Plane

A Plane is a type of Aircraft that generates its lift using two large flat wings fixed to the sides of the fuselage, while a separate engine (or multiple engines) generates forward motion. This separates Planes from Helicopters, which use rotating blades instead of wings for both lift and thrust.

Planes are fast and powerful, but unlike Helicopters they have to keep moving in order to stay in the air. They also require a very long and completely flat space to take off and land. On the other hand, Planes are typically much larger than Helicopters, and carry much more cargo and/or weaponry. Their high speed means that they are less vulnerable to ground-fire, and thus don't typically need to carry any appreciable amount of armor (with a few notable exceptions).

Planes are divided into categories based on their role, though they can also be distinguished by the type of engines they use (as this dictates their speed and maneuverability). Transport Planes are mostly seen dropping off Paratroopers at the start of a mission or as Reinforcements, especially in ArmA 3, or being used as an escape vehicle at the end of a survival mission. Jets are attack platforms used to destroy armored ground vehicles with high efficiency, or to intercept enemy Aircraft. Additionally, a few Planes fill unique rolls such as the Spooky Gunship or the Crop Duster.

Due to their high speed and high-altitude flight, Planes are extremely independent and capable of altering their plans on a whim. On the other hand, the vertical distance from the battlefield means that Plane pilots have much less awareness of what is happening on the battlefield, and may have a very hard time operating without direct and constant communications with a FAC or other observer on the ground.

Planes appear only occasionally in ShackTac videos, and are far rarer than Helicopters overall. When they do appear, the most common planes are AI-controlled Jets, player-controlled Jets, and mission-scripted paradrop planes.

Specifications and Design
The Fixed-Wing Aircraft was the earliest working type of powered flight vehicle, at the start of the 20th century. It consists of a main body (a fuselage) with two large flat surfaces fixed on either side of it - the "Fixed Wings". A propeller or jet engine then pushes the aircraft forward, which causes the air to flow over and under the wings and thus generate lift. The faster the Plane moves, the more air passes over the wings, and the more lift is generated.

Most Planes have more than two sets of wings, with two small "horizontal stabilizer" wings on the sides of the tail to help keep the plane balanced, though these do not actually generate any lift. Plane wings can change angle or shape in various ways (differing from one design to the next) to adapt to different speeds, change the plane's orientation, or even slow it down.

Planes must remain in motion at all times, otherwise not enough air will pass over the wings to generate sufficient lift, and the Plane will fall out of the sky. The speeds involved are usually very substantial - far higher than any ground vehicle. The shape of the wings determines how fast the Plane can go, and how fast it must go to remain in flight.

Many civilian and transport Planes still use propeller engines mounted under the wings or above the tail, as do some modern military designs. The majority of military Planes, however, use powerful jet engines (typically mounted inside the fuselage or along its belly) that are capable of pushing the Plane to speeds exceeding the speed of sound (300 m/s). Commensurately, faster Planes typically need to maintain a higher speed to stay aloft. The minimum speed of a Plane determines how much space it needs for landing, but also how effective it is at engaging ground targets.

The hollow fuselage of a Plane can be used to store cargo or carry passengers; whereas on Attack Planes it is typically used to store ammunition and fuel. Fuel is often also stored in the wings themselves. Attack planes may carry weapons inside the hull or hanging underneath the wings. Most combat planes carry at least one Autocannon or Machine Gun, facing directly forward, with which they can engage both ground targets and other aircraft.

Roles
In a standard mission involving Planes, each aircraft can have one of several different roles that define what it will do during the mission. For the most part, each aircraft model can only fill one of these roles, so the models used in the mission will match the roles required to carry out the mission.

Transport
Transport Planes are responsible for moving troops and/or cargo into the battlefield, and occasionally to Extract troops from it.

For the most part, Transport Planes are used as Paratrooper platforms - dropping soldiers with parachutes over the battlefield from an altitude at the very start of the mission. In some missions, Reinforcements and Crates will be dropped in a similar way during the mission itself.

Though earlier ShackTac missions used actual human pilots to fly these planes, they have since been replaced with scripted planes flying a predetermined path to drop their passengers/cargo automatically. Due to the altitude and relatively uneventful nature of this task, there is no real need to use human pilots.

On occasion, Transport Planes may be waiting on an airfield in or close to the battlefield, and may be used by surviving players to escape the battlefield. This is particularly true in S.H.A.C.K.E.R and other zombie-related missions where escape is itself the mission objective. These planes are unmanned until found and utilized by the players themselves.

Attack
Attack Planes are designed to strike enemy ground units. They are almost always Jets, carrying heavy anti-tank weaponry such as Bombs and AGMs, which are easily powerful enough to destroy even the most well-armored target.

Attack Planes are typically slow and low-flying, which makes them vulnerable to ground-fire. To compensate, such planes are typically well-armored themselves, capable of suffering many hits from low-caliber weapons before going down.

Attack Planes are typically too fast to provide Close Air Support in the same way that Attack Helicopters can, instead attacking somewhat more distant targets ahead of the ground forces, or even Interdicting targets well beyond the ground units' line-of-sight.

Multi-role
Multi-Role planes, also known as "Fighter-Bombers", are Jets designed for both ground attack and intercepting enemy aircraft. They are outfitted like Attack Planes, but also carry AAMs that can easily shoot down enemy planes and helicopters.

Multi-Role planes are very fast and typically fly at a very high altitude. This makes them less effective when attacking ground targets compared to dedicated Attack Aircraft. They are also more vulnerable to ground fire when flying at lower altitudes, though at high altitude they can be more vulnerable to MANPADs and other missile-based AA units.

Scouting
A Scout Plane is a plane whose entire role is to observe the battlefield from above, in much the same way that a Scout Helicopter might. The difference is that Scout Planes are typically faster and fly higher up, though this also means that they need powerful optics to properly observe the ground. Dedicated Scout Planes are extremely rare, though many aircraft can perform this role whenever they are not busy doing anything else.

Gunship
A Gunship is a plane originally designed to carry cargo, but refitted to carry guns and ammo for ground attack purposes. Unlike an Attack Plane, the Gunship does not carry heavy weaponry like bombs or missiles, instead relying on Machine Guns, Gatling Guns or even Autocannons, typically mounted in the side doors.

Gunships typicall fly low enough and slow enough to attack targets rather close to the ground forces, effectively providing Close Air Support. However the weapons they carry are usually insufficient to kill heavy armored targets, instead focusing on groups of enemy Infantry and lighter vehicles.

Gunships are rare in ShackTac, but have appeared in a few missions to some effect.

Models
Despite the relatively rare appearance of Planes in ShackTac videos, the group uses a surprisingly wide variety of Plane models in various roles. Nevertheless, most of these models are not the ones provided by vanilla ArmA 3, but rather the user-made models from RHS and old ArmA 2 models from CUP. Several of these are more difficult to identify, and may not even represent real-world planes.

Transport Planes
There are several Transport Planes used in ShackTac, though some are difficult to distinguish from one another as they are only ever seen from a distance.

The most easily-recognizable model is the C-130 Hercules, a four-engine propeller plane with room inside for multiple Squads. This model has been seen used both for airdrops and for escapes.

Additional models include both OPFOR transport planes as well as civilian transports.

Attack Planes
The most common Attack Plane in ShackTac videos is the BLUFOR A-10 Warthog - a powerful CAS Plane designed to destroy a variety of ground targets. It is heavily armed with a variety of weapons, most importantly a massive Autocannon - the GAU-7 Avenger - which can obliterate pretty much anything. The A-10 is sub-sonic, flying low and slow over the battlefield and thus capable of providing very close support compared to other aircraft. A-10s are typically seen in missions involving a serious enemy armored force.

The OPFOR equivalent to the A-10 is the Su-25 Frogfoot. Though lacking the A-10's powerful main gun, it is still heavily armed and capable of performing largely the same type of attacks as the A-10. It is also heavily-armored and very difficult to shoot down, and its engines provide enough power to allow it to act almost as a multi-role fighter.

Multi-Role Planes
BLUFOR possess two multi-role fighters in their arsenal: the Harrier and the F/A-18, with the former being far more common in ShackTac videos than the latter. The Harrier is a Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL) plane, which can take off and land like a helicopter (but otherwise flies like a Plane). The F/A-18 is a much faster aircraft that is more suited for intercepting enemy planes, but still capable of attacking ground targets.

Both aircraft are armed for anti-tank warfare, as both fly too fast and too high to effectively engage Infantry or other fast-moving targets, especially in woodland areas where targets can be very difficult to track. Both aircraft prefer Interdiction (attacking targets far ahead of the ground forces) and cannot effectively provide Close Air Support.

OPFOR relies primarily on the Su-27. This heavy, twin-engine Jet is essentially an interceptor, but its designers have given it the ability to fly slow enough to become an effective ground-attacker. Much like the BLUFOR planes, it is typically too quick to provide CAS, but can still do so in a pinch.

Scouting Planes
So far, the only plane used exclusively as a scout is a Biplane of indeterminate model. It has been used in the past in Adversarial missions by INDFOR, and in other non-Cooperative missions. It is overall extremely rare in ShackTac videos.

Gunships
The only true Gunship used in ShackTac is the Spooky, a DC-3 World War II-era transport plane that has been converted into a gun platform. Armed with Miniguns, it can Orbit over the battlefield and rain copious amounts of fire on concentrations of enemy Infantry and light Vehicles. The Spooky has only been seen in a handful of ArmA 3 missions.

Other Models
One interesting Plane model is the Osprey. This BLUFOR aircraft is not strictly a plane, but a Plane/Helicopter hybrid. Its two large propeller engines, mounted on the tips of its wings, can swivel from a vertical position (for take-offs and landings like a Helicopter) to a horizontal position (for cruising like a Plane). It is a Transport Plane/Helicopter, capable of carrying a significant number of infantry and cargo.

Another rare model is the Tu-95 "Bear". This is an OPFOR strategic bomber, similar in function to the American B-52. Tu-95s have been seen as targets to be destroyed on an airfield. They have never been flown by players on video, but have been seen taking off (or trying to take off) using an AI pilot.

Organization
Planes are the most independent units in any force. A Plane typically operates at the greatest distance from any other unit - even other Planes - and is constantly traveling at high speed, making it difficult to coordinate any precise actions or movements with units on the ground. Therefore a Plane's Pilot maintains a lot of leeway in determining where to be at any given time, how to approach any given target, and often which targets are to be attacked. By the time a Plane could coordinate these details accurately with other units, it might already be too late to act.

Nevertheless, Planes sometimes work in pairs (called Flights), with a "lead" plane and a "wingman" that stays nearby (and often in Formation with the lead plane). This is particularly true for multi-role Jets, as they can use this formation flight to protect one another from enemy aircraft and to perform more devastating attacks on ground targets. Due to the rarity of two player-controlled Jets appearing in the same mission, this type of organization is also very rare. when it does occur, the lead Plane's Callsign is suffixed with the number "1", while the wingman Plane's Callsign is suffixed with "2". As long as the planes are acting as a pair, the lead Plane makes all of the non-emergency decisions for both planes.

Beyond their immediate unit, Planes must also maintain contact with any other friendly aircraft in the Area of Operations as well as any forces on the ground (if at all possible). This is typically done on Air Net, where all Aircraft can converse with each other and with the FAC. The FAC coordinates the actions of the air and ground forces, pointing out targets and requesting attack runs, or otherwise indicating broad goals to be accomplished. Again, due to the speed and altitude at which Planes (and particularly Jets) operate, such coordination is quite limited and can lead to grave mistakes if the information is not clearly conveyed. Instead, Planes typically seek their own targets, and plan their own Ingress and Egress routes. Nevertheless, without a FAC to provide relevant information, most combat Planes can quickly become ineffective since they have difficulty understanding the situation on the ground below.