TCA 215 Aquila

The Twin Crown Aerospace 215 Aquila is a medium-weight tactical fighter aircraft designed by Stardust. It has been developed into further variants, notably the 217 Super Aquila series of fighters.

Project GOLDENROD HARPY
Twin Crown Aerospace Industries - Air Supremacy Project no. 9 was an internal TCA requisition for a conventional twin-engined combat aircraft with good all-around performance for air-to-air combat. ASP-9 was originally conceived of as a drone, and therefore engineering the aircraft was the responsibility of Advanced Combat Systems Division (ACSD). Development on ASP-9 was slow at the time of the internal program's introduction.

Jet Showdown 5, STARDUST Test Drones
During its slow development, the [JS5] fighter program became active, and TCA submitted a few designs to the competition. TCA's initial submission was its ASP-7 aircraft (FF-215; Project GOLDENROD HARPY and TERMINATOR HARPY), which was similarly designed with the attributes of "twin-engine fighter aircraft", but it was pulled due to its mediocre performance. In its place, ASP-11 (FF-219) was submitted, an aircraft designed by TCA's rising Combat Aircraft Design Bureau (CADB). FF-219's flight performance was so notable for a convetional airframe, that ACSD took the FF-219 airframe and mated it to TCA's test UCAV body to create the now-venerable STARDUST-I combat testing drone.

Air Supremacy Program no. 9 — STARDUST-II


FF-219 failed [JS5] trials, forcing TCA to return to the drawing board, with many options at its fingertips, but all very under-developed. ASP-9 was completed during this time and became the STARDUST-II, which itself proved to be a capable combat test drone. Seeing the potential in the ASP-9 airframe, CADB was given the task of taking the airframe and turning it into a manned aircraft with a cockpit. This was the beginning of ASP-9-2 (which probably should have been ASP-7 Extended due to the project being a twin-engined manned fighter, but internal documentation at this time suffered from a recent large fire in TCA's facilities, creating large disruptions in program organization).

CADB's conversion of the STARDUST-II airframe into a manned design did not take long, and ASP-9-2 received the official designation FF-217. Multiple design iterations and variants of the FF-217 airframe would be made before its first official combat deployment in a [JS5]-compliant configuration, using the FF-217J variant. The FF-217J Super Aquila featured additional auxiliary engines for increased combat TWR, breaking from the original twin-engine design outline to a 2-2 engine configuration.

Super Aquila
FF-217J would be the first airframe variant to see multiple blocks/subvariants, mainly J-5, J-6, J-7, and J-8, though the combat records of these are still unclear. Known configurations other than [JS5] are [RT]/[RT1], [FD], [FC], and [RP2]. FF-217K existed as a lengthened airframe for greater range and payload capacity.

In the interim waiting for a new contract, TCA received orders for older, more basic FF-215A airframes. These were delivered and saw combat in [RP1] configuration. Spare FF-215A Aquila airframes from this procurement were picked up by one “Manley” spaceflight program for flight tests.

Return to Form - FF-215M
After the RT2 trials, FAS2 began. Under the new considerations from the program parameters, airframe upgrades developed through the FF-217M program were applied back to the lighter FF-215 airframe.

Design (Real Life)
The FF-215 Aquila is based off of the F-15 Eagle, as is very clearly evident in its appearance and designation/name, "aquila" being the Latin word for "eagle".

Major Variants

 * FF-215A
 * Single-seat air-superiority verision, basic stock KSP construction


 * FF-215C
 * Improved version with uprated Saturn engines


 * FF-215J
 * Enhanced maneuverability with the addition of canards.


 * FF-217J Super Aquila
 * Enhanced thrust-to-weight by the addition of two auxiliary Tiger engines to the rear of the aircraft.


 * FF-215M
 * Modernized airframe variant, derived from FF-217M development; removed auxiliary engines.


 * FS-215M Strike Aquila
 * Two-seat multirole strike variant.