"Cosmos"

Sounds much more like a spaceship name, no?

The FSF universe

has way too many F-86 spin-offs. But so did real life, so I get a free pass (in case you don't believe me: MiG-15, J29, F-86D, FJ-2/3, FJ-4, etc.). With that out of the way, allow me to introduce you to the Cosmos, one of FSF's first true second-generation jets!

While its turn rate might not be very impressive compared to some of FSF's other beasts like the A2R5 Harrower, P-84 Vitiator, or F-54 Skirmisher, the Cosmos is truly a harbinger of the next generation, simply because it doesn't need to turn well. Early variants of the Cosmos (F-81A/B) proved to be significantly faster and have superior acceleration in comparison to most if not all of its opponents, and even majority of its allies. Furthermore, a ballistics computer and improved gunsight were added to make its gunnery more lethal than ever. But the Cosmos's true threat would be revealed in the F-81C variant, which introduced missiles on the Cosmos. Granted, missiles were no new weapon, other planes like the Skirmisher, Dacoit, Flues, and even late variants of the MV-1 and MuG-2 would use missiles. But the F-81C's missiles were some of the best at the time, and were further enhanced by the F-81's great flight performance and opponents' lack of countermeasures. The F-81C looked unstoppable...

...until the war ended. Engineers spent so much time perfecting the F-81 that by the time it was a hypothetically unstoppable threat, the war it was supposed to be unstoppable in was over. The F-81C (and onward variants) would still see service as interceptors, but at the end of the day, the Cosmos would sadly never see combat outside of training.

But now you have one, so I've got a good feeling that oughta change.

Trivia

-Cosmos has a kinda interesting story: put shortly, I woke up in the middle of the night, saw the stars, and somehow the inspiration came straight from the heavens and gave me this plane design. That's why he's named "Cosmos:" a reminder of his origins. While I'm talking about it, I should also confirm that yes, this is also the inspiration for the thumbnail.
-He was also the first plane designed after the RE-3 if I remember correctly (which I have little doubt of here).
-By slight coincidence, the Cosmos bears a decent resemblence to the F-86D (only slight coincidence though, as I was conscious and intentional about its similarities to the F-86D's siblings, F-86A/E/F/H). However, I would later learn some (lowkey) life-changing facts that loosely make the Cosmos's Sabredog-like design feel like divine foreshadowing.