The whole hangar, by its real names

September 30, 2026 · feature

The planes on the Brick Sea have always been real airplanes wearing nicknames. The nicknames are gone: the hangar reads Spitfire Mk IX, P-51D Mustang, P-38 Lightning, B-17 Flying Fortress, TBF Avenger and F-104 Starfighter. And the line got longer. Nine airframes that were built, painted and waiting in the back of the hangar are rolled out and ready to fly — fighters, a Zerstörer, an attack bomber, a Junkers and a Heinkel, and a jet.

Six new warbirds flying together over the open sea: a Bf 109 and an Fw 190 up front, a twin-engine Bf 110 on their wing, a Ju 88 and a glass-nosed He 111 a length behind, and an Me 262 jet slicing past above them — The new arrivals over the Brick Sea: Bf 109, Fw 190 and Bf 110 up front, the Ju 88 and He 111 behind, the Me 262 slicing past on top.

Every card is the real thing

Nothing about the planes you already fly has changed except the name on the card. The turnfighter was always a Spitfire, in dark green and ocean grey; the long-nosed boom-and-zoomer was always a bare-metal Mustang; the twin-boom heavy with the chin cannon is the P-38 Lightning; the four-engine bomber with the tail and top gunners is the B-17 Flying Fortress; the torpedo bomber is the Navy-blue TBF Avenger. The jet you earn with 25 kills is the F-104 Starfighter. Your kills, your career and your favourite ride are all where you left them.

The two craft of the flying ad circus keep their show names — the Skywriter and the Marquee are billboards, not warplanes.

Nine new rides

Every one of them flies its own way, carries its own guns, and wears its own factory paint whichever side you join.

**Bf 109 G** — the climber. A small, hot wing and a big engine: it goes uphill better than anything but the Mustang, and its single cannon fires straight down the spinner, so every round leaves from dead centre. It won't out-turn a Spitfire. Make it chase you upward.
**Fw 190 A-8** — the butcher-bird. It rolls faster than any other propeller plane in the sky — flick from one bank to the other before the fighter on your tail has finished following — with a 20 mm cannon in each wing and a tough radial up front that shrugs off hits.
**P-40N Warhawk** — the brawler, shark mouth and all. Not fast, not fancy, but it turns tight, carries six fifties, and takes a beating that would put a Spitfire in the sea.
**F4U Corsair** — the bent-wing heavyweight. Close behind the Mustang in a straight line, rugged, with six fifties and eight rockets under the wings on the ordnance key. Roll in on a gun line or a column and ripple them off the rails.
**Bf 110 G** — the Zerstörer. Twin engines, a long glasshouse, and 30 mm cannon in the nose that fire straight down the centreline. It isn't a dogfighter; it's the hammer you bring to a crowd.
**A-20 Havoc** — the attack bomber. Six fifties packed into a gun nose, six bombs in the belly, and the speed to run low and fast over the enemy's flak line before it can get a bead on you.
**Ju 88 A-4** — the torpedo bomber with legs. Two fish on the wing roots, just like the Avenger's run — get down on the wavetops, low and slow, and drop — but with two engines to run home on afterwards.
**He 111 H** — the medium bomber. Eight bombs, a long steady run, and the second ride in the game with a bombsight: the cyan pipper shows where a bomb dropped right now would land. Sit in that fully glazed nose, walk the pipper onto a flak nest, and let the bay go.
**Me 262 Schwalbe** — the first jet fighter, and the new first rung on the jet ladder. Down 10 enemy planes over your career and it's yours: it out-runs anything with a propeller, carries 30 mm cannon in the nose and a rack of rockets, and turns like a freight train. Slash through, extend, come back. The F-104 still waits at 25.

A shark-mouthed P-40N Warhawk leading a Navy-blue F4U Corsair and an olive-drab A-20 Havoc low along a sandy coastline — Low over the coast: the Warhawk's shark mouth out front, the Corsair on its wing, the Havoc thundering along behind.

Walking the hangar

The hangar carousel now holds fifteen cards. Everything you can fly today comes first, in the order you know; the two jets you're still earning wait at the end of the line, counting your kills at you. The bots have moved in too — you'll meet 109s over the ring and Heinkels droning at your flak — so there are more fighters in every furball than there used to be. Pick the one that fits the way you fly, and go find out what it can do.