Lightning Fighter

2016-12-10T02:19:47Z

2602:306:32EB:400:70C0:26CE:5DF2:CE16: /* Real Life */

[[File:Lightning Old.jpg|250px|thumb|right|Old Lightning Fighter]] [[File:Lightning Voss.jpg|250px|thumb|right|Voss pattern Lightning Fighter]]

The '''Lightning''' is the [[Imperial Navy]]'s premiere air superiority fighter, with agility unmatched by any other Imperial flyer thanks to its distinctive forward-swept wings. Though its primary weapons are a long-barreled [[autocannon]] and twin-linked [[lascannon]]s for engaging enemy aircraft, it can be fitted with one of several varieties of missiles and bombs to specialize in anti-armor, anti-infantry, or anti-air operations.

== Lightning 'Strike' ==

The 'Strike' variant Lightning is the same airframe, but with more missiles or bombs instead of the underslung autocannon.

=== Voss Pattern ===

In December 2012, Forge World retired the old Lightning model and released a more advanced-looking "Voss Pattern" Lightning Strike Fighter. It features slightly sturdier-looking wings, a beefier, single engine intake, and a more streamlined nose (especially compared to the goofy "headlights" of the original).

== Real Life ==

[[Wikipedia:Forward-swept wing|Forward-swept wings]] have been tried on real experimental aircraft, and they do confer some benefits, like enhanced maneuverability, improved airflow and the possibility of a more compact airframe. It also comes with the drawbacks of instability (though modern avionics can make the minute corrections required to keep the aircraft steady) and a risk of the wings twisting themselves to pieces at high speeds. These issues meant that it took about 50 years from the idea's conception before prototype high-performance fighter aircraft with forward-swept wings could be built (the [[Wikipedia:Grumman X-29|Grumman X-29]] in 1984, and the [[Wikipedia:Sukhoi Su-47|Sukhoi Su-47]] in 1997, and both of those ended up being scrapped anyway). For comparison, it took the [[Adeptus Mechanicus]] over five hundred years to fix these issues in the Lightning, and they didn't even come up with the idea themselves -- they had to find the [[STC]] first. On the flipside, the people who were trying to fix them were probably being shot at [[heresy|by their own colleages]], so it's rather notable they managed to fix them at all.

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Lightning Fighter