Hawker Jumpjet

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*"You don't have time to think up there. If you think, you're dead."*

- Anonymous Hawker Pilot
## Tactical Analysis

* **It's a bird, it’s a plane, NO IT'S A, er... nevermind:** The Hawker is a rather oddly shaped VTOL aircraft, and the Continentals air superiority fighter. The Hawker has a rack of six heat-seeking missiles, capable of blasting through aircraft with ease. The Hawker's decent armour also can sustain several hits from flak shells and keep on flying.

* **All Terrain Landing Capabilities:** Additionally, unlike other aircraft, the Hawker can land anywhere and stealth itself with a fibre optic netting, ready to ambush the next enemy that dares to pass. Additionally, the Hawker gets a fire rate boost when popping out of stealth due to the ease of locking on in such a state.

* **Limited Reserves:** However, care must be taken while deploying the Hawker. The Hawker is vulnerable to ground-based AA, and also struggles against heavy air, as it usually takes more than six missiles to take down heavy aircraft, thus requiring the Hawker to make multiple passes. Lastly, the Hawker requires reloads often and is very vulnerable when out of ammo due to its slower speed and inability to retaliate.

* **DIY Repairs:** Hawker crews eventually realize that all they need to get the .303s operating again is a dash of lubricating oil, some ammo and a new gunsight. This gives the Hawker even more firepower and some defensive capabilities when it runs out of missiles. Unfortunately new Hawker pilots generally are over-enthusiastic and take time to find out that fact.

## Operational History

The **P-55 Hawker Jumpjet** was introduced by British aviation company United Aviation in January 1954 as the world's first VTOL aircraft. Before this point, the Soviets had enjoyed massive air superiority due to their field airstrips and the ubiquitous MiG-9 jet fighter, which was faster and more manoeuvrable than the Allies' staple WP-501 Stallions, Vampirs and Nimbuses, and more numerous and closer to the front than the Gic-D Cutlass Ramjet, the most advanced Allied fighter around at the time. Though organic Allied air support was arguably superior, with the Rascal Dive Bomber comparing favorably to the Soviet YaK and the Longbow consistently outperforming the Hind, the risk of a sudden strike from a MiG squadron was ever present.

This all changed on February 16th, 1954 when the first Hawker squadron lifted off from a field just five kilometres from the front lines and engaged a larger group of MiG-9 fighters, using their unique maneuverability and Rattler missiles, the first heat seeking missiles in history, to devastate three whole squadrons of MiGs, but once the survivors recovered they realised they could easily outmaneuver them with their superior jet engines and blast them apart with their missiles superior range, revealing the Hawkers main flaw, and while all three squadrons were wiped out only two Hawkers survived the battle.

With a machine that could land anywhere, change altitudes with frightening speed, and knock out a MiG before it could hope to return fire, at the cost of horrendous speed, short range, and needing to actually return to an air pad to reload that would eventually be compensated by a new airforce doctrine to use their advantage of VTOL, the Allies gained air superiority overnight, and the Russians never succeeded in getting it back, on account of having lost almost their entire airforce and pilots and were too focused on perfecting and producing tanks (with rumours of Stalin manic obsession with slow, easy to bomb, tanks supposedly came from overcompensating for a ”5mm cannon” and/or only having only one “jewel”).

 File:CloakedAirbase.jpeg  The Continentals have captured somewhere just over two thousand Hawkers in various states of disrepair, which they have cobbled together into an unknown number of aircraft, all upgraded with a fibre-optic camouflage system along its broad wings originally designed to hide squadrons close to the front lines in World War II. Having universally applied this upgrade as well as tuning the engines, the Continental Hawker takes to the air once again, a true jumpjet presenting the bizarre image of a plane that can point in one direction while flying in another.

For some reason. Roughly a third quarter of Hawker pilots turned out to be gay men (or lesbian women). The Continental has no idea why, the closest are jokes of “flying away from the homophobes” or "flying to where they belong". And most (with the exception of more “traditional” cells) don’t care, and a few even celebrate the diversity.

## Behind the Scenes

* The Hawker is basically an extreme version of the BAE Harrier, inspired in shape by birds of prey (note the beak-like nose). The *"Hawker"* part of its name comes from the Hawker Hurricane.

* The Hawker's... fruity unit voice may be a reference to the perceived homoeroticism of movies like Top Gun.