Aztec Aircraft

[TacCovert4]

A few things you'll note reading this:

1)  I have manufacturer limited myself to try to reflect the sorts of difficulties that the Aztec industrial base would be dealing with, even with the massive investments into aviation over the last decade that have the Sultanate even with or slightly ahead of the major powers when it comes to aviation.  This means that I've missed out on quite a number of excellent aircraft, though I think that ultimately I wind up with a realistic and quite good mix of aircraft.

2)  There are certain philosophical things that the Sultanate is going for.  Such as emphasis on Day/Night attack aircraft when possible, with an eye to use night attack and nighttime bombing to offset quantitative issues when compared to larger powers.  Aztec carriers are unarmored, with a focus on defending the carrier by AAA and by having a proportionately huge fighter complement as well over half of the complement of any carrier are fighters or '2d line fighters' in the multi-role sense.  At sea, the Sultanate has been building in relatively huge tonnages of night fighting installations on its ships, and this ports over to its aircraft, with the intent of using a combination of catapult floatplanes and torpedo bombers for night attack on enemy warships using spotters/flares and eventually escalating to dedicated radar and/or night optic equipped night strike and night fighter capabilities on its carriers.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1bdpDfwzv-LNhFatSKH71PxbCx-oj7VUyEYgFULrLGtk/edit?usp=sharing

[TacCovert4]

To give a legend of how to read the chart:

Tech Year - Self Explanatory

First Flight - The Year that to my knowledge is the first flight of a pre-production or production model

Aircraft - Name of the aircraft

Type - The type per the manufacturer

Use in RAF/RNAS - The roles which the Sultanate's air forces use the aircraft for

Manufacturer - Self Explanatory

Carrier/Catapult - Whether the aircraft in question is capable of carrier deck operations, or operations from a shipboard catapult.  Aircraft capable of carrier operations are considered capable of using carrier 'deck assist' catapults if needed. FYI - Deck assist catapults are on Aztec Carriers to allow primarily for fighters or scouts to be launched from a carrier at cruising speed before it has worked up to a typical flight operations speed.

Integral Main Armament - Fixed and Turret mounted Machine Guns and Cannon.....does not include pod-mounted cannon

Bombs - Read two ways....if a KG number only, then it's a multi-configurable bay or rack and can carry any configuration of 40kg, 75kg, 150kg, 250kg, 500kg, or 1000kg bombs up to that maximum number.  If there is a number and kg (IE 2 x 150), then that means there are X hardpoints capable of a maximum of Y weight bomb.  Note:  At the 1938 tech a 20mm gun pod may be mounted to a single-engined fighter/CAS/LB (Not pure TB) in lieu of a 150kg bomb or greater.  At the 1942 tech, a 40mm gun pod is now possible for 250kg rated positions with the same restrictions.

Torpedoes - Number of Torpedoes that can be carried. Note that torpedoes would be carried IN LIEU OF bombs or depth charges or rockets

Rockets - Number and type of rockets that can be carried....again this is a maximum rack limit and maximum size, for instance a plane rated for 4 x 15cm rockets could carry 4 x 7cm rockets instead.  These refer to your early-mid WW2 type of primitive unguided rocket

Depth Charges - Number of Aerial Depth Charges that can be carried.  Note that this would be IN LIEU OF bombs or torpedoes.  Aztec Aerial Depth Charges are considered to take up the same amount of rack space as a 150kg bomb.

Guided Bombs - Whether or not an aircraft type is capable of delivering remote-guided or set azimuth gliding bombs (think along the lines of the GB-1, Azon, Razon, or Fritz X), these are primitive obviously.  Aztec glide bombs come in 250kg and 500kg varieties, and remote guided bombs in a 500kg 'Naval' and a 1500kg 'Air Force' variety.

Radar - What, if any, radar is equipped to an aircraft (whether surface or air search, bomb aiming/pathfinding, or Guidance)

Missiles - What, if any, types of guided missiles can be equipped to this aircraft (IR, Radar, Surface-Radar, Surface-Inertial).  This includes more advanced unguided rockets, IE Air to Air rockets with VT Fusing.