Often nicknamed the “Starnose” by Fleet Air Arm pilots, the Shooting Star was the first jet powered aircraft in naval service. It featured a deadly array of weapons in the nose and wings and was mostly used as a fighter bomber. It also had an arresting hook for carrier operations overseas. Even though few were made, they participated in many coastal defense and bombing operations and enjoyed a long career into the 60’s as a target drone and as an aerodynamics testbed for the RAF.

So for this aircraft I wanted to try a few new building techniques, such as fuselage wings and XML modding(slightly more powerful jet engines). I think I will do these wings in the future on larger airplanes since they are hard for me to get right and don’t really work well for smaller and more maneuverable planes.

AG1 to extend the arrestor hook. AG2 to drop the fuel tanks, and AG3 to drop all the bombs all at once.

Even though this plane has a somewhat sluggish turn rate, it has a really good roll rate because of those sexy gull wings. Be cautious when in a dive, especially inverted! This plane compensates for that with 4 machine guns in the nose and two cannons in the wing root. It also carries drop tanks and four 250lb bombs. There is also an arrestor hook for landing on the USS Beast. Enjoy!
(frantic reupload because the first one broke the weapons limit of the challenge)