Short Description

Create autonomous drones from the Aircraft Mod planes.
Build an airport.
Launch bombing missions and spotting missions.
Install the Booktorio mod to get an in-game help to this mod (https://mods.factorio.com/mod/Booktorio)

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Known issues

If you remove/change your airport while drones are in the air, they might not be able to land again. [open]
Multiple runways can be placed on top of each other. [open]
Occasionally drones might get stuck during the landing process, then they will circle above the airport forever. If that happens use the console command "AircraftDronesUnstuck" (case sensitive!). It will make ALL drones fly to the starting position (coordinate 0,0) and then they'll try to reach their target again. If that happens too often increase the setting "destination coordinates modifier". [should in general be okay]
Buildings are not rotatable -> that's probably not going to change. [no active issue]
You can manually refill fuel in flares making them burn forever -> consider it a feature, not a bug. [no active issue]
In the map view you'll see the available airstrike range around an airport as a red circle when you hold the remote (if you've turned turret coverage on). There is however no visible difference to the artillery range - in fact if you hold the artillery remote you'll also see the airport range (Example: https://imgur.com/DKpoCxy.jpg). This is only a cosmetical issue of the map view, targeting artillery and airstrikes only works in their respective ranges. [no active issue]

Planned Features

Better cabeling for the runway.
A patrol mission that maybe results in drones bombing attacking biter hordes.
Cargo drones which - similar to LTN - bring items from a provider airport to a requester airport.

License Information

This mod includes materials from the Aircraft mod (https://mods.factorio.com/mod/Aircraft).
The hangar image was made by OwnlyMe.

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Long Description

Build your airport

An airport consists of a hangar and a runway, both connected by wire.
If the connection is correct, the runway will give out a green signal. Red signal means wrong wiring, yellow signal means the runway is used by a drone.
To be able to start an airstrike, a hangar needs rocket fuel, rockets and a drone in its inventory.

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Notes:
You need Gunship Drones or Flying Fortress Droens for bombing missions, Jet Drones for spotting and scouting missions
You can use any type of (base game) rockets, the mod also includes a napalm rocket.
You can use nukes, but with spotting missions this is going to result in an overkill (several nukes will be used for one biter base).
A drone will always come back to its originating hangar. Make sure the hangar exists, has a connected runway and has a free inventory slot.
You can connect a hangar to multiple runways, but each runway can only have one hangar connection.
Starting and landing drones will follow the waypoints: hangar - runway start - runway end. To avoid (purely cosmetic) issues with the pathfinding I would advise you to build your airports like in my example screenshot.
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Launch the airstrike

Use the remote targeter to launch a bombing mission:

Similar to the artillery remote it shows you the number of available drones in range.
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Alternatively place a red flare on the map:
- The red flare will start a spotting mission. A Jet drones will come here and look for biter nests, targets for bombing missions will be placed automatically.
- For each nest one target will be placed.
- Spotting missions are repeated after about 4 minutes, flares will burn out after about 16 minutes

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Aircraft Drones