Hello everyone, here's a little change of pace from my usual stuff. I decided to join the seaplane challenge so here's my entry.

-What is this?
A record setting sea-plane racer inspired by the legendary macchi MC 72. Much like the Macchi it's hella fast, managing speeds slightly above 1100km/h.
Talking about specs, it's a relatively small craft, being 8.6 meters long, 3.2 meters tall and having a 9.9 meter wingspan. It's powered by 2 counter rotating props generating a total of 6000HP pushing the plane up to speed in no time, having a 1.027 power to weight ratio.

-Instructions
Everything is in the in game instructions, but i want to tell you 1 thing before flying.

DO NOT PUSH THROTTLE TO 100% WHILE IN THE WATER

and

DO NOT LAND AT SPEEDS OVER 300KM/H

that's it :)

-Lore
The United States of Erth was in a cold war with Itenia (a colonial power bordering the country). It was the second time the two nations got into a power struggle, the last of which resulted in a devastating world conflict. The two nations, now fully armed with nukes decided to fight via propaganda events showing off their superiority over the other. One of such events was the so called "Aschner cup", an international air race where countries faced each other designing ever faster seaplanes, but due to the fierce competition it became an Itenia vs USE contest. The 50th edition of the race was organized and the USE was dead set on winning; they lost the previous 2 editions due to a lack of investments in the racing teams, that due to overconfidence were provided with aircraft based on existent prop fighters used in the military.
What Erth needed was a new plane, commissioned by the government to seaplane builder WaterWorks, famous for their highly experimental vehicles, they pioneered turboprop aircraft designs for the country. The company received very high-performance goals meant to smash the previous 873 km/h record set by the Itenians, the plane was meant to fly anywhere between 900 and 1000 km/h, it would have to be designed in less than a year with almost double the budget allocated the previous year. This got engineers scrambling for ways to meet the expectations until a brilliant designed, Steve Cataldi proposed using a double turboprop set up mixing the power of 2 powerful militar engines, creating a 6000HP beast of an engine around which the whole plane would be built. The construction would instead be based on lightweight and cheap materials to create a craft that could be light and easy to maintain, often taking pieces from already existent planes.
The first results came in 8 months into development, when the first prototype lifted off successfully after 3 earlier attempts that resulted in the plane flipping over due to the overpowered engine. During this test flight the plane rushed up to 800km/h, engineers didn't want to push it hard due to lack of experience with high-speed flight. The second flight happened 2 weeks later during a military parade taken to celebrate the foundation of the country. This was the first time the public had a look at it, so after flying 36 km from the seabase where it was being tested to the capital the plane did a high-speed pass over the crowd reaching 947 km/h. A third and last test flight would happen 4 days later under pressure from test pilots that previously flew the plane, this time deciding to push it as hard as they could, the first time since the early prototypes anybody pushed it to full throttle. The result was staggering, the plane reached 1108 km/h, obliterating the previous record and making sure Erth won the upcoming race.

-Random images