Jets that fly like jets
A pilot said it plainly: “I have to constantly pull up to hold altitude, and it climbs very slowly — is that intentional?” It was not. The jets were flying like loaded bombers with the trim stuck. Now they fly like jets: fast, hard-climbing, and steady enough to take your hands off.
Silver darts at twice the speed
The early-jets era promised silver darts — and now they deliver. A turbojet doesn't lose its shove as the numbers climb, so the jets keep pulling right up to the top of the dial. The Starfang tops out around 316 m/s and climbs like it means it; the Balalaika runs to 334 m/s and rockets uphill. That's roughly twice the speed of a Sparrowhawk. Firewall the throttle and you feel the era pitch made real: these things move.
Hands off, nose level
The old jets sagged. Relax the stick for a second and the nose dropped; take your hands off entirely and a Starfang would settle into a shallow dive and ride it into the Brick Gulf. Now a settled hand means level flight. Center the reticle, no pitch key held, and the jet holds its altitude on its own — steady, no back-pressure, no slow bleed toward the sea. Work the mouse, bank into a turn, touch S or W and the hold lets go instantly; you're flying it again. It flies the way you already expect a plane to fly.
Jets also launch with speed on the clock now, at cruising pace rather than a prop's slow trundle — so you leave the deck flying, instead of wallowing on the back side of the power curve waiting for the engine to catch up.
A jet should feel like a jet from the first second: fast off the deck, eager uphill, and rock-steady when you let it settle.
Clean pulls
One more report from the cockpit: “pulling up kind of humps.” At jet speeds a hard pull would overshoot and hitch — pull, dip, pull again — a little porpoise right when you wanted a smooth arc onto a target. That's gone. Haul back on a jet now and the nose comes up in one clean sweep, one soft check at the start and then a steady rotation all the way through. Snap shots track where you point them.
Missiles and flares, where your thumbs live
Mobile pilots flying the jet era were missing something important: there was no missile button, and the flare button was hiding half off the corner of the screen. Both are back where they belong now, in the weapon cluster under your thumbs — MSL in seeker blue above FIRE, FLARE in flare orange above BOMB. Lock, launch, and pop chaff without ever taking your eyes off the fight.
Sound on a phone got sorted too. If your ringer switch is set to silent, Warbirds stays silent — a phone on mute should be muted, and the join screen now says so. Flip the switch on and the turbines come in at a comfortable level, sitting right alongside the old piston drone instead of drowning it out. And if a call interrupts you, the sound comes back with your next tap.