Finally! A plane!

After the World War between the Allied powers, and a six year gap spent peacekeeping across Europe and Northern Africa, the Luftwaffe was in need of an new jet fighter. The RLM issued an order to the five companies, and between the five companies in Germany, Messerschmitt and Arado both began work on a powerful jet fighter u using the new 109-006 Junkers/Heinkel 006 as it's powerplant.
By 1951, with the two loosly related projects progressing a year into the drsign phase, Herman Göring ordered the two company design teams to merge to save on time for the aircraft for a possible war with the United States.
Of the two aircraft designed, Messerschimtt's powerplant layout and cockpit layout were used, and Arado's airframe design was used for the new fighter.
After the two teams combined research of their jet, the designing phase continued on time, and the early prototype was completed during the middle of next year. The prototype was flown by Karl Baur from Augsburg to Berlin for a demonstration to high ranking members of the Luftwaffe. Among some of those attending the demonstration were Willy Messerschmitt, Albert Speer, and Herman Göring.
The prototype, in flight, reached well over 927km/h during flight.
After the demonstration of the Prototype to the RLM and Luftwaffe memebers, it was flown to a victory parade over Paris, France.
Within three months after the demonstration, 35 of the Ar 217 were produced for combat testing in South Africa, and another 7 were sent to England to deal with the occasional uprisings.
After the reports of combat testing from Emgland and South Africa came in with resounding success, a batch of around 300 of the Ar 217 A and B series were made, and designs for a C and F series were planned.
With the Ar 217 starting to become the backbone of the Luftwaffe, several of the aircraft were turned into specialty versions. Around 50 of the E-11 version of the Ar 217 had two HWK 109-500 rockets mounted under the primary wings for carrier takeoffs in the Atlantic, and roughly 35 of the F-4 versions had Werfer-Granate 21 Air-to-Air unguided rockets mounted under their wings for air attack in South Africa.

The Arado 217 C-1, the variant currently presented, has several features that didn't carry over to any other variants, such as a nose spike, a more complex and expensive landing gear setup in the primary wings, and a new tail configuration.
The C-1, as well as later versions of the C variant, saw use as high altitude bomber interceptors, engaging in skirmishes with low flying American B-29's and occasionally British Lancastors. The four Rheinmetall-Borsig Mk 108's would generally make quick work of them.
The C-1 variant, unlike later one's such as the F-5, was not mass produced. It was made in few small batches of 100 during 1953, a total of 264 ever being flown. Although few were produced, pilots and crews gave positive feedback of the jet, as to it's ease of repair (excluding the rear gears, being it's impossibility of obtaining replacement parts being the only complaint), ease of control, and landing.

Controls:
Ag 7: Ejector Seat