No, guys, multirole planes are Bad with a capital B. From the dawn of flight, when a bunch of officers saw an aeroplane and asked:
"Can we spy on the enemy with it?"
"Can we drop shells on the enemy with it?"
"Can we shoot enemy planes with it?"
"Can we shoot the enemy with it?"
and some massive idiot, whose name is unfortunately lost to history, piped up with
"Why not do all those things at once?"
multirole planes have nearly always been doomed to be subpar in both of their roles. Even up until today, when planes taken millions of man-hours to design and build and test, some planes make it all the way to production without people realising "why not we make two good planes, instead of one expensive and average one?"
UFAF-F-39 "Hornet"The Hornet is the latest and most advanced fighter in United Forenia's Air Force, built with experience from the high-speed Glorious racecar. A supercharged water-cooled V12 engine with fuel injection provides immense thrust, which in conjunction with a sleek, semi-monocoque steel-aluminium fuselage and elliptical wing planform gives it breathtaking speed. Servo and trim tabs on its control surfaces, from our aerodynamics research, allow it to out-manoeuvre enemy fighters even at these high speeds. Self-sealing fuel tanks in the wings provide some measure of resilience, while a manganese-alloy armour shell around the cockpit helps to enhance pilot survivability. For weapons, it carries four AS-AC18 autocannons on the wing and a single Sorraia machinegun on the nose. From our previous fighter the HF-32b, radio, retractable landing gear, pressurised cockpit and an improved oxygen system are installed. Finally, foldable wings and reinforced landing gear for catapult launch and arrestor recovery allow it to be deployed on our carriers in greater numbers as well, with optional drop tanks on underwing mounts for very-long range missions.
...needless to say, target cost is Expensive due to the very good engine. Maybe 3/4 Ore (2 Al 1 Mn) 4 oil, with optional +1 oil for the drop tanks version.
4 UFAF-F39 'Haast':
3 Using a research credit: Lightforger, evictedSaint, Powder Miner
1 Without using a research credit: Piratejoe
0 The UF-SHB-39 Ice Giant:
1 UF-F-39 "Yastreb"(Using a research credit): Mulisa
1 UF-MA-Ta/Fa "Cacophonous Pseudonym": RAM
1 UF-HAT-39-A "Vanguard": Khan Boyzitbig
1 UFAF-F-39 "Hornet": Azzuro