In the imaginary universe of IL-2 1946 where the Cold War is just about to become hot, a USAF squadron is operating from an airfield of some tactical importance somewhere in Normandy region... Red Alert! A Soviet Tupolev Tu-4 bomber has managed to slip through our forward air defenses. Observers report a flight of two MiG-15's escorting it. Optical observations suggest that the bomber is carrying a nuclear warhead comparable to those used to end the Pacific conflict in 1945. Attempts to intercept the bomber have failed due to bad communications and mechanical problems. These are also the reason why word only reaches you now, when the enemy bomber is only about 20 nautical miles away. -§- Briefing for the alert fighter pilots: "Enemy is approaching the base from direction 350 degrees at an altitude of approximately twelve thousand feet, currently at range of approximately 12 nautical miles or 22 kilometres. Winds calm, moderate cloud coverage, no precipitation, ceiling at 65 hundred feet. You are cleared for immediate take-off, turn to heading 350 and intercept the enemy bomber. Climb at your discretion, but be advised there are two MiG's escorting the bomber, and standard climb will make you extremely vulnerable to them. Your fighters are only filled with 100 gallons of fuel in order to reduce weight and improve your odds of intercepting the bomber in time. Remeber that should you fail your mission, not only will this base be destroyed but also the nearby town. Evacuations are in progress, but we only have minutes to get to shelter. Take-off in 30 seconds. Godspeed, pilots." § So, I wanted to try something to showcase the stuff in HSFX 5.0 and what better than the brilliant new cockpit for the F-86 Sabre. This mission is a scramble-type quick mission on Normandy map, flown on blue (axis) side as US Alternate, while the hostiles are red (allies) Soviet VVS. Air defenses for the base are enabled, hostiles are flying at altitude of 3500 metres and are at about 20 km range as the mission begins. The Tu-4 is, of course, a B-29 Silver Plate variant carrying a Little Boy 15 kt nuclear device, and will bomb the base dead on if you fail to reach it in time. Difficulty-wise, all relevant options are enabled (engine overheat, blackout/redout, limited fuel, limited ammo, realistic structural limits etc.). Fuel is set to 30% for the Blue flight, and 100% for the Reds. The best way I found to have any chance in this mission is to take off, turn north, gather speed up to 780-800 km/h, scanning the skies for the MiG's and the Tupolev bomber, and when you locate the bomber above you, zoom climb up to it so that you get into firing position as fast as possible. You will likely encounter the MiG's much earlier than the bomber and they will likely engage you, but you will have to concentrate on reaching the bomber and peppering it with enough .50cal rounds that it either drops its bomb ahead of the target (which is sub-optimal result, as realistically that would still cause a lot of destruction on the airfield and town next to it), or shoot the bomber down (which I managed to do here). After dealing with the bomber, you need to turn your attention to the MiG's which are annoying to fight if they manage to retain their energy advantage. Additionally, the AI can't really handle the MiG's very well and most of the time either uses annoying cheat mode to climb and run away faster than you as your fighter hopelessly overheats, or fly straight without a worry in the world as you shoot them up. After the fight I wanted to demonstrate some of the flight capabilities of the F-86, so I did a few power dives, buzzing the airfield at low altitude - and since the Mach gauge in my cockpit was showing Mach 1.1, I edited the sonic booms into the audio track with Audacity (sorry, those aren't in-game - but the in-game sounds with HSFX and Tiger's flyby sounds are quite impressive in their own right!). A...