WARBIRD: Air Combat Simulator

The year is 1940 and you find yourself seated in the cockpit of a Supermarine Spitfire Mk IA, the pride of the Royal Air Force. The roar of Merlin engines spreads across a grass runway in southern England as you ready your joystick, controller, or mouse and keyboard.

In this scenario you take on the role of a pilot in No. 610 Squadron, tasked with defending against German fighters over the English Channel. You ready the aircraft for takeoff, ensuring the fuel mixture, engine RPM, and throttle are set correctly. Your flight of four begins to roll down the runway. You increase the throttle slowly, using the rudder to correct for the torque that wants to steer the aircraft off course. As you reach around 100mph you pull back on the stick, the nose lifts and you're airborne.

You retract the landing gear and reduce engine RPM and throttle. The Merlin can only take so much before it overheats and fails; you have to save the limited time you have at full power for when it's truly needed. As your flight reaches the base of the clouds you look around. Below you lie the white cliffs of Dover and the English coast; ahead, the English Channel stretches into the distance. You're brought back to attention by your wingman over the radio: "Enemy fighters, 12 o'clock!" Looking forward you see four tiny dots rapidly approaching, German Bf 109s. Your flight spreads out. You push the throttle forward to gain extra speed and align your gunsight.

WARBIRD: Air Combat Simulator (WARBIRD) is a World War Two combat flight simulator focused on piston-engine aircraft and historically grounded air warfare. Designed as a long-term platform rather than a single linear campaign, WARBIRD emphasizes a sandbox approach where players can engage in official scenarios, dynamic campaigns, and user-created content.

Inspired by platform-driven development models such as ArmA, WARBIRD is intended to grow over time, supporting new theatres, vehicles, and gameplay systems within a unified simulation framework. While the initial and core focus is on aerial combat, the underlying architecture is designed to support future combined-arms expansion.

WARBIRD positions itself between highly accessible arcade titles and full procedural “study-level” simulators. The goal is a mid-level simulation that delivers realistic flight and damage modelling while remaining approachable. Players should be rewarded for skill and tactical understanding, but not required to manage exhaustive procedural checklists to participate effectively.

While WARBIRD is setup to allow for all kinds of different time periods, our inital focus is on the Battle of France and Battle of Britain (1939–1940). This period represents one of the most culturally recognisable and strategically significant aerial campaigns of the Second World War. Despite its prominence in popular history, there are limited modern simulation-focused titles centred specifically on this theatre.