Jack of Harts F-7 Hellcat Starfighter

This is the F-7 Hellcat starfighter, designed by the amazing Stephen Huda for the Jack of Harts universe after I sent him a VERY rough sketch of what I was looking for.

The Grumman F-7 Hellcat is THE starfighter of the American military when The War began. Military movies showed the Hellcats in action, over land, sea, and air, in the darkness of space, or the lights of carrier bays.

They were the most maneuverable, the heaviest armed, and in general the best fighter the Americans built. As at home in the air as they are in space, they served the Navy, the Space Force, and the Marines, on the front lines of every major conflict for decades before and after The War.

They carry twin forward laser cannons, one on either side of the cockpit, and laser turret on the end of each wing. Missile pods on each wing give the Hellcat impressive firepower in anti-fighter and anti-ship operations. All weapons are easily removed from the fighter if damaged or in need of maintenance. Four engines, two atop the wing and two below, give the fighter impressive horizontal spin control. Though their arrangement makes vertical rotation inferior to other designs, experienced pilots know their fighters well enough to counteract that weakness.

And they had many experienced pilots. They still do even now. But every fighter pilot wanted to fly Hellcats when The War began. If you didn't fly a Hellcat, you just didn't fly a real fighter. Or so the stories say.