Editing Combat Aircraft (section)

==Weaponry==
*'''Handguns''': Though machine guns later became standard midway through World War 1, the first dogfight ever, during the Mexican Civil War in 1913, was undertaken by two mercenary pilots with handguns. No one was hurt, but the idea of plinking away at your target with a pistol while flying your plane with your other hand lasted through the early years of World War 1. Incredibly, there is also the story of [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Owen_J._Baggett Lt. Baggett] who, while parachuting after being shot down, took down a Ki-43 in the Pacific War with a 1911, probably in a strike of karma getting a lucky head shot on the pilot who was trying to strafe survivors.
*'''Bricks''': In the early months of World War 1, ammunition could be scarce and pilots were limited by the strict size limits of their planes to whatever they could fit in their hands. Hence the brick. Inaccurate and short-ranged, but more than heavy enough to put a hole in the wing of an early fighter.
*'''Flechette''': Basically a big metal dart dropped out of a plane. The dart gains speed as it drops until it hits the ground with enough force to pulp anything it hits.
*'''Machineguns''': The first effective weapons attached to aircraft were basic machineguns. Originally they were manned by a secondary gunner on a swivel mount that couldn’t shoot forward, due to the propeller being in the way. Later, the pilot became the gunner, and any aircraft that had a nose propeller had to be outfitted with a synchronization gear, which adjusted the machine gun’s rate of fire so that it couldn’t shoot out the plane’s own propellers (at least in theory, for such early systems were... temperamental). Machine gun pods were frequently used on larger aircraft for defense against enemy fighters, mainly on bombers. Machine guns were eventually phased out as even the heavy-duty ones like the M2/DSHK are simply too short-ranged for modern dogfighting. Now they are used as utility, cargo or light recon helicopter door guns.
*'''Cannons''': Experimented with briefly during the First World War to little effect, the cannon came into its own during World War 2. Twenty-millimeter autocannons became a popular replacement for machine guns, in response to a new generation of sturdier all-metal fighters. Larger aircraft in particular could survive many bullet impacts so long as nothing critical was struck, whereas explosive munitions could do a lot more damage. Bombers could be reliably eliminated with a few cannon shots. However, slow-firing cannons were less useful in a dogfight, so some aircraft would mount both cannons and guns. During the 1950s, and before the invention of air-to-air missiles, cannons proliferated - the idea was that aiming is less important if you're shooting out a whole lot of [[dakka]].
*'''Rotary Cannons''': Because the new jet fighters flew too fast to be reliably hit with machine guns, the solution was to use equally fast rotary guns such as the venerable M61 Vulcan 20mm rotary cannon. These have become the standard secondary armament on fighters, as missiles do most of the work now.
*'''Missiles''': A wide variety of missiles are used for a multiplicity of roles, such as fast and light heat-seeking missiles for bringing down aircraft, or slower and heavier but more powerful anti-tank missiles for ground warfare. These saw their first baby steps at the very end of World War 2, but didn't come into their own until the development of effective computer technology in the 1960s. Missiles are the primary air to air warfare tool in the Post-Cold War Paradigm of air warfare and have specialist roles in ground attack backing up unguided and guided bomb strikes.
** '''Infrared Heatseekers''': Primarily short range used against IR emitting usually physically hot targets.
** '''Radar Guided Missiles''': Generally uses two variants, Semi-Active Homing which uses Radar on the shooting fighter or assisting other radar to guide and Active Homing which has an on board targeting radar on the missile itself.
** '''Anti-Radiation Missiles''': Target radiation sources, namely mostly radars, to suppress enemy air defense.
*'''Rockets''': During the Second World War, unguided rockets were the classic tank-busting weapon. Cheap, accurate and hard-hitting, they were ideal for short-range dive bombing. In the 50s, they supplemented cannon as yet another 'maximum dakka' weapon because of their fast rate of fire. Nowadays, such munitions are mostly used as an area-of-effect weapon by Attack helicopters, which can carry about a dozen or so 70mm rockets for anti-infantry and light anti-armor combat.
*'''Bombs''': The first ground-attack weapons carried on planes, early bombs were literally hand-thrown by World War 1 bomber crews, though later they would be mounted in racks on the underside of planes. Bombs come in a very large variety of sizes and munitions, but traditionally they were carried either as a single munition on smaller dive-bombers to attack a specific target, or in large quantities on large bombers for attacking areas of strategic value. Both strategies are meant to overcome the inherent inaccuracy of dropping bombs from high altitudes. However, new JDAM bombs are capable of self-correcting in flight, making them far more accurate. Previously, the primary tactic of avoiding bombs was "duck and cover because they are likely to miss". After guidance became a thing, things started to rapidly suck whatever poor bastard who is being targeted.
*'''Torpedoes''': instead of unguided bombs light bombers were equipped with torpedoes for naval warfare, as the self-propelling nature of the weapon dramatically increased the chances of a hit. Problem was, torpedo bombing was a highly risky business: In the best of cases, it involved flying towards a heavily-armed target while carrying an incredibly heavy payload that limited your airplane's manoeuvrability, low to the surface of the water and slowing down right before the drop (drop speed was limited to ~170 knots for the biggest part of the war, go faster and the torpedo would deviate or simply shatter on impact with the water). On top of that, said heavily defended target had lots of AA guns, was rarely alone and more often than not had a CAP of fighters defending them; all things that would in turn take heavy tolls on the attacking torpedo-bombers. Still, it was efficient enough that the British perfected it early on in the Second World War, and it was quickly adopted by, among others, the Japanese and (in a more limited way) the American Navy. In modern times, fighter jets don't use them (as they simply go too fast to use torpedoes), but some helicopters and bombers carry them alongside seamines for aerial deployment to ruin any Navy's day. Additionally more modern naval mines are effectively torpedo turrets waiting for some punk to come along with the wrong IFF and serve 'em some fireworks.