We have cleared many hurdles but the replacement for the T-2 Stratoranger aircraft is getting ready for flight testing. Preliminary numbers confirm that it is sleeker and safer than it's predecessor.
To give you an idea of the process we come up with a requirement (VTOL vs. wheeled, air vs. space capable, cargo capacity) and a preliminary design that fits those specifications. Then the artist constructs it in our proprietary modeling program which does baked lighting (for speed), rigging (for animations), and a virtual wind tunnel (for aerodynamics). We then take the numbers we come up with and plug them into the attached spreadsheet. This can be iterative as the CG might need to be adjusted or surfaces that are designated as control surfaces expanded. Finally (the stage we are at now) we have numbers we can plug into the game engine and let our QA take it for a test drive in the simulator.
If there are no red flags we might be seeing these flown by test pilots in the game within a week!
Steam users will be given vouchers to upgrade their tired T-1 Stratoranger to the new T-19 Stratomaster