User blog comment:Captain rudder guy Kevin1/Squadron Stories/@comment-10905876-20160409151707

Review: XP-55 Ascender

"This thing climbs like a rocket!"

One of the features of War Thunder is that they have a daily reward. One of the big items that sometimes comes along is a chance to take a premium vehicle out in combat for about an hour. I've had this opportunity twice, the first one was a while back, and I got to try the rather unwieldy Panzerwerfer rocket launcher. While an interesting vehicle, it was difficult to aim, and poorly armored, leaving me unimpressed. Last night however, I had the pleasure of flying the USAAF's XP-55 Ascender, an experimental tier II fighter that looks more like a jet than a WWII fighter.

The XP-55 has an unusual configuration, with forward canards, swept wing, rudders at the back of the wing, and a pusher type propeller at the rear. Through a combination of powerful motor and clean aerodynamics, this bird is also extremely fast, and can climb like nothing I've ever seen. If your climbing at an angle of less than 30°, it'll even accelerate! This rate of climb is excellent for reaching high altitudes, where the XP-55 seems quite at home. The engine is also remarkably quiet, which may make an enemy unaware of your presence.

Armament is also impressive, with 2 .50cal MGs and 2 20mm cannons all clustered in the nose. This clustering of weaponry means that one does not need to worry about convergence. It also means that you have a concentrated stream of fire, being shot by a wicked fast aircraft, which flys beautifully at high speed.

Maneuverability is moderate. This bird is no turn fighter by any means, but she's still agile enough to be competitive. She is a definite energy fighter though, and your best tactic is to attack at high energy, and then climb away before the enemy you've overshot can follow. Though, with her good armament, you'll likely have killed your opponent in the first pass.

The implications of this? The XP-55 is an incredible bomber hunter. She's good at killing fighters, but chasing down bombers at high altitude is a blast in this thing. With the incredible rate of climb you get, you can get high above the enemy bombers, even if they themselves are climbing to escape other planes on the hunt.

A typical attack on a bomber would involve diving down from above and ahead, (I've if course already climbed to above the bomber's altitude, sometimes even going vertical in my climb) peppering their wings with fire. Then pulling up and around to get in behind them, with enough energy left to still close back in to attack from behind. The concentrated stream of fire means that I will systematically destroy key components, killing engines and igniting fuel. After a bit of that, the enemy bomber will die a fiery death of some manner. Now, if I've planned this right, I attacked a rearward bomber. If that is correct, I hit full throttle, and lock target on another bomber up ahead. I climb a bit and repeat the procedure for attacking from behind. If there's a bomber behind me, I'll climb up and repeat the attack from ahead like I did on the first. All in all, an incredible aircraft.