Cool Plane / Macross

Macross just isn't Macross without it's trademark Valkyries (and other planes, naturally!), so it deserves a separate page.

Page is currently under construction. Ace Custom color schemes do not count as separate designs - the planes themselves have to be significantly mechanically different to qualify.

---

Valkyries, scramble!

Super Dimension Fortress Macross and Do You Remember Love

• No list of cool Macross aircraft would be complete without the legend itself, the VF-1 Valkyrie. While it isn't as snazzy as a lot of the later Variable Fighters, the Valk was a revolutionary design back in the day, both in-universe and in Real Life, as it fundamentally shook the definition of the Real Robot. Coming in several varieties, specifically the Red Shirt use VF-1A, the flight leader/squadron leader custom VF-1J and the unique (in the TV series only) VF-1S, the Valkyrie is armed with a 55mm revolver cannon, 1-4 head laser cannons (1 on the VF-1A, 2 on the VF-1J and the combat training use VF-1D, 4 on the VF-1S) and 12 anti air missiles (or 6 reaction missiles), the Valkyrie was a significant factor in humanity managing to even stand against the numerically vastly superior Zentraedi armada. Besides the baseline version, a special set of armor and eventually the FAST Pack were developed to improve range and firepower later on in the war.
  • The movie adds a couple new varieties of the Valk: a brand new Strike FAST Pack that features a pair of high power laser cannons instead of missiles, and the VT-1 Ostrich/Super Ostrich which is an unarmed trainer intented for early stages of flight training.
  • Some special use variations of the Valkyrie exist as well, specifically the ELINT Seeker Valkyrie, an electronics warfare version, from the movie and the VEFR-1 as its' TV series counterpart.
• The SF-3A Lancer II is the very first human fighter to fire in the entire franchise. It's a simple Space Plane with no aerodynamicity whatsoever, preventing athmospheric combat. The Lancer doesn't have much firepower either: a pair of laser cannons and two reaction warheads are all it has. The fleet of Lancer IIs stood valiantly against the Zentraedi in the first battle of the war, managing to take down some Zentraedi forces... even though the Zentraedi losses it inflicted ammounted to little more than a needle prick in the long run.
• The QF-3000E Ghost is one of the better known Ascended Extra planes, as its' descendents would feature prominently into Macross Plus and Macross Frontier. The Ghost is very notable as one of the earliest realistic depictions of an Attack Drone in fiction - it predates the Predator drone by a full 12 years. Even more funny is the fact there is a Real Life equivalent of the Ghost now - the Avenger which first flew in... 2009, the same year SDF Macross actually takes place chronology wise. About the only thing the Ghost didn't get right is the fact it has cannons, something practically no drones have as of this writing. Hilarious or Harsher in Hindsight? You decide.
• The ES-11D Cat's Eye is one of the few non combat aircraft to feature prominently in the series, as a fateful piloting of one by Misa sets in motion the major events that would eventually lead to human triumph. It's, again, a rather simple AWACS design, but it still manages to look cool, what with the slightly forward swept wings and large engine pylons.
• Episode 33 shows off several new designs as part of a flashback to the Unification War (which would be later depicted in a much greater depth in Macross Zero). First off, we have the F-203 Dragon II, which is essentially a F-15 Eagle fitted with Overtechnology derived improvements. The MiM-31 Karyovin is a blatant expy of the MiG -31 Firefox in name, but design wise it actually has surprisingly little in common. It served as the main fighter aircraft of the antiglobalist forces and had much of the same Overtechnology derivations as the F-203 (due to a case of technology theft which was, again, depicted in Macross Zero). Then we have the VF-X, a non-transforming prototype that eventually led to the developmemt of the VF-0 Phoenix. And last, but not least, we have the EC-33B Disk Sensor which is a more traditional AWACS aircraft in comparison with the Cat's Eye above.
• Compared to the human side of the conflict, the Zentraedi armada is much less reliant on aircraft, as they tend to use Mini-Mecha instead. Even so, they do have a cool plane design in the form of the Gnerl Fighter, a rather unusually shaped Space Plane that, unlike the Lancer II, can actually fly in the athmosphere, and at a very high speed at that. It causes many in-universe cases of a Goddamned Bats reaction just for the fact they are continuously deployed in the hundreds, if not thousands at the same time.
• Hikaru Ichijo's last known fighter, the VF-4 Lightning III, started a trend of increasingly cool and unusual fighter designs. The VF-4 takes liberal inspiration from the SR-71 Blackbird, and it's characteristic shell-like Battroid mode stands out all the more. It's also the first Variable Fighter in the franchise to have beam cannons instead of traditional shell-fired cannons. Sadly, the plane is a One-Scene Wonder, appearing only in the Flashback 2012 OVA, specifically in one of the two planned movie endings.
• Even though the civilians do not operate aircraft in a major capacity, the Fan Racer and it's rebuild, the Fan Liner are sleek and elegant, featuring flowing surfaces and a ducted fan (something that's very rare on most present day aircraft). They gain bonus points for actually being reproducible in Real Life, unlike pretty much any other craft on this list!

Super Dimension Fortress Macross II: Lovers Again

• The VF-2 family, despite not being featured as prominently as the original Valkyrie was in it's own series, is more than a worthy successor to the VF-1, even if it is not canon. It comes in two basic varieties:
  • The VF-2JA Icarus is the version suited for athmospheric combat, and it actually has somewhat decent armament in its' baseline form compared to its' space counterpart (it has the now-traditional head laser cannons, a gun pod and additional cannons in the nose section). However, the Icarus is also frequently launched with Missile Packs that provide a total of 4 missiles per fighter; not all that much, but still enough to cause an Itano Circus when a squadron fires their missiles simultaneously.
  • The VF2-SS Valkyrie II is the main fighter of the UN Spacy in 2092. It's white coloring serves as an homage to the original Valk, but mechanics wise the two are radically different. The VF-2SS doesn't have any armament besides the head cannons. How does the VF-2SS fight? By equiping the Super Armour Pack which turns it into an absolute monster of a plane. The pack has 54 micromissiles, 6 long range missiles (which are all, naturally, launched in an Itano Circus), a long range plasma railgun, a short range plasma railgun and bits. Yes, bits, as in Gundam Attack Drone bits, something no other Macross series has attempted since.
• The VA-1SS Metal Siren is the planned successor to the VF-2SS. Compared to the VF2-SS, it doesn't carry as many armaments, but it isn't absolutely helpless without an add-on pack either. It's knightly looks are also a rarity for variable fighters, making it stand out all the more. The Metal Siren got a showcase replica which has an eyecatching color scheme, but no weapons.
• The VC-079 Valkyrie is Hibiki's personal plane. While it has no armaments and it cannot transform into a Battroid mode, it's wide cockpit and unique wing design still make it very distinct.
• While the Marduk follow in the Zentraedi's footsteps of using mostly humanoid mecha, the Variable Armor is the first antagonist Transforming Mecha in the franchise. It's characteristic asymmetry when in fighter mode makes it all the more alien-looking. Their armament is no slouch either, as seen by Nexx fighting off a few in his Metal Siren in episode 5.

Macross Plus

• The canon successor to the VF-1 and the VF-4 is the VF-11B Thunderbolt, which is also featured prominently in the concurrently produced TV anime. Not unlike the VF2-JA above, the Thunderbolt lacks missiles, so it needs the Super Packs to become fully viable... and oh boy it is viable. The VF-11 is noteable for being the first variable fighter to completely ditch traditional missiles, instead going for a micro-missile only loadout. The reason is obvious. All this is cool, but not as cool as....
• Project Supernova, which gave the two definitive Cool Planes, not just for the franchise, but possibly for the anime industry as a whole. Meet the YF-19 Alpha One and the YF-21 Omega One. The duo had a set of improvements which provided a quantum leap in terms of fighting capability, manoeuvrability and overall surviveability. Both fighters feature pin-point barriers (something that only full size spaceships previously had), integrated missile pallets (2 for the YF-19, 4 for the YF-21), which means they can Itano Circus without any external packs with ease (although both fighters still have them, but only for more Itano Circusing since the engines do not require any external fuel tanks either), reloadable autocannons and additional forward-facing laser cannons (besides the usual turret on the head). Oh, and they can also Space Fold with an adequate external booster. Since the armaments on both are extremely close in terms of overall firepower, the main competition laid in the command system and wing structure: the YF-19 had traditional controls, a panoramic HUD cockpit and forward swept wings, which allow for superior manoeuvrability on low speeds (as proven in Real Life by the Grumman X-29 and the Sukhoi Su-47 Berkut - which was, hilariously enough, revealed about 3 years after Macross Plus started releasing) and the YF-21 had an innovative Human-Machine Interface and morphable variable sweep wings. As it turns out, the YF-19 won the competition and was eventually produced as the VF-19 Excalibur in time for the events of Macross 7.
• The secret third contestant for the UN Spacy's new mainline fighter was the non-variable X9-Ghost drone. A descendant of the QF-3000E mentioned above, this Ghost doesn't have as many fancy features as the Project Supernova fighters had, but what it does have makes it an extremely nasty piece of work for Guld. The Ghost is armed with 5 laser cannons and 29 micro-missiles in a single central palet, with the ability to carry 4 more in the form of it's own Super Packs (the only drone in the franchise to feature such a system). Not bad, but still not up to the cut for the manned fighters' weapons systems. However, being a drone means it has no needs for an alpha limiter, which essentially means it can perform manoeuvres no human could at the time (it took until Macross Frontier for variable fighters to get their own inertia store converters, which alleviated the issue). This means poor Guld had to disable the alpha limiter on the YF-21 and ram the sucker to take it down.

Macross 7, Encore, The Movie and Dynamite

• The trio of Sound Force Valkyries just scream Super Robot. In a series where most mecha are reasonably realistic, this makes them stand out all the more.
  • Basara's VF-19 is known for being the single greatest asset in his "music wins all battles" strategy. Even though it has some missiles and a pair of head laser cannons, those are for emergency use only: what brings ruin and eventual redemption to the Protodeviln are the speakers in the shoulders, it's speaker pod gun and eventually the Sound Booster.
  • Mylene eventually gets her VF-11 MAXL Thunderbolt as a way to join the fight against the Protodeviln herself. Besides reusing the basic frame of the Thunderbolt, it is otherwise a brand new plane: alongside featuring the sound based tech Basara's VF-19 has, it's also equipped with a new set of wings and a pinpoint barrier system which the baseline Thunderbolt lacks. And naturally it eventually receives it's own Sound Booster.
  • Ray and Veffidas pilot the VF-17T Custom which is somewhat of a bit player in the Sound Force, but it still isn't less awesome in terms of design. As with the rest of the Sound Force planes, it receives a Sound Booster of its' own which proves useful in the final battle against an awakened Geppelnich.
• The VF-17 is the one brand new fighter for the United Nations in the TV series, but oh boy is it a cool one. Heavily inspired by the F-117 Nighthawk, it features angled surfaces, radar absorbing paint and a whole lot of cannons. Specifically, two in the nosecone/Battroid chest, two in the arm manipulators, and the traditional head cannons: two for the grunt VF-17D and four for the VF-17S squadron leader version. Besides these integrated weapons, it's prime handheld weapon is an gatling gun pod which can be adapted into a beam cannon with a special adapter part. It eventually gets a reverse engineered Spiritia absorption pod just in time for the final battle, and it can use fold boosters. Besides the two base versions, there is also a AEW&C version and a trainer version that cameo'd in the Compilation Movie for Macross Plus.
• The VF-14 Vampire is a direct descendant of the VF-4, and much like it's ancestor it was a One-Scene Wonder appearing in one of the Macross 7 PLUS omake that were tacked onto some of the main series' episodes for the home video release. And the nickname turned out to be a really nasty in-universe case of Harsher in Hindsight, as the Vampire got reverse engineered by actual space vampires into the Varauta line of variable fighters.
• The VF-19 line continues the legacy of the YF-19 and as such shares pretty much all the features with the YF-19. Variants of specific note include the VF-19F and the VF-19S squadron leader custom. For the surgical strike on Varauta IV, the Emerald Force Excaliburs get a athmosphere modification. The only major changes compared to the YF-19 are additional guns on the sides of the head unit. As noted above with the YF-19, the VF-19 ended up a major case of Awesome, but Impractical and ended up being retired after just a short service in the UN Spacy.
  • The Zolans also produce a version of the Excalubur, the VF-19P which is a VF-19F additionally equiped with the speaker technology derived from Basara's Valkyrie.
• The VF-11 gets several new variants besides the MAXL as well:
  • The VF-11C mostly differs from the B variant mentioned in the Macross Plus section above by the reduced number of hardpoints. Besides the multiuse variant, a few episodes show a AEW&C variant and a version optimized for athmospheric flight. The Armored Thunderbolt deserves a mention as well, thanks to being the centerpiece in Col. Kinryu's spectacular death .
  • The Jamming Bird Custom Thunderbolt was an attempt to marry the surviveability and fighting capability of a Thunderbolt with the Sound Force speaker technology. Due to the singers being extremely afraid of the constant explosions, they don't work all that well until the very finale when Mylene manages to get the Jamming Birds to sing from their hearts.
• The YF-21 got cancelled, too bad for such a nice design... SIKE! The VF-22 is essentially a redesign of the YF-21 that does away with the extremely clunky thought control system. What remains after that is an extremely effective multi-purpose fighter that managed to prove itself time-and-time again in special attack roles; a few lines of dialog in Macross Delta confirm that upgraded VF-22s fly as late as 2067, nearly three decades after the development of the YF-21 started. Even though Isamu got the girl, Guld did, in a way, win Project Supernova - the VF-22 mananged to outlive the VF-19 by many, many years.
• Unlike the Zentraedi and their Power Armor philosophy of designing mecha, the Protodeviln immediately went with Variable Fighters to combat the UN Spacy. All the types featured in the series have integrated Spiritia absorption beams by default.
  • The Elgerzorene/Elgersohln family of variable fighters proved to be a massive source of Nightmare Fuel for the pilots of the Macross 7 Colonial Fleet. Unlike the rather lanky UN variable fighters, the Protodeviln fighters are bulky, armed to the brim with guns and missiles, and they can also steal your soul in no small part thanks to the Spiritia absorption technology. While they are not much more than your ordinary mook later on in the series, the first part made them scary for a reason. The FZ-109A are used early in the series by Gigil's subordinates, while Gigil himseld uses a FZ-109F.
  • Gavil's subordinates use the AZ-130A Panzerzorene/Panzersohln which is a very heavily upgraded VF-14 Vampire in its' core, but otherwise looks quite similarly to the FZ-109, sharing a rather similar outer armor and many of the armament systems.
  • Gavil himself uses the FBZ-99G Saubergeran, a rare case of the Ace Custom trope being played completely straight in the franchise. Despite the fact it was based off a reverse-engineered bomber design, the Saubergeran is a very tough nut to crack even for fighter Valkyries. Eventually, Gamlin's VF-17 gets the beam gun attachment for the gunpod... and the Saubergeran starts getting blasted about Once per Episode. Yet Gavil keeps coming back with more of the same unit. He's probably got a whole stash of these lying around the Protodeviln ship just for himself considering how narcissistic he is.
• The VF-5000G Star Mirage is a rather old fighter, being introduced as the athmosphere-specialised counterpart of the VF-4 all the way in 2013 (in the Macross universe, this means it was one of the first post-VF-1 valkyries developed, about a year after the chronological ending of the original anime). It still finds service with the Zolan Defence Force, which created a few new equipment options and a two-seater variant as part of the technological exchange with Earth. The new equipment are FAST packs and speaker boosters (and it can field them both at the same time)
• The space whale poachers also have some rather neat planes, specifically the two versions of the VA-3C Invader, the very first fighter-bomber Valkyrie design to appear on screen. The Invader has been a notoriously hard opponent for the Zolans, as the fact that the Zolan Star Mirages have to be authorized to fire any weapons besides their missiles makes it very difficult to intercept and fight off the Invader. And that is only made harder by just how many of them are deployed in the first place.
• And last but not least, the original VF-1 design has found its' way into the civilian service, mostly as whale hunting units.

Macross Zero

• The Northrop-Grumman VF-0 Phoenix, as a pre-production version of the VF-1 is naturally legible to qualify. Much like the VF-1 it comes in 3 versions: the VF-0A, the slightly modified VF-0D two-seater and the VF-0S "Skull Leader" custom. Besides eschewing the usual Bland-Name Product producer name, it is in most respects identical to the VF-1 barring traditional turbofan engines in place of the nuclear-pulse drives featured on the VF-1. And that still doesn't stop it from diving underwater for a few minutes. Roy's VF-0S was also shown to equip the PWX-0 reactive armor (which naturally allows for Itano Circusing).
• The QF-2200 Ghost family is the very first chronologically developed drone in the franchise. Besides serving as a Call-Forward to the QF-3000, X9 and the QF-4000, this Ghost also serves as a makeshift FAST Pack for the VF-0.
• The Sukhoi/IAI/Dornier SV-51 is the antiglobalist competitor to the VF-0. Compared to the VF-0, the SV-51 is rather lanky and spindly, serving as somewhat of a foreshadowing for the new philosophy of Valkyrie designs in Macross Frontier and Macross Delta (which features its' distant descendant, the SV-262 Draken III). It is also the only variable fighter to feature actual Real Life missiles and have a definitive Real Life plane as its' basis (for all that matters, the micro-missiles are apparently a derivation of the 9M311 missiles used on the Tunguska AA system, while the long range missiles are a modified set of R-33 missiles as used on the MiG-31 Foxbat, which also grants the engines and targeting electronics to the SV-51). Besides having the missiles, it also features a few Gryazev-Shipunov cannons in the Battroid hips (which have, yet again, became a popular place of Kawamori to add guns to in his recent designs) and the traditional gunpod. It can also perform bombing duties as shown by the fuel-air bombs leaving a nasty set of potholes on Maiya Island and be equipped with a pair of vectorable wingtip booster engines.

Macross Frontier, The False Songstress and The Wings of Goodbye

• The VF-25 Messiah is the next step in the evolution of the variable fighter. Developed from the failed YF-24 Evolution prototype, the 25 is an incredibly flexible fighter with the prime emphasis on modularity. The F variant can equip, in order: the Armor Pack (which, in a first for variable fighters, can transform with the fighter; it also carries a whopping 210 missiles which allows for one helluva Itano Circus); the more traditional Super Pack and fold booster options, and in the movies it can carry the TW1 Tornado pack (essentially an armored pack with a pair of quantum beam guns). The flight leaders of the SMS operate the S variant, which has the traditional head cannon count upgrade and a prototype tactical AI unit installed. Naturally, the S can equip the Armor and Super packs. Other specialized variants include the RVF-25 (which has an adapted version of the Super pack), a AEW&C version that also serves as a slaving center for up to six QF-4000 Ghost drones and, for the first time in the franchise, a dedicated sniper variant, the VF-25G which also has the Super system compatibility. Besides the usual streamlining of existing systems, the 25 family introduces several novel concepts: the EX-Gear command system which allows for far greater surviveability in the case a pilot gets shot down, the Inertia Store Converter, which allows for manoeuvres at far higher Gs without any risk for the pilot, and the rather small but sometimes lifesaving update to the armamenr systems in the form of a combat knife, which allows for an alternate melee option once the ammo runs out.
• The VF-27 Lucifer is the Galaxy fleet's main combat unit. A four-engined hulking monstrosity of a plane, the Lucifer is only matched by the YF-29 Durandal from the second movie in terms of sheer power. The Lucifer is a descendant of the same Evolution platform as the Messiah (geddit now?), but the weapons systems of the Lucifer far and away beat anything the Messiah has to offer. The main armament is a quantum beam gunpod that has two modes - a regular rapid firing one and the Wave-Motion Tuning Fork mode. Yes, the Lucifer has a freaking MACROSS CANNON as its' main gun. Besides that it also has 4 micro-missile launchers that can Itano Circus the hell out of everything, it goes far faster than the Messiah can, it has a panoramic cockpit that provides a far superior field of view when compared to the Messiah... the winner all around is obvious. However, there is one major flaw with the Lucifer: it needs a cyborg pilot to get the most out of it's impressive capabilities. (Un)fortunately, the red one that appears frequently has such a pilot, in the form of Brera Sterne. Oh, and it has a unique Super pack that can also become an Attack Drone.
• The VF-171 Nightmare Plus is the cannon fodder for both this series and Macross Delta. Based off the VF-17 Nightmare, the Plus completely forgoes the passive stealth system of its' ancestor (as active systems became the norm by that point in time) and instead offers a simple, but very effective and cheap platform that quickly replaced the rather Awesome, but Impractical VF-19 in service of both the New UN Spacy and the many PMCs that were formed after the deregulation of military authority by the Earth Government. Besides that, an AEW&C version also exists.
  • Late during the Vajra conflict, the VF-171 received a major refit in form of the VF-171EX, which gets new engines derived from those on the VF-19, a completely new avionics suite derived from the VF-25, an EX-Gear compatible cockpit and the ability to equip anti-Vajra weapons: MDEs in the TV series, implant bullets and missiles in the movies. It also gained the ability to be equiped with additional manoeuvring nozzles for improved mobility. Side material implies that the Block III, as the EX refit without MDE capability is known, is actually the variant of the VF-171 shown to be used by NUNS in Macross Delta, although the series never really explicitely states anything about that.
• How do you make the resident Ensemble Dark Horse mecha, the Destroid Monster, even cooler? Well by making it into a Transforming Mecha, of course! Enter the VB-6 König Monster (or for you who do not know German, the King Monster). Although the mecha isn't a newly created design, that unique Destroid factor is still present, with the usual heavy shoulder-mounted railguns and arm-shield missiles of the previous Destroids being the main armaments. Compared to the original VF-X2 version, the Frontier König Monster is implied to be a major refit, including amongst other things a new pinpoint barrier system and lighter armor made from the same material as the armor of the VF-25, which allows it to actually be rather fast compared to the usual Mighty Glacier status of Destroids.
• The YF-29 Durandal is probably the single most overkill plane in the franchise alongside the Lucifer above. The YF-29 is a four engined development of the Tornado-pack equiped Messiah, and as such most of the armament systems are the same as on the Tornado Messiah, barring a new gunpod featuring the same Macross Cannon-derived tech as the Lucifer's. For that note, the Durandal easily holds the record for the biggest single-craft Itano Circus not just in the history of the franchise, but likely in anime as a whole: 100+ micromissiles launched from a whopping 12 missile ports, which easily gets cranked up to over 200 once 4 additional launchers are equiped as part of its' super packs. While most of the avionics stay the same as on the VF-25, the 29 features a brand new 4-point central fold quartz architecture that allows integratrion of all the avionics into one singular whole, which persumably (as shown with the next aircraft to have that architecture, the VF-31 Siegfried from Macross Delta) allows the plane to go into a Super Mode which engages the afterburners on the engines, in turn granting about 15-20% higher output to all systems when compared to the baseline stats.
• The Ghost drone family returns in not one, but two different flavors.
  • The QF-4000 Ghost, as used by the SMS and the NUNS mostly stems from the QF-3000 in terms of development, but it also has a unique slaving system that requires a RVF-171 or the RV-25 to operate, which was implemented to prevent another Sharon Apple incident. Luca operates three of these, specifically Simon, John and Peter, as named after Biblical figures. Once unslaved however, the QF-4000 is shown to far surpass even the Ghost X-9 in terms of sheer manoeuvrability and speed.
  • The AIF-9V of the Galaxy fleet, however, takes fsr more after the X9 than the NUNS equivalent. Besides that, the V9 also has a far more powerful gunpod compared to the QF-4000 and a much looser slaving system that mostly relies on friendly identification to differentiate friend from foe, which overall makes it a very nasty enemy after Grace O'Connor takes over the Vajra Queen/merges the Battle Frontier with said queen (depending whether you watch the TV series or movies).

Macross Delta, Passionate Walküre and Absolute Live!!!!!!

---