Quarto
Unknown Enemy
An important thing to keep in mind, and certainly very relevant when it comes to the Banshee, is that most nations and governments do not build their own planes - they get civilian contractors to develop and build them. Also worth noting is that aviation history is filled with successful military fighter planes that were taken up to prototype stage without any support from the government whatsoever, in the hope that the government would be impressed enough to order them after testing. Indeed, the famous F4 Phantom II (a figher built in bigger numbers than any other American jet, apart from the Sabre) was originally developed and submitted to the US Navy as an unsolicited design.
What's my point? Well, I never said the Union of Border Worlds developed the Banshee - obviously, they didn't. A company named Verier Underground did (on a sidenote, why Verier, not Vearrier? Is that intentional, or just a spelling mistake that stuck?). They may have hoped Confed would be interested, or the local militias, privateers and other private enterprises, or heck - they may have even been hoping to export it to Landreich. I don't know, and it doesn't matter - the point is, the duration of the Border Worlds as an independent nation is entirely irrelevant. Even had the UBW only existed for one day, they still would have been able to acquire new fighters, so the Banshee does not need to be an old fighter. What's more, the UBW obviously wasn't made overnight out of nothing anyway - they wouldn't have been able to set up an autonomous government (which is a pre-requisite to declaring independence) had there been no political will to do so, and no military and financial capabilities to reinforce this move afterwards. This means that, like every other newly-independent nation in history, the UBW was born through the merging of various local government branches and paramilitary organisations, and there is pretty clear indication that some of these paramilitary organisations had existed for a long time, with plenty of material support from Confed.
So, there is any number of ways that the existence of the Banshee as a new fighter ('new' meaning from the late '60s or early '70s - it could actually have been built during the last phase of the war) could be explained. And yes, none of this invalidates the other possible explanations. Certainly, that "ancient three-man patrol fighter" reference is a possibility, as is the idea that it was an old Confed trainer. But, at the same time, there is nothing conflicting with the "new fighter" explanation. I won't pretend that this particular explanation is more likely or solid than the others - I chose it for UE out of personal preference. Given how varied these things are in real life, it would simply be boring if the same old explanation was used for every single BW fighter .
What's my point? Well, I never said the Union of Border Worlds developed the Banshee - obviously, they didn't. A company named Verier Underground did (on a sidenote, why Verier, not Vearrier? Is that intentional, or just a spelling mistake that stuck?). They may have hoped Confed would be interested, or the local militias, privateers and other private enterprises, or heck - they may have even been hoping to export it to Landreich. I don't know, and it doesn't matter - the point is, the duration of the Border Worlds as an independent nation is entirely irrelevant. Even had the UBW only existed for one day, they still would have been able to acquire new fighters, so the Banshee does not need to be an old fighter. What's more, the UBW obviously wasn't made overnight out of nothing anyway - they wouldn't have been able to set up an autonomous government (which is a pre-requisite to declaring independence) had there been no political will to do so, and no military and financial capabilities to reinforce this move afterwards. This means that, like every other newly-independent nation in history, the UBW was born through the merging of various local government branches and paramilitary organisations, and there is pretty clear indication that some of these paramilitary organisations had existed for a long time, with plenty of material support from Confed.
So, there is any number of ways that the existence of the Banshee as a new fighter ('new' meaning from the late '60s or early '70s - it could actually have been built during the last phase of the war) could be explained. And yes, none of this invalidates the other possible explanations. Certainly, that "ancient three-man patrol fighter" reference is a possibility, as is the idea that it was an old Confed trainer. But, at the same time, there is nothing conflicting with the "new fighter" explanation. I won't pretend that this particular explanation is more likely or solid than the others - I chose it for UE out of personal preference. Given how varied these things are in real life, it would simply be boring if the same old explanation was used for every single BW fighter .
No indeed... but the fact that nobody seemed particularly impressed doesn't change the fact that the Banshee is armoured and shielded almost as well as the Hellcat, carries more guns and missiles than the Hellcat, and still remains just about as fast and manoeuvrable as the Arrow. And when one fighter manages to combine the best features of the enemy's two most common light and medium fighters, that is impressive .Delance said:We really don't know for sure that the Vindicator and the Avenger are too fantastic and expensive for the BW to have. In fact, no confed defector displayed signs of being particularly impressed or surprised by them.