After about a month of development, here is my latest design, the Nordan NA-4 Storm Petrel! It's a highly specialized air-superiority fighter designed for tight turning dogfights as well as high-altitude, long range bomber escort. This fighter has no air-to-ground ordnance. Purely for air-to-air combat.

FEATURES:

• Realistic and improved reflective gunsight (non-gyro)
• High Detail and Functionality
• Fully Detailed Fighter Cockpit with instruments (non-functioning)
• Good STOL abilities
• Fully Custom and Animated Landing Gear
• Animated Control Stick, throttle, and rudder pedals With Toe Brakes!
• Reflective Cockpit Mirrors
• Realistic 6x M2 Browning and 2x Hispano Guns
• Casing Ejection of the guns!
• Opening Slide Bubble Canopy
• War Emergency Power (Boost)
• Realistic and Animated Oil Radiator
  

  ---

Control Layout

Highly Detailed Cockpit

.50 Cal and 20mm Bullet Casings Are Ejected

Improved Reflective Gunsight

Fully Animated Custom Landing Gear

Opening Slide Bubble Canopy

War Emergency Power is Simulated

Animated Radiator

Drop Tanks

Pilot Can Bail Out

OPERATIONS:

AG-1 = Activate War Emergency Power (WEP Boost)
AG-2 = Arm 6x .50 Cal Guns
AG-3 = Arm 2x 20mm Cannons
AG-4 = Drop 2x Fuel tanks
AG-5 = Bail out Pilot
AG-6 = Open Canopy
AG-7 = Landing Lights
AG-8 = Nav, Beacon, and Strobe Lights
Trim = Trim
VTOL = Constant Speed Props (Manual Control; VTOL down for max power)
Throttle = Throttle/Power

(Click Images for Better Quality)

ARMAMENT:

6x M2 Browning .50 Cal. Machine Guns, 1,500 rounds each.
2x Hispano 20mm Cannons, 200 rounds each.

NOTES/TIPS:

• Low Altitude Top Speed is around 320mph with WEP, but high-altitude top-speed is 600mph with WEP.

• If you fire the guns too long, they will run dry of bullets and it takes 20 seconds to reload the .50 cals while it takes 30 seconds to reload the 20mm cannons.

• The Gunsight is improved from the Lark gunsight and it's brightest setting can be adjusted depending if you have all guns armed. This gunsight is designed to be used along with the default SP gun reticle. However it will work just fine without the SP reticle and is pretty darn accurate.

• This airplane is a tad bit nose-heavy in flight but very tail-heavy on the ground due to the position of the rear main gear. To compensate, a tailwheel was added on the rear vertical fin to help with taxing. Both the nose and tailwheel are steerable.

• When things go wrong, and you have to bail out your pilot, be sure to open the canopy first with AG-6, then bail out with AG-5.

• Try not to yaw too much on takeoff as the nose gear is very sensitive at high speeds and can make abrupt turns that can flip you over or ground-loop at high speeds.

VARIANTS/PAINT JOBS:

Factory-Stock Polished Metal/No Paint

Nordan Test Livery

AI Aggressor/Dogfighter

Blue and Chrome Scheme

Pavelanian Air Force 1940's Scheme

BACK STORY:

Nordan NA-4 Storm Petrel, first flown in 1941.

After the introduction of the PAC P6A Merlin and it's first few months in service, the PAF was displeased with it's dogfight performance and it was incredibly hard to fly. The PAF sent out a set of requirements for a new fighter that could compliment or completely replace the P6A despite it just entering service. Nordan Aircraft responded with a new single-engine high performance design that would specialize primarily in dogfighting. This design concept was essentially an NA-2 Swallow with retractable gear, more roomy and visible cockpit, and swapped out the Nordan AeroHorse V8 for the more newer and more powerful Nordan AeroWolf V12. However there were a few flaws in the concept, particularly with how the landing gear would be implemented with the sharp and set-back gull wings. So Nordan decided to start from scratch and used their recently introduced and highly successful NA-3 Lark as a benchmark. The new design would gain the designation NA-4, and was debated for some time whether it's name should be Sparrow or Storm Petrel, but Storm Petrel was ultimately chosen as the name.

The Storm Petrel design took the cockpit of the Lark, and improved it by making it wider and longer, a bigger panel to fit a standard radio and transponder and more engine instruments, and the pilot's seat was reclined a little more to make the canopy more lower and streamlined (same philosophy used in gliders). It was decided to use a bubble canopy, which was a fairly new technique at the time. It was chosen so the pilot could have maximum visibility. The cockpit essentially was the only thing truly carried over from the Lark design. Everything else was new.

The gunsight was a major improvement from the Lark thanks to the streamlined cockpit, and more advanced reflection techniques. The gun sight can be turned on by arming either the 20mm cannons or .50 cal guns, or arm both types of guns. Arming all guns increases the brightness of the gunsight's reticle.

The Storm Petrel was given a unique cranked wing inspired by it's namesake. This was to maximize the Storm Petrel's maneuverability, and to enhance it's STOL capabilities by making each wing section cranked at a certain angle. The wing remained smooth but when it stalled, the stall wouldn't be uniform across the wing, keeping some control when in a stall. The designers and engineers also wanted to be more "artistic" with the NA-4 unlike the fairly ugly Lark.

The NA-4 was originally going to have a standard tail with a vertical rudder and elevators, but they decided to change the tail to a very large radical V-tail with a downward facing vertical rudder. The V-tail used a combination of a stabilator with an elevator as well to again, maximize maneuverability for dogfights. They also used the V-tail to make the Petrel as aerodynamic and slick as possibly.

The landing gear was a double first for Nordan; tricycle and retractable landing gear. Being their first retractable landing gear equipped-aircraft, Nordan ran into many problems with the landing gear such as gear collapses during testing and the suspension not holding up. This was one of the main delays in the program, but through more testing, trials, and many errors, Nordan worked out the problems of the landing gear. Because of the wing design, there wasn't much room to move the main rear gear back, so they had to position the landing gear where they could and this resulted in making the aircraft tail-heavy on the ground, which ironically the plane is actually a tad nose heavy in the air with the drop tanks. To overcome this issue, they added a fully-turning tailwheel mounted on the rear fin that would quiet often be used for taxing at low speeds, while at high speeds the nose would typically drop and taxing can be done on the nose wheel. The tailwheel also served as a guard against tail strikes. Also, on the nose wheel their is a bright taxi light, and on the inner wing sections there are retractable landing lights.

The NA-4 Storm Petrel was powered by Nordan's new 2,500HP, fuel-injected V12 AeroWolf engine. However the NA-4 could also be powered by the Rolls-Royce Merlin or Griffon V12 engines, but it was designed to utilize Nordan's own V12. Like almost all V12 engines, the AeroWolf came with water-injection for cooling, and was able to achieve War Emergency Power settings thanks to the water cooling. The aircraft utilized the same oil radiator-cooling method found on the P-51 Mustang as well.

The Nordan NA-4 Storm Petrel was an incredible performing fighter and was capable of performing long-range, high-altitude bomber escort missions, while at the same time being a very agile and quick fighter. However the Storm Petrel's design was too specialized in it's role as an air-superiority fighter, and made it pointless to add any bomb or rocket hard-points because of the complex design of the aircraft and limited space left on the wings. Adding rockets or bombs on the outer wings would greatly decrease accuracy and added unnecessary drag and weight. The Storm Petrel was an instant hit with it's pilots and with the PAF, and were ordered in large numbers. Because PAC came out with the improved P6C around the same time, it was decided the two fighters would compliment each other in battle. Both were long range escort fighters, but the P6 relied on boom-and-zoom tactics while the NA-4 was a ninja in comparison and fought in tight-turning dogfights. The NA-4 was favored for it's comfortable cockpit ergonomics, and ease-of-handling and operations, but was more complex than the P6 and more difficult to maintain. The P6 was loved for it's incredible speed, efficiency, ruggedly strong structure, and ease of maintenance, but was a beast to fly and required highly experienced pilots. However the NA-4 was more efficient and could carry 628 gallons of fuel in it's 2x large drop tanks, both wing tanks, and it's very large rear fuel tank behind the cockpit. This is almost double the fuel the P6 could carry in it's wing tanks, center tank in front of the cockpit, and it's single small drop tank.

Due to the advanced new techniques and it's incredible performance, as well as it's complex systems, the NA-4 Storm Petrel was flown primarily by the PAF, and was only sold and exported to Pavelania's closest and most trusted allies. It was mass produced successfully but no where near the numbers of Nordan's previous low-cost designs. It was often called the Arrow, Slim Jim, and "Needle Nose" by it's pilots and ground crews. The Storm Petrel was produced from 1942 to the very early 1950's when the design became obsolete and Nordan introduced a new fighter in it's place.

Probably my sexiest design to date. I really love how this design came out. My one gripe with it though, is the back part of the canopy isn't complete because when I did complete it, the canopy wouldn't open due to the parts latching to other parts and preventing the canopy from opening. Sorry about that. I'm about 5-6 days late of when I said I would upload, so sorry for the delay, but here she is!

I Hope you all enjoy this beautiful bird, and Happy Flying! :)