moving rapidly to the next slide. Here, Kono explains that this is a spreadsheet that sums the total amount of seconds since the launch of the first Ace Combat and up to the date of the 25th anniversary, and how he made Shimomoto put this together the previous night. Classic Kono, bullying poor Shimomoto again. 25 years = 791,510,400 seconds The total is shown here which amounts to a massive 791.5 million seconds. Kono then takes this number and puts it into the mission timer of Ace Combat 7’s Pipeline Destruction, and we see that this is equivalent to 13191838 hours. Interesting to see how much time can be set for these missions. When asked how he did this, Kono said he “borrowed” the company’s assets and laughed. He also hypothesizes that the “very easy mode” for upcoming Ace Combat games would look something like this. Maybe newcomers won’t be too pressured by the almost lack of a time limit? Who knows. Your hypothesis is trash Just Alex bashing Kono’s hypothesis. Very appropriate and hilarious. “Jpeg Dog” makes a quick appearance here for no reason, but who doesn’t like a good boy? The doggo shows up later in the slide show as well. The “Weight” of 25 years We come back to this slide as Kono tries to get serious again and get back on topic on the weight of 25 years and how he wants to properly convey that to us. He mentions that he created a diagram to show how long 25 years is as well. The magnificence of Ace Combat’s continuation during these 25 years, in other words, a “quarter of a century” By rephrasing 25 years to “a quarter of a century,” the incredible scale and history of the franchise can be felt. It’s kind of crazy to think about, and gives us a neat perspective here. And the jokes return in this timeline. At the top we see Kono’s supposed lifespan, reaching 100 years in age, followed by a darker arrow labeled “sublimation” extending way into the future (AC3 fans rejoice!). The big dark red arrow says “25 years” and shows the time between the first Ace Combat and 7. What’s utterly hilarious is the inclusion of the arrow extending into the future with “Ace Combat 14: Galaxy Sky” slated for release in 2045 and “Ace Combat 21: The Cheating Ace that Saves an Alternate World Has to be a Novice!” coming in 2071. Honestly sounds like a light novel I would read. But c’mon people, that’s 7 numbered Ace Combat games every 25 years! There could even be more like X or something for the Switch! Anyway, incredible memeing from Kono. But the fun continues. Below the big arrows is Shimomoto’s lifespan, where Kono explains that in 2~3 years, Shimomoto will get digitized and will be used for sublimation experiments. However, apparently those experiments fail and he does not get to live as long as everyone else, while the technology for sublimation improves and Kono reaps the benefits. Does Kono have something against Shimomoto? Either way, this is really funny. The last one is of an “Ace Combat Girl” named Koma-chan born in 1995, and is the same age as the franchise. I couldn’t hear exactly what Kono said, but the whole point of this timeline is to show how long 25 years is in an amusing way. Don’t you see Kono just showing off the Line stickers at this point and memeing with them gloriously. Don’t you see? The power of 25 years! The “Weight” of 25 years / The magnificence of Ace Combat’s continuation during these 25 years, in other words, a “quarter of a century” And after another round of joking and admitting that we probably don’t understand what he’s getting at, Kono says he has another diagram prepared. Oh god, what could it be? This one’s quite a doozy. Basically it outlines major events such as when Project Aces was established (Between 04 & 5), when core members like Kono, Kanno (Art Director), Itomi (Narrative Director), Shimomoto, Katabuchi etc. joined the team, what projects they were involved in and so on. There are however, some interesting anecdotes hidden here. For AC2 (in red), we see a “Kono & Kanno Loop Hell” where Kono wanted one thing, but Kanno went ahead and changed stuff on his own resulting in a constant cycle of fighting and lead to a development nightmare. This seems to be a constant theme for any Ace Combat game. For AC5’s development (in green) we see something similar with “Katabuchi & Kono Loop Hell” where the constant back-and-forth between the two were well known when creating 5’s story and missions. The one in orange is intriguing to me because Masahide Kito, who headed the plot of the AC7 DLC missions is listed in a “100 [air]craft incident.” Kito himself said he would explain on twitter later, so I’m going to keep an eye on that. This portion takes the cake for me. Listed here are Ace Combat Advance (for the GameBoy Advanced), Ace Combat Xi: Skies of Incursion (iOS), and Ace Combat Northern Wings (mobile) which Project Aces didn’t have a hand in at all. Kono marked them “what is this incident 1~3,” comments “what?” for Advance and Northern Wings, and his comment on Xi seems to indicate only one person was involved in making it. I know some people who like these games maybe even unironically, so that’s a nice addition. Well done Some kind words from Wiseman as Kono self-congratulates himself for creating that masterpiece of a timeline. So here’s a question Nice to see some more characters in the Line sticker lineup. How was Ace Combat able to continue during these 25 years, or “quarter of a century” Kono seems to return to the topic asking the members in the stream, “what do you think is the reason this series has lasted this long.” Shimomoto answers, “well of course of all the people who have supported us along the way,” and Kono nods, but... Control Tower Ah yes, Kono’s satirical self-flattery strikes again. The supreme leader who controls everything! Oh wait, oops! Quick, get JPEG Dog out! Ah yes, just a good boi here, nothing to see How was Ace Combat able to continue during these 25 years, or “quarter of a century” Back on track, things get serious and wholesome as of course, the real reason Ace Combat has made it this far is the unwavering support of all the fans. Here we see some familiar faces like Acepedia and Ace Combat Fan! It was because of all of the fans’ continued support Thank you for all that you have done! We’re really grateful! And some more nice gestures from Kono. You can tell he made this one because of the flankers. Kono really loves his Sukhois. Come on damn it! Oh hello. Kono called this a “reward” because he liked it and felt others would too. I mean, he’s not wrong... And now, this spring, Riku, thank you very much! We appreciate what you did! Another nice gesture by Kono. Riku Suzuki had been supporting the team with promoting the games from before the release of Ace Combat 7, but “graduated” in March and will be leaving the team. Therefore, Kono prepared some slides of gratitude. Riku was also in the studio at the time so it really was wholesome. Adios, you damn fool Mission complete, RTB And finally he showed off some more Line stickers appropriate for the setting. Man I’m really thinking about buying these but I don’t have anyone on Line that would understand them. :( Thus, another one of Kono’s presentations comes to an end. That did make for a good slide show. During the stream, Kono mentioned that he has more things that he would like to announce when the time is right and that he would like to come back to do more live streams with Famitsu, so hopefully we’ll see another entertaining set of slides in the future.

Scale Aviation is a visual bimonthly magazine for scale aircraft modelers. Volume 127, released in May 2019, features interviews centered around the virtual reality mode of Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown and details concerning the creation of its vehicle models. Those interviewed by Scale Aviation are Shōji Kawamori (anime creator, mecha designer, producer, screenwriter and visual artist), Masato Kanno (Ace Combat 7 art director) and Masanori Ninomiya (Ace Combat 7 lead mechanic artist). [Read More] Skyward Flight Media does not claim ownership of copyright of the source material used to create these translations.

The reoccurring series is getting a big push! Following the positive reception of the Creator Highlight series with our articles about the Flight Sim Historian and Requiem's Air Combat Tutorial Library, we have thought about what to do with this series. In January 2022, we are having our first ever Creator Highlight Month (CHM) to kick off a more consistent effort to write about aviation-focused content creators next year. During CHM we will have articles and interviews with a diverse group of people about their content creation efforts: RedKite: DCS focused content creator known for highly detailed tutorials. Sacchan: Lead developer of the VRChat aviation phenomenon. Shadé: Long-time machinima creator and complex aircraft designer in Besiege. Solutus Eversol: Ace Combat expert guiding viewers through its intricate lore. Spudknocker: DCS content creator producing tutorials, historical videos, large-scale community missions and more. Wolfpack345: Known for dogfights in the air and sea on IL-2, DCS and Silent Hunter 4 on Twitch and YouTube As we get closer to 2022, the date of our first CHM release will be announced. We would like to thank everyone we contacted for participating in our upcoming Creator Highlight Month!

The next addition to our expanding catalog of Skyward themed Digital Combat Simulator liveries is here! Our first two liveries for the F-14B Tomcat are now available! Our Tomcat liveries were created by Cubeboy. Our new Tomcat CAG bird includes original nose art made in collaboration by Cubeboy and Hueman, a member of our group. Furthermore, an update to the three existing F-16C 'Viper' liveries is also available. They now feature wonderful PW F100-220 engine textures by Mach3DS. Cubeboy did modify the inner part of the feathers to make them more weathered and made the textures a bit gold-ish to better reflect the look he wanted from the textures. We would like to extend our sincere thanks to Mach3DS for allowing us to use their excellent textures. Lastly, the F-16C liveries received a minor fix to its roughmets. This solved some reflection issues with the rescue decals and accompanying text. Skyward F-14B CAG Skyward F-14B Low-Vis Skyward F-16C Airshow (v2) Skyward F-16C High-Vis (v2) Skyward F-16C Low-Vis (v2) As always, our liveries are free to download. Click the red button below to see our livery downloads page.

Masato Kanno, the lead architect of the immersive and interactive sky found in Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown. Kanno gained new experience in the development of environments using Unreal Engine 4 and trueSKY while working on Ace Combat 7. Kanno provided a lecture at CEDEC 2019 (Computer Entertainment Developers Conference) on September 4th, 2019 which provided information about the sky, clouds, its impact on game environments, truSKY program data, and more. Materials from his presentation, "Regarding Ace Combat 7's Revolution of the Sky" are now available in English, thanks to the translation efforts on TaskForce 23 which have been confirmed as accurate by Kanno himself. [READ MORE] Skyward Flight Media does not claim ownership of copyright of the source material used to create these translations.

The time has come and winners have been selected! As always, the Google Random Number Generator was used to select the winners for this giveaway. The winners for this month's Twitter giveaway are: @Kiwicougar1 @MoosemermaidTV Skyward Flight Media would like to thank everyone that participated in our social media giveaway and helped spread the word to others to participate! The winners will be contacted soon to begin discussing their prize and how to deliver it to them.

Project ACES recently featured a special program where both old and young staff members reflected on 25 years of Ace Combat games, discussing the past, present, and future of the series. To spare the audience and myself from reading/translating the whole 1 hour+ transcript, I will just be doing an overview as well as point out things that I found interesting. Catch the program and follow along here: https://youtu.be/FA5RgsXHHWw Participants: MC: Aozora Sorano (Japanese idol with a name that literally translates to “Bluesky Skyfield.” Chosen since her name fits the series so well) MC: Manabu Shimomoto (Ace Combat 7 Producer) Kazutoki Kono (Ace Combat Series Brand Director) Masato Kanno (Ace Combat 7 Art Director) Kosuke Itomi (Ace Combat 7 Narrative Director) Takuya Iwasaki (CEO/Managing Director of ILCA Inc) Akira Yasui (Manager of game development at ILCA Inc) Makoto Sekiya (Producer at ILCA Inc) *The Ace Combat team had mentioned many times before that they had planned for celebrations during the actual 25th anniversary last year, but were hindered due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, events like the live orchestra concert were delayed to the so-called “25th anniversary overtime” in 2021. Ace Combat (Air Combat) Through Ace Combat 04 The program starts with a bit of a bombshell, with Sorano nonchalantly stating that in 2021, the series as a whole (and across various platforms) had shipped 17 million copies. How those 17 million is split between the games and whether that included Infinity is not revealed, but is still an impressive feat regardless. Sorano then introduces the first four games, giving a brief overview of the highlights of each game, similar to what was already covered in the Famitsu special last year. Iwasaki then reveals that he joined Namco at the same time as Kono, and participated in developing the first Ace Combat game as well as taking charge of game design for Ace Combat 2 and directing Ace Combat 3. He talked about how graphical limitations of the first game restricted them to making disjointed mission situations, but improvements for the second game allowed them to create a cohesive world view. They first created a world map and discussed what kind of landscapes and history would exist, essentially giving context to the different missions. Kanno joins the discussion, adding that Iwasaki asked him to make various assets and artwork with the materials he had, and doing that over and over again eventually led to the setting and world of Ace Combat 04 and 5. The discussion then shifts to Ace Combat 3, the “problem game,” as Iwasaki picks up a X-49 model that will be sold by Kotobukiya later this year. Iwasaki explained that their goal was to expand even more on world building and depict a drama-filled story. There were plans for CG cutscenes as well, but the cost of making those for all scenarios was too much and led to Production I.G. making anime scenes. Amusingly, he also talked about how he negotiated with his superiors to have the game on multiple CDs since fitting all the content on one would have been impossible, even using Final Fantasy as an excuse. Itomi is then brought into the discussion, since he worked on quite a few of the video transmissions and cutscenes, though the others jokingly commented he was a “victim.” Turns out he went to the same university as Iwasaki, and was “taken away” to work on the project, despite wanting to work on “cute” things (I guess he finally got his wish when he designed Nugget for Ace Combat Infinity). Interestingly, Kono and Yasui also went to the same school (Kobe Design University). Iwasaki and Kono then talked about working back then on Ace Combat and Ridge Racer respectively, and how they were alike in that they often poked their nose into something and gave their opinion/demanded better quality. Kono brings up a funny anecdote where Iwasaki was watching him checking Ridge Racer Type 4’s graphics, then ran away screaming. When he asked Iwasaki what was going on later, Iwasaki replied, “Namco’s de facto standard has increased again!” and went back to improve Ace Combat’s quality. Even before he became directly involved in the series, it seems Kono had a hand in making the games better. Ace Combat 5 Through Ace Combat Assault Horizon Sorano continued to briefly talk about the highlights of the next couple of games, with 5, Zero, 6, and Assault Horizon. She then asked about “Aces at War,” an exclusive book bundled with the special edition of Assault Horizon that chronicled the stories of the previous games set in Strangereal. ILCA Inc’s Sekiya actually had a hand in the creation of this book, since he initially proposed the concept. He also revealed that this was the first time he worked with the Project ACES team, assisting in the interviews and editing (Check out the translations of those here). The interviews with JASDF personnel, Project ACES members, and Hibiki Yoshizaki (future cinematics director for AC7) led to further collaboration in Infinity and 7. ILCA’s Yasui was also asked to create the Stonehenge papercraft model (can be seen in this interview) that was part of the Assault Horizon Special Edition as well as some of the CG artwork inside “Aces at War.” Kanno also talked about how “Aces at War” is a pretty special book that had a large impact on newer members, with Shimomoto chiming in that he read it to study up on the series, and how it was like a textbook. Inspired by the book, Shimomoto reached out to Sekiya to make the most recent “Aces at War 2019” but apparently this was “hell.” Kono said that every time they made “Aces at War,” they had to dig up all of their hard disks and was such a pain that he remarked “let’s not make another one.” However, Kanno mentioned the president of Bandai Namco Entertainment said to make more books like that, and Kono replied “well I guess we have no choice.” Ace Combat Infinity and Ace Combat 7 Sorano finally introduces Ace Combat Infinity and 7, and reveals that Skies Unknown had sold 3 million copies across all platforms, which is one million higher than last year. Though there are a fair amount of fans that bought multiple copies of the game for different platforms, limited editions, etc. this is a pretty insane feat. The topic then shifts to how Ace Combat is a game about fighter jets, and how they fuss over both real-life and fictional aircraft. Kanno reflects on some of the fictional designs and describes Ace Combat 3 as a little more unique, with Kei Yoshimizu creating initial concepts that were polished up by Production I.G. They then talk about the XFA-27 which was one of the first fictional jets that appeared in the series, designed by a veteran Namco artist, Yabuki. Kanno talks about how the aircraft was a reflection of the trends of the era, but Kono seems to remember this differently, saying “Kanno and Yabuki would change a set design on their own accord, claiming it was cooler.” As a result, Namco had to create a special stamp that, once used, forbade any further changes to the item in question. These kinds of episodes where Kanno keeps implementing design changes are well known by now, but it’s still amusing to see that he’s been doing this since the earliest days of the series. Another element that they talked about are the cinematic cutscenes. Itomi explains that Ace Combat is a different kind of game where despite being a game about flying and shooting down targets, the story often takes place on the ground, and how they use different methods in each game to enhance that story. The main example used was how Zero used live action actors with CG backgrounds while 7 was the opposite (CG characters with real-world backgrounds), with Itomi commenting he has an urge to try something new with every game. As a result of this approach to the cutscenes for 7, ILCA’s Sekiya and others had to do a lot of location hunting and exploring on Google Maps before going out to shoot since they did not have set locations in mind from the start. Sekiya explained that as Story Director Katabuchi finished up story scenarios, he had to work really hard to find a real world location, and in one funny instance, was at a loss since he didn’t know what to do for the destruction of satellites in space. Fortunately, other members talked some sense into him and made that with CG instead. Ace Combat 7’s Real-world Locations One of my favorite parts of the special was when Sekiya was showcasing all the real-world locations that they filmed backgrounds for, and how he presented it. He actually created a pretty detailed itinerary on how to actually visit all these places, titled “A 6 Day Strangereal Journey I want to go on once COVID-19 Settles Down.” I’ll spare the travel details, but here are the 12 real-world locations and where they are used in the game: 1. SOMETIME Jazz Bar (Cutscene with Mihaly and others in the bar) When it came to filming the actual scene, all props were brought/made, including the Erusean flag. However, Shimomoto revealed that he destroyed it afterwards, to the dismay of everyone. 2. Izu Oshima (Tyler Island cutscene at beginning of “Homeward”) The teddy bear that Rosa holds was actually made by Kanno’s wife and was originally just like any old stuffed animal, but parts were ripped off and burned for use in the scene. 3. Airpark JASDF Hamamatsu Air Base Museum (J79 engine shot from opening movie) 4. Kawasaki Heavy Industries Robot Division (ISEV Drone Factory) This area is not open to the general public, but for prospective customers of robot technology. 5. Kitakyushu Airport Star Flyer Hangar (Mihaly’s test hangar) This is another location off-limits to the general public, and is often empty since it’s an emergency-use hangar. 6. AQUASTUDIO (444 Base scene with Avril and Tabloid meet) The underground areas of the studio was used, but this is another area that cannot be viewed by the general public. 7. DDH-183 “Izumo” (Exterior and interior of the Admiral Andersen) Naturally, getting on the Izumo (now) aircraft carrier is extremely difficult, but it is interesting that a much smaller ship is used to represent a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier. According to Sekiya, the composite cutscene of Avril on the ship was the very first real-life location they shot, thus beginning their long journey of finding and filming backgrounds. 8. Del Mar Studio (Scene of Mihaly in bed) This is another studio that the general public cannot go inside. The GAZE magazine shown was actually created for the scene and amusingly, Itomi lets everyone know that the blankets and pillow were kept and saved, unlike the Erusean flag. 9. El Mirage Dry Lake (All scenes of Avril, Mihaly, Schroeder on dry lakes) The next few locations are most interesting, at least for me, as they happen to be within driving distance from where I live currently. Sekiya explains that for the opening shot of the game, Yoshizaki stood in for Avril and then moved so that the CG character could be placed instead. The RV used by the team was also made its way into the cutscenes , which was interesting too. 10. Mira Loma Detention Center (444 Air Base holding cells, exterior) 11. Mojave Air and Space Port (444 Air Base hangars) On a regular day, you won’t be able to get onto the flight line or hangars themselves, but they do hold “Plane Crazy Saturdays” from time to time, where the general public can come to view some of the planes at the airport. I’ve been to Mojave many times to catch sights of some unique aircraft, but didn’t know the hangars were used in the cutscenes, so I’ll have to make the trip again soon. 12. Yanks Air Museum (Boneyard from opening scene) The crown jewel in my opinion is the boneyard of Yanks Air Museum in Chino, CA. Sleuthing by some fans when Ace Combat 7 was about to come revealed that many of the shots from the opening movie were taken at this museum, and I was able to visit it recently. The staff says it’s usually not open to the public, but I was able to ask the staff to go in and recreate some of the shots (check out my thread here). Kono actually mentioned seeing a fan that visited the location, so perhaps they saw my tweets. Another aspect that drew the team to this location was a peculiar image of Yellow 13’s Su-37 posted on the entrance to the “Starfighter Hangar,” and Kanno said he felt a sense of destiny. Other miscellaneous locations that they visited included various JASDF air bases, and JASDF Iruma Air Base’s hangars were used as models for Ace Combat 7. If you do end up visiting any of these sites, be sure to follow all rules and regulations since you do not want to trespass, and some of these places have special requirements in order to get in. New Game(s) in Development Thus ends the reflection portion, and Kono reveals the true reason for the special was to announce that a new Ace Combat “project” is in development. He explains that the current staff will participate in this new project, but because of the increasing number of fans and how the team “is starting to understand what the fans like,” the small team is no longer capable of meeting those expectations and is looking to massively expand the Ace Combat team. I’m honestly a little skeptical as to whether the team really understands what fans want, but hopefully the various survey results and feedback on both Japanese and overseas social media will help them to make the next game a success. Kono hopes that by now, the audience understands that the members in the room have deeply been involved in the Ace Combat series already, and announces a partnership with ILCA Inc to create new games. I for one was not aware of ILCA and how its various members have already had an impact on the franchise, but the program really informed me on their contributions, from the genesis of “Aces at War” and various work on art and cutscenes for 7. It’s also nice to know that the members like Iwasaki are not total outsiders to the series, having directed some of the early titles before Kono got involved, and it seems like it will be a good working relationship. ILCA has also worked on some high profile games like Nier, Dragon Quest, and are working on Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, so they aren't amateurs either. Here’s also an article that gives a short rundown of ILCA Inc and some other games they have assisted with. One thing to note on this screenshot is that it says “New Series Joint Development Project.” That’s right, they’re not only planning a new game, but a whole series of Ace Combat games. There has been much talk on social media about whether they will keep making games in the Strangereal universe, make a series of spinoffs, or even remake/remaster older titles, but nothing other than the fact that they are making a new Ace Combat game has been revealed so I guess we’ll have to wait and see. However, in order to make “what the fans like,” just working with ILCA is not enough and are looking to hire new employees, particularly young people, so that (hopefully) more content-rich games can be created and older staff can pass the torch to the next generation. Checking out their recruitment page, they want talented people who are passionate about Ace Combat, and have various openings for a project manager, game designers, engineers, technical/3D artists, and UI artists, but you’ll probably need to be proficient in Japanese which will be a barrier to most. Also of note is that this new project will be created in Unreal Engine 5, allowing for next-generation graphics and workflows. Hopefully, Project ACES’ experience with UE4 for Ace Combat 7’s development has given them a much steadier footing, and working together with ILCA will likely further stabilize development. New Content for Ace Combat 7 At the end of the program, announcements about various new content for Ace Combat 7 was announced. First came this trailer, showing off a free update that will include JASDF special liveries for the F-15J, F-2, and F-4E and add more BGM for multiplayer maps. These songs were selected back in June as part of a retweet campaign by fans and include the following: This free update will be coming August 31, so keep an eye on your update notifications. Shimomoto also announces that there are two paid DLCs that will be coming soon, but refrains from giving any details. However, when Kono asks if these will have new aircraft, Shimomoto confirms these are indeed, new aircraft DLCs. These will most likely include 3 planes each as it has been for the past, and probably have additional content such as more skins and emblems. The theme of the new aircraft DLCs will be interesting to see, since there was a brief shot of a F-18 in the Advanced Super Hornet configuration in the new trailer. Pure speculation here, but maybe we’ll see it with a F-15EX variant along with it as part of a fighter “glow up” pack? I’m really curious to see how the Advanced Super Hornet will translate to gameplay, since many of the upgrades to this F-18 don’t really have an effect in the arcade-y mechanics of Ace Combat. A wide-area display in the cockpit and other advanced avionics will probably not do anything but give the player a cool new cockpit to look at (although it’s mostly useless due to the low FOV). The conformal tanks increase range, but there’s no fuel gage in 7 like in Ace Combat 2 or anything. However, it may allow it to carry higher amounts of missiles and special weapons since one of the pros of CFTs is to free up more weapon stations. Addition of more LO treatments might make you harder to lock on to, but this will likely be unnoticeable in campaign and not that useful in multiplayer. It’ll likely be a bit more higher performing than the vanilla F-18F, but I guess the biggest differentiation will be what special weapons it will be carrying. With only a centerline Enclosed Weapons Pod and no other pylons in the shot from the trailer, I doubt it will have the 8AAM. It’ll likely have XSDB to make it a better ground pounder in missions with multiple scattered ground targets. Either way, there’s more content still coming for Ace Combat 7 that will keep fans engaged, at least for a little while. Closing The program ends with Kono introducing some new merchandise, including more shirts and jackets from Alpha Industries Japan and goods on the Asobistore. Unfortunately these cannot be bought outside of Japan as usual (wouldn’t be the case in a world with no boundaries). What can be bought outside of Japan are the Kotobukiya snap-fit models, including the new X-49 Night Raven model that will go on sale later this year. The various staff members then give their final thoughts, looking back at their experiences, thanking the fans, and pledging to continue to work on the upcoming game(s), asking for continued support. Overall, it was a really neat program that shed light on more behind the scenes anecdotes, introduced ILCA Inc’s past and future involvement of the series, and just a celebration of how far the series has come and how it still has a bright future ahead. Author and Translator: TaskForce 23 Japanese to English Translation

Included in the Japan-exclusive Ace Combat: Assault Horizon Special Edition was ACES at War: A HISTORY, a booklet featuring setting materials, concept art, and development interviews that focused primarily on Ace Combat 04, 5, and Zero. The interviews, titled “Talk Dogfight,” featured 3 rounds where each one focused on some specific topics. The first focused on aircraft design with Art Director Masato Kanno, Shoji Kawamori of Macross fame, and an F-15 pilot in the JASDF. The second was about graphics and achieving visual beauty with Art Director Kosuke Itomi, an up-and-coming filmmaker named Hibiki Yoshizaki, and another JASDF Eagle Driver. The final round featured Kazutoki Kono and Sunao Katabuchi, the two men responsible for a large majority of the stories on Strangereal. All of them feature neat and largely unknown behind-the-scenes details of developing Ace Combat, artistic techniques used by these professionals, philosophical discussions, fighter pilot stories, and more. Once only available in Japanese, these interviews have been translated to English by yours truly. Read Talk Dogfight R01 Read Talk Dogfight R02 Read Talk Dogfight R03

Project ACES delivered fans a wonderful Christmas present on December 24, 2020, with a new GAZE in-world news magazine article on the official Japanese Ace Combat 7 website. Titled "ACES at WARS: The classified document about Circum-Pacific War was revealed," the truth behind the great war is finally revealed to the public. Told from the point of view of a defense journalist, it takes us through the 2020 Osean ceremony that commemorates the 25th anniversary of the end of the Belkan War, the reveal of top secret records pertaining to the Circum-Pacific War, the reason for the massive elephant walk of ace squadrons from around the world, and much more. Check out my translation of the text at the link below. Read More Skyward Flight Media does not claim ownership of copyright of the source material used to create these translations.

Translations of pages 175-188 of the Ace Combat Zero Perfect Guide. The Ace Pilot Profile section of the book focuses on the allied and enemy ace pilots seen in Ace Combat Zero: The Belkan War. This post includes high quality recreations of the identification cards seen in the book. [READ MORE] Skyward Flight Media does not claim ownership of copyright of the source material used to create these translations.

On July 2, 2020, Famitsu published a colossal 25-page special feature in their weekly magazine to celebrate Ace Combat's 25th anniversary. In it, the Famitsu staff discussed the various appeals of Ace Combat, highlighted noteworthy aspects from each title in the series, and held a round-table discussion with Kazutoki Kono, Manabu Shimomoto, Masato Kanno, Masashi Koyanagi, and Kosuke Itomi. In the final part of our translation, we take a look at pages 50 - 53 in which the 5 members look back at the series and talk about previously untold, behind-the-scenes stories and events. [Read More]

On July 2, 2020, Famitsu published a colossal 25-page special feature in their weekly magazine to celebrate Ace Combat's 25th anniversary. In it, the Famitsu staff discussed the various appeals of Ace Combat, highlighted noteworthy aspects from each title in the series, and held a round-table discussion with Kazutoki Kono, Manabu Shimomoto, Masato Kanno, Masashi Koyanagi, and Kosuke Itomi. In part 2 of our translation, we take a look at pages 36 - 49 in which Famitsu discusses the unique elements and highlights from all of the games released in Japan, and feels like a trip down memory lane. [Read More]

One of four Ace Combat 7 related lectures given at CEDEC 2019, Narrative Director Kosuke Itomi and Radio Script Writer Masahide Kito focused on the techniques, concepts, and tools used in developing Ace Combat 7's narrative elements. Though these slides exist to complement the lecture given by these two Project Aces members, they provide a brief but fascinating look at how the story of Ace Combat 7 was constructed, along with the tools used to share and test ideas before settling on the final product. What were these techniques and tools? Read more to find out. (Note: View the page on your desktop or laptop to view the embedded videos and for the best experience) [READ MORE] Skyward Flight Media does not claim ownership of copyright of the source material used to create these translations.

Our Science Volume 1033 is available on the official Japanese website for Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown. Like other types of media that can be found on the official Japanese websites for the Ace Combat series, Our Science is a fictional magazine based in the original world of Ace Combat known as Strangereal. The following is a unofficial translation of an article in this magazine which presents canon information about the International Space Elevator featured in Ace Combat 7. [READ MORE] Skyward Flight Media does not claim ownership of copyright of the source material used to create these translations.

"A Blue Dove for the Princess" is an original fictional story from Strangereal, the original world of the Ace Combat series. The story was first introduced in the campaign of Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War (October 21st, 2004) as the favorite book of Kei Nagase, a fellow wingman of the protagonist. In the lead up to the release of Ace Combat 5, desktop wallpapers, illustrations and the text of the story were released in Japanese by Project Aces. Years later, a limited run of hardback copies of A Blue Dove for the Princess was printed and sold in Japan only. [READ MORE] Skyward Flight Media does not claim ownership of copyright of the source material used to create these translations.

This presentation focuses on the composition and implementation of sound effects in Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown for both the standard game and virtual reality. Watanabe Ryo (Sound Director, Composer/Section Manager) and Tetsukazu Nakanishi (Audio Director / Lead Sound Designer / Technical Sound Designer Head of Sound & Motion Division) of Bandai Namco Studios split their presentation into four parts: handling compositions and implementation, implementing sound effects, development and addition of plug-ins and sound in the virtual reality. [READ MORE] Skyward Flight Media does not claim ownership of copyright of the source material used to create these translations.

Prior to the release of the Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown "Ten Million Relief Plan" DLC mission, Project Aces posted an in-universe FRONTLINE magazine article regarding the Alicorn. In this volume, published a little over a year after the end of the Circum-Pacific War, we follow a military analyst as he witnesses the transfer process of this Yuktobanian "Submersible Aviation Cruiser" to General Resource in Usea. What was the history behind "Projekt Alicorn," what are General Resource's intentions, and what do the letters "GRGM" painted on the escort ships stand for? Read more and find out. Read More Skyward Flight Media does not claim ownership of copyright of the source material used to create these translations.

On July 2, 2020, Famitsu published a colossal 25-page special feature in their weekly magazine to celebrate Ace Combat's 25th anniversary. In it, the Famitsu staff discussed the various appeals of Ace Combat, highlighted noteworthy aspects from each title in the series, and held a round-table discussion with Kazutoki Kono, Manabu Shimomoto, Masato Kanno, Masashi Koyanagi, and Kosuke Itomi. In part 1 of our translation, we take a look at pages 30 - 35 which describe the things that make Ace Combat unique and appealing as a game. [Read more]