SKY ACES

SKY ACES 1.3.0 - The Big Fleet Update

Fighter Jets Overhaul is now called SKY ACES - same mod, same worlds, new name.

The biggest update so far, built from your comments: 20 new vehicles, rebuilt models for every aircraft, ships and submarines, helicopters, game modes and the ground crew tools you asked for.

New vehicles

• Jets: F-35A Lightning II (internal bays), Eurofighter Typhoon (canards), Mitsubishi F-2A.
• Second World War fighters: P-51D Mustang, Supermarine Spitfire Mk IX, Messerschmitt Bf 109 G-6, Mitsubishi A6M2 Zero (with arresting hook), Yakovlev Yak-3. Propellers, tail-wheel landing gear that folds the way the real one did, a reflector gunsight HUD and wing machine guns.
• Transport: C-130H Hercules. Four turboprops, a cockpit you can see out of, six troop seats, and a 54-slot cargo hold behind a working rear ramp (gear key while parked).
• Helicopter: UH-60L Black Hawk. W climbs and S descends (released, it holds its height), mouse cyclic, A / D pedals. Includes door guns and room for four troops.
• Navy: Arleigh Burke destroyer (bridge with windows, 5-inch gun, VLS, rotating radar). Submarines: Type VIIC U-boat, Gato, T-class and I-201. They dive, hold depth, run on batteries and use up the crew's air, and have a sonar and torpedoes.

Better models for everything

• Every aircraft is now lofted from its real dimensions: round fuselages, real wing planforms (including the Spitfire's elliptical wing), canopies, intakes, nozzles, propellers and antennas.
• The F-22, F-14, F-16, F/A-18 and Su-27 were rebuilt with the new system.
• Fixed: the F-16 seat stuck out of the canopy.
• HD textures (2x resolution) with real paint schemes, panel lines, rivets, weathering and national insignia.
• New Detailed models option to hide the fine detail on slower PCs.

Ships and submarines

• Engine telegraph from full astern to flank speed (W / S), rudder (A / D), dive planes (SPACE / SHIFT), sonar ping (B).
• Bridge display: speed in real knots, telegraph, rudder, depth against test depth, battery, air and a sonar scope that shows contacts after a ping.
• Bow wave, wake, screw bubbles and funnel smoke, plus engine and electric motor sounds, the dive alarm and the sonar ping.
• Aboard a ship you look around freely, and the crew fires the deck gun where they look.

Quality of life

• Simpler K menu: flight style, mouse sensitivity, invert pitch, speed units, HUD and detailed models on one page. Everything else is under "Advanced".
• Speed units: km/h, mph, knots or blocks per second.
• Fuel pump: fill it with fuel canisters or lava buckets and it refuels any parked vehicle within reach of its hose.
• Repair wrench: repairs a stopped vehicle a little with every click, with sparks.
• Pilot's manual: an in-game book with the controls, systems and a page for every vehicle.
• Hand-placed elevators link themselves: place a platform of elevator blocks with a control station next to it and press the button. Other stations nearby link as remotes.
• Workbench blueprint list now has pages.
• New sounds for piston engines, turboprops, the rotor, ships, submarines, torpedoes, the naval gun, the cargo ramp, the wrench and the pump.

Compatibility

• Minecraft 1.20.1 to 26.3 on Forge, NeoForge and Fabric, same as 1.2.x. Existing worlds and aircraft keep working.

More from your comments

• New aircraft: F-35B and AV-8B Harrier II with vertical take-off and landing (hook key swivels the nozzles: hover with W / S), KC-135R tanker with in-flight refuelling through the boom (orbits on autopilot when nobody flies it; /f22raptor tanker), AH-64D Apache (chin chain gun and laser-guided Hellfires that follow your view with the TADS on key B), CH-47F Chinook (two rotors, rear ramp that loads boats, minecarts, horses and animals).
• Nimitz carrier that sails: walk on the flight deck while she steams (the deck carries you and the parked aircraft), take off from the bow catapults at full power with the jet blast deflectors raised, land on the wires with the hook down, Phalanx CIWS when crewed.
• Navy: depth charges on the destroyer, passive sonar bearings, ships that list and sink instead of exploding, walkable interiors for submarines, the destroyer and the C-130 (right-click the hatch; drive from the helm).
• Battle damage: debris on hits, wings that can be shot off, fire from the stub, brake parachutes (Su-27, Typhoon, F-2), rotor downwash dust, stronger wingtip vapour.
• Cockpits: live round-dial instruments in the warbirds, the C-130 and the Black Hawk.
• Gameplay: allied wingmen in formation (/f22 wingman), missions with rewards (/f22 mission intercept and /f22 mission escort), radio between pilots (/f22 radio <message>), a military airbase built once per world near you (runway, hangars with workbenches, tower, fuel) or with /f22raptor airbase, free-fall bombs, air show smoke (key M), HUD layouts (key J).
• Fixes: F-16 / F-2 wing roots, the floating Black Hawk stabilator, smoother fuselages without flat slabs, helicopter handling that holds its height, solid aircraft and decks you can stand on.

Arcade modes

• Dogfight survival (/f22 waves): endless waves of enemy fighters, bigger and better each time (Su-27s, then Typhoons, F-16s and F-35s, and an elite F-22 flight every fifth wave). The ground crew refuels, rearms and patches you up between waves. Score and wave counter on the HUD.
• Pilot career (/f22 rank): kills, sunk ships, missions, waves and races earn experience; six ranks from Cadet to Ace.
• Paint kit: right-click your aircraft to change its camouflage: desert, arctic and navy splinter, jungle, night, tiger stripes and Red Ace. Each rank unlocks more schemes.
• Air raids on the airbase: now and then the siren wails and bombers with an escort head for the base while you are there. Scramble! (/f22raptor raid, config baseRaids).
• SAM launchers: place one to defend your base against enemy aircraft. /f22 mission sam digs in an enemy SAM site of three launchers: they lock on (SAM LOCK warning) and fire, so fly low behind the hills and knock them out with missiles, bombs or guns.
• Combat search and rescue: ejected? /f22 rescue sends a Black Hawk with an AI crew that lands next to you and flies you home. Come down in a combat zone and an enemy patrol comes looking for you first.
• Air races (/f22 race): twelve rings across the terrain, a timer that starts at the first ring, and /f22 race again to fly the same course against the ghost of your best run.
• Naval battle (/f22 mission naval): an enemy destroyer and submarines hunt your ships; the destroyer also fires missiles at aircraft overhead.
• Cinematic camera: a fourth camera mode that swings slowly around your aircraft, and a kill camera that shows your jet with the burning wreck behind it for two seconds after a kill (client option killCam).
• Weather: wind that veers through the day and gets stronger in rain and storms, drifting your aircraft (helicopters most) and gusts that bump you around in storms. Wind readout on the HUD.

Deeper combat

• Stealth: enemy radars, fighters and SAM sites find the F-22 (and the F-35) much later than other jets; open weapon bays give you away.
• Chaff (Z) against radar missiles and an ECM jammer (U) that breaks radar locks (a jamming stealth jet is easier to find). Countermeasure cartridges load flares, then chaff.
• Armament screen (K menu > Armament, on the ground): choose the store on every wing station - short or medium range missile, Mk 82 or the new GBU-12 laser-guided bomb.
• Targeting pod (B on jets): zoomed infrared camera, warm bodies glow white-hot through cover, GBU-12s glide onto the laser spot under the cross.
• Part damage: hits from behind wreck the engines (smoke, less thrust); a hit on a wing can jam that aileron and the jet keeps rolling that way until repaired.

Effects and atmosphere

• Contrails above Y 190, vapour cone around Mach 1, the sonic boom is heard on the ground when the Mach cone passes over you (double bang), echoes and louder engines inside hangars.
• Helmet night vision goggles toggle (O) with a green image in the dark.
• Thunderstorms: violent updrafts/downdrafts and lightning strikes on aircraft.

Game modes

• Campaign "Operation Iron Sky" (/f22 campaign): defend the base, escort the tanker, destroy the SAM sites, sink the enemy carrier group, and shoot down the ace "Black Baron".
• LSO grades for carrier traps (OK, OK, (OK), --, Cut, Wave-off) with a greenie board: /f22 lso.
• Team dogfight: /f22 teams join red|blue, /f22 teams start [score] with a scoreboard on the HUD.
• Survival kit: after ejecting you get a signal flare that calls the rescue helicopter.
• /f22 mission carrier (carrier strike) and /f22raptor airborne <aircraft> (start in the air).

Airbase machinery

• Command console (right-click: radar scope with the air picture), radar antenna and ship radar that turn and extend the detection range of consoles and SAMs nearby.
• Patriot launcher (four canisters that train, elevate and fire long range SAMs) and CIWS that shreds hostile aircraft and missiles.
• Weapons loader (put missiles/bombs in, it arms parked jets nearby) and fuel truck (refuels parked aircraft).
• The airbase and the carrier now come equipped; the carrier has a lit hangar deck, stairs up to the flight deck and a walkable island (ready room, CIC, chart room, bridge).

Fixes

• AI wingmen now hold formation instead of climbing away after a few seconds.
• Mission bombers, escorted tankers, the tanker orbit and enemy ships no longer freeze when they are far from the players.
• You can stand and walk anywhere on the deck of a sailing carrier.