Manufacturer: Niebelungen Armored Wepon Factory Chassis Number: 1,101 - 1,984 Crew: 1 Weight: 4.43 tons Length: 5.76 m Width: 5.41 m Height: 1.83 m Engine: Jumo 004A/n Speed: 825 kph Range: 2,300 km Radio: FuG40/a-1 Sight: KgZF24, KgZ24/fa Primary Armament: 2x 14.5 mm MG313 Machine Guns Secondary Armament: Armour: 20 mm with 5 mm tungsten 5 mm special heatproof ceramic armour Image copyright by Kow Yokoyama. On the early morning of March 1, 2875, the high officials of the Shutoral forces stood and watched a strange new craft ascending rapidly into the sun. Averting their eyes because of the blinding glare, the craft swooped low over the field and then abruptly started ascending again, showing off its excellent climb rate to the small group of spectators. Realising the potential of the X-PK40, it was immediately ordered into production the following day. It was soon adopted as the primary air weapon of the Shutoral forces, and on September 2882, Shutoral forces raided the Earth where it fought against the Mercenaries own copy of the PK40, code name J-40 (S). The PK40 was designed as fighter/reconnaissance plane. With its jump-jets mounted under the wings, the craft had good manoeuvrability. It was also armoured enough to withstand a most machine gun fire of the time. It gained a good reputation with front line troops and was produced until September, 2884. While it had a fixed armament of twin 14.5 mm machine guns, it could also mount additional rockets and bombs under the wings. The Mercenary troops also used the PK40, although they renamed it the J-40 (S). They got their initial planes from the defecting Foreign Legion troops. As the Foreign Legion only had around 70 planes, these were placed into a new Air Wing - the 53rd Air Wing, which was the principle air support unit of the Mercenary forces at the beginning of the war. Because the J-40 (S) was identical to the PK40 (and pretty much the PK41), the Mercenaries painted their wing tips yellow for identification. This practise continued until the Mercenaries stopped producing the plane in September 2885, by that time the Falke was then entering service. PK40T and PK41T: During 2885, cargoes started to be transported to the many theatres of war across the Earth by sea, and these usually travelled further afield than the normal cruising range of most aircraft. As these convoys contained troops and equipment for battle, they needed to be protected wherever possible. This was highlighted when a Shutoral convoy came under attack by Mercenary J-40 (S) which had been carried out to sea by a converted freighter which had had a landing deck installed at the front. Because of this attack, Shutoral forces started to construct their own aircraft carriers and looked to the PK40 as their principle aircraft from which to operate from these craft. Adding floatation devices to enable it to float for brief times further modified the PK40. Additional equipment for pilot survival was added, such as a rubber raft and survival kit. However, these plans (and carrier construction) were halted with the large operation of September of that year, and the PK40T were deemed surplus to requirements. Additional sea worthy fighter aircraft were modelled on the PK41 to make the PK41T and these were launched by catapult from freighters instead of dedicated fighter carriers. PK40 bis: Due to the dust and sand that comes from the desert, some PK40's had problems adjusting to the terrain. As a result, some were modified for desert fighting by the addition of various filters on the air intakes and fuselage. These made the revised PK40 - the PK40 bis - slightly wider, but other than that, there were no real appearance differences. Performance and manoeuvrability didn't suffer at all, but the PK40 bis did develop the fault that at low speeds, the engine could suddenly cut out. The Shutoral PK40 bis was more efficient than the Mercenary answer to the desert - the J-40 Si. J-40 Si: The J-40 Si was the Mercenary response to desert conditions. Like the PK40 bis, the plane mounted large air filters around the intakes and the fuselage. While allowing the craft to then function normally in the desert, because the air filters were quite large, manoeuvrability suffered when compared to the PK40 bis.