G.91

     Notes: The G.91R reconnaissance and ground attack aircraft was adopted by Italy, Portugal, and Germany in the 1950s.  (Germany designated this aircraft the G.91R/3, and they were armed with DEFA 552 autocannons.) The pilot has an ejection seat, and the aircraft is not capable of in-flight refueling.  It is not an advanced aircraft, but is cheap to buy and maintain. The G.91 has a strengthened underfuselage and undercarriage to operate from minimally-prepared road surfaces and grass strips. The G.91 is powered by a Bristol Siddeley Orpheus turbojet with 4520 pounds thrust. The four M2HB machineguns arming the G.91 are mounted in a removable tray that is easily serviced and reloaded. Gunsights are rudimentary and consist of a simple gunsight projected onto the forward canopy.

     The G.91T is primarily a trainer variant, but also has a useful attack capability.  It differs only in the extra seat, less machineguns, half the hardpoints, and less carrying ability. (Germany designated this aircraft the G.91R/4.)

     The G.91Y (often known as the Yankee), on the other hand, is virtually a new aircraft.  It replaced the single engine of earlier models with two General Electric J85 engines, offering greater thrust than the single-engined G.91R; each engine offered 2725 pounds thrust dry, and were equipped with afterburners to give the engines 4080 pounds in each engine in afterburner.  The fuel capacity was also almost doubled.  The machineguns were replaced by twin 30mm autocannons.  The avionics suite, almost not present in the R model, was upgraded with Doppler navigation, a flight computer, radar altimeter, and a HUD.  Maneuverability was increased with the addition of leading-edge slats. The Yankee can also be fitted with RATO bottles to decrease the takeoff run by half. 

     The G.91 saw combat use with the Portuguese Air Force during the Portuguese Colonial War in Angola and Mozambique.

     Twilight 2000 Notes: The G-91s were brought back into service to replace aircraft losses in the Twilight War.

*The cockpit is lightly armored and has an AV of 6.