Each weapon has a different kill radius. Weapons detonate themselves when they are within their kill radius of a plane other than the one they came from. All planes within the kill radius of an exploding weapon are destroyed. The q key fires a rocket. Rockets have about ten seconds of fuel and follow ballistic paths after the fuel is exhausted.
Rockets have the largest kill radius of all the weapons.
The w key fires a sidewinder. Sidewinders are locked on if they are fired while a target aircraft is in the orange tracking rectangle or if locked on with the t key. The t key identifies the target and locks a sidewinder onto the target for one second without firing the weapon. This is useful for identifying other planes as friend or foe. Sidewinders will not lock on aircraft lower than 150 feet, but once they are locked on, they will track a plane below 150 feet.