LF-22 Starling: GTA Online's Take on a Feared German Rocket Interceptor

Meet the LF-22 Starling. No, it's not a brazen ripoff of the F-22 Raptor stealth fighter. Instead, it's a rocket engine-powered small interceptor that draws its inspiration heavily from an entirely different era of air combat. That would, of course, be the Messerschmitt Me-163B Komet. Just for a bit of fun, let's take a look at how Rockstar Games managed to bring the Luftwaffe's advanced interceptor to the digital realm.

We've featured the Me-163 Komet on autoevolution before. In fact, we even traveled all the way to Virginia to see one close up and in the flesh at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center. With this especially informed perspective, what the Rockstar dev team managed to accomplish is nothing short of spectacular. With most vehicles in the GTA Universe, they're indeed inspired by hardware in real life, as is the LF-22.

But most of the time, a large enough difference must be present between the vehicle in the flesh versus in the game. Lest they receive a stern cease and desist notice from General Motors or something. But because Messerschmitt hasn't built a fighter plane since 1945 and hasn't been in business at all since the late 60s, their prized Me-163 is pretty much fair game.

Without a very trained eye and if not for the Luftwaffe marking's removal, it's almost impossible to discern between the Komet and the Starling. But on further inspection, there are some key differences. Like the Komet, the Starling features a small propeller in the nose of the aircraft. In real life, this powered an onboard generator that controlled all the aircraft's vital sub-systems. In service with the Luftwaffe, this prop usually sported twin blades, or occasionally three.

With the Starling, its construction includes a novel four-blade propeller the likes of which were never proven to have been used by the Komet. Moving to the undercarriage, the Me-163 had to jettison its landing gear dolly and then skid back to Earth on landing. Occasionally, this primitive detachable gear system would bounce back up on takeoff and smack the plane right in the undercarriage, causing a crash that could and did kill German test pilots during World War II.

Because that wouldn't fly in a plane that costs $3,657,500 of in-game currency to buy, the Starling has its own storable landing gear. However, burning to a crisp after exposure to flesh dissolving rocket fuel sure does sound like a GTA way to go out.

Ironically, this only happened in real life, making the LF-22 ostensibly a safer aircraft, from a certain point of view at least. Apart from this, the biggest difference between the Komet and the Starling is its tail section. Where there was only a simple yaw-controlling rudder in the Me-163, the LF-22 uses a cruciform tail setup with a horizontal stabilizer protruding from either end.

But other than these little items, it's pretty much the very same Komet rocket interceptor we all know and love here for us to enjoy in GTA Online. As we all no doubt know, the Komet was one of the very first manned airplanes to challenge the supersonic barrier. According to some historians, it probably was the first plane to accomplish this. In a similar fashion, the LF-22 challenges the upper limits of what's possible with GTA Online's current flight mechanics. With acceleration figures that outclass even the Hydra (GTA's fusion of the Harrier and F-35 Lightning) and P-996 Lazer (GTA's version of the F-16).

But because no GTA fighter plane is complete without going bananas, the Starling has options for a ton of ordinance the Komet wouldn't dare carry. We're talking homing missiles, bombs, incendiary cannon ammo, napalm, and even cluster bombs. Why? Because GTA Online is a world where rules are encouraged to be broken for laughs.