1946, Guadalcanal. With the war dragging on, the Allied forces look to maintain a technologically superior edge. With a stalemate on land and at sea, and the rise of Aircraft like the Pfeil in Germany, and the Shinden in Japan, the US also looks to improved aircraft for it`s embattled forces.

First on the scene is the prototype XP-55 Ascender, followed by the XP-56 Black Bullet (both actual WW2 Aircraft Prototypes), but both are canceled early in 1944 due to serious design problems. After these are a series of improved prototypes leading to the Navy`s first Pusher-Prop which first flies in early 1946. After a Japanese Shinden was captured during the battle of Iwo Jima, the US development teams were finally able to discover and correct the flaws in their own designs.

Finally arriving in combat production in September of 1946, the new F42U Privateer is quickly dispatched to Marine and Navy units for full combat evaluation. It is hoped by many back home that new aircraft like the Privateer will help break the stalemate and lead to the defeat of the Imperial Japanese Navy in the Pacific...