Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-3522837-20150415174546/@comment-184.7.128.178-20150420184305

Prefix designation only relays the aircraft's role. FYI is fighter, A is attacker, B is bomber, when dealing with American-based aircraft. (Japan typically uses the same convention because they are using variants of the US plane). Everyone else assigns anow abbreviation of their own name; Su for Sukhoi, Mig for Mikoyan Gurevich.

Now, most fictional planes will follow the American naming convention, and there are many reasons for that. An F and A designation indicates the intent for the plane to serve a multirole function as an attacker and a fighter. The presence of another letter indicates a somewhat arbitrary designation as an experimental plane. It'a usually an X, but if can be anything the manufacturer decides.

Multiple planes with an X designation only means they're likely from an American or affiliated background, experimental plane. It doesn't tell one way or another who made it or any relation to another similarly named plane. The only connection between the F-14, F-15, and F-16, is that they're US military planes. They were all built by different manufacturers. Furthermore, there is a real X-36, which is likely what the game's version is based on. That likely means no further connection with the xfa-24 or 27 beyond being used/requested by the same nation.