X-02 Wyvern

"In addition, as a result of this operation, we were also able to obtain data on Erusea's unmanned fighter aircraft, which has long been veiled in secrecy. It will almost certainly be of benefit to the future of our country's aeronautical development."

- Mobius 1's commanding officer following Operation Katina

The X-02 Wyvern (Japanese: X-02 ワイバーン) is a next-generation fighter aircraft designed and created by the Erusian Air and Space Administration. It is one of the most famous fictional fighter designs in the Ace Combat series.

Like the ADF-01 FALKEN, the Wyvern made its first console appearance in nearly a decade, in Ace Combat Infinity. It was also shown during the  released during Tokyo Game Show 2014.

Design
The X-02 Wyvern is an experimental fighter with a striking appearance. The aircraft incorporates an uncommon design with variable geometry technology with a forward-swept wing configuration. As the aircraft gains speed, the wings and vertical stabilizers fold inward to reduce air drag, and retract to their neutral position once it slows down. This unconventional design grants it an extreme degree of mobility, and the folded wings add a degree of stealth; however, this comes at a cost to the aircraft's armor, which is scaled back to provide such mobility.

The X-02 incorporates a weapons bay between the intakes on the underside of the aircraft. This weapons bay is capable of carrying all kinds of special weapons, including air-to-air missiles, air-to-surface missiles, and various bomblet dispensers. The aircraft's standard missiles are launched from downwards retractable holders located on the undersides of each intake. The X-02 is powered by two tri-dimensional thrust vectoring ERG-1000 engines, which provide the aircraft with the ability of Mach 2.5 flight.

The aircraft's specifications are as follows:
 * Length: 21.84m (71.65ft)
 * Width: 18.30m (60.04ft) / 11.54m (37.86ft) when wings are folded
 * Height: 4.36m (14.30ft) / 3.42m (11.22ft) when wings are folded
 * Weight: 16,800kg (16.8 metric tons)
 * Max Speed: Mach 2.5 (3,062 km/h or 1,903 mph)
 * Combat Radius: 1,050km (652 miles)
 * Crew: 1 person

History
In the late 1980s, the Federal Erusian Navy issued a request for the development of a new combat aircraft that could also be used by the Air Force. Preliminary blueprints of the new jet, named the "X-02A", were completed by late February 1987, and its maiden flight took place in 1998 following a delay due to unspecified problems. By the end of the nineties, the existence of the Wyvern was already known by Erusea's neighboring nations. Knowing the EASA's plan, some of them decided to produce their own indigenous designs.

Production continued until the start of the Second Usean Continental War in 2003. Erusea planned to use the X-02s for the defending squadron of the Stonehenge network, but controversy was sparked from opposition groups questioning the large development cost of the aircraft versus its performance against conventional aircraft that had already been proven in combat. Development was halted as the controversies went on. The aircraft's development was hastily restarted in early 2005 after Stonehenge fell, but it was hampered by a lack of funding and supplies due to the war. A batch of fully operational units was sent to Farbanti, but they were seized by the Independent State Allied Forces after they took the city. The aircraft's development was indefinitely halted at that point.

In 2006, several X-02s in an experimental UCAV configuration were seized by Free Erusea in their continental uprising. The jets were deployed as a last resort during Mobius 1's attack on the White Valley arms factory used as their base, but were destroyed by the ace pilot. After the uprising's end, they were recovered by the ISAF for research.

Following the cessation of hostilities, Erusea established trade relations with Yuktobania and secured a deal involving the sale of an unspecified number of Wyverns to be built by Gründer Industries. They would be functionally identical to the original version, but subjected to the company's cost-cutting development techniques. A lone Yuktobanian Wyvern made an unauthorized incursion into Osean Federation airspace in mid-2010, and was shot down by the air defense system (the fate of the pilot remains a mystery). The plane's remains were salvaged and covertly sent to Sand Island to avoid an international scandal, where it was handed to the 703rd Maintenance Company. Upon the end of the war, a Gründer Industries' Wyvern flew along an ADF-01 and its ADFX-01 precursor in a November City airshow.

Game Analysis
"An air superiority/multirole fighter developed by a certain country. It features special variable wings which adjust according to speed. The forward swept wing configuration allows it to demonstrate unparalleled combat abilities while its sweptback wing configuration gives it access to supercruise and stealth abilities. The extreme visual differences between the wing configurations has often made people believe that there are 2 different aircraft. Its nickname is "Wyvern"."
 * -|Ace Combat Infinity====Ace Combat Infinity===

- Hangar

How to Unlock
 * Unlockable through Aircraft Tree.

Colors
 * Default: Grey livery with blue tips on vertical stabilizers

Gallery

Trivia

 * The X-02 Wyvern was designed by Project Aces member Isshin Yabuki, who desired to make an aircraft design with variable wing geometry and used several aircraft, including the Su-37 Terminator, the Su-47 Berkut and the YF-23A Black Widow II as reference. Yabuki revealed his inspiration in a 2004 interview with Japanese gaming site Softbank Games, where he also hinted that another source was the Sentō Yōsei Yukikaze series, described by him as "a certain novel".
 * During the Operation Future Prospect trailer for Ace Combat Infinity, an image of the X-02 is seen in a similar paint scheme to the ADFX-01 -Block1-.
 * The unauthorized Yuktobanian X-02 that was shot down over Osean airspace can be seen during Scene 16 of Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War, the cutscene immediately following Journey Home. However, it's almost impossible to identify it as an X-02 in the cutscene itself without looking at both the official Namco screenshot of the scene (which is zoomed out and displays both engines) as well as the development sketch of the aircraft (which displays the Yuktobanian Air Force emblem as well as the X-02's wings).