During the Bilibili First Look event in Shanghai, Bandai Namco debuted the new FA-36 Game controllable aircraft for the arcade flight simulator Ace Combat 8: Of Theves. It uses an unusual tailless design and is a redesign of the XFA-36A aircraft in Ace Combat 3: Electric Circle.
The FA-36 Game is a carrier-based stealth fighter with high maneuverability and a large number of weapons. The aircraft is equipped with two engines with three-dimensional thrust vectors, and the wingtips can be folded according to flight speed.
For long-time fans of the series, this title may already be familiar. Ace Combat 3: Electric Circle, released in 1999, featured the fictional XFA-36A fighter jet and had the same game subtitles. It also features a tailless design and engines with three-dimensional thrust vectoring.
The appearance of the two vehicles is also related to the real experimental X-36 aircraft jointly studied by McDonnell Douglas Phantom Factory and NASA in the 1990s. The device is designed to study the maneuverability of future tailless fighter aircraft and is 28% the size of the proposed full-size aircraft.
The connection between the FA-36 game and the XFA-36A is particularly interesting given the timeline of the Ace Combat world. The events of Part Eight take place in 2029, ten years after the events of Ace Combat 7: Skies Uncharted. The developers previously stated that they took into account the connection to Ace Combat 3, which takes place in the 2040s, when making the new game. Therefore, there are potential plot links between the two games, but it has not yet been confirmed whether the FA-36 is a direct predecessor of the XFA-36A or represents a different stage of development of the technology. The appearance of the FA-36 in the main campaign is also unconfirmed, as the series often adds controllable aircraft that don’t participate in the plot.
Ace Combat 8: Wings of Tef will be released on October 2, 2026 on PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S.
