L-65 Tiburón

L-65 Tiburón
A Royal Corric Air Cavalry L-65 from 7th Air Combat Squadron over Tonderouca c. 1989
Role	Interceptor, fighter-bomber
National origin	Antora
Manufacturer	Compañía Nacional de Vuelos
Designer	Compañía Nacional de Vuelos
First flight	29 December 1960
Introduction	1962
Status	In limited service
Primary users	Royal Corric Air Cavalry (historical) Royal Corric Armada (historical) Mirhaime Realm Air Force (historical) The Company of the Quill
Produced	1959–1992
Number built	921
Developed into	L-66 Martíllo

The Compañía Nacional de Vuelos L-65 Tiburón (Corric: Shark) is an Antoran all-weather, high-altitude supersonic jet interceptor and fighter-bomber originally developed by Compañía Nacional de Vuelos (Corric: National Aviation Company) for the Royal Corric Air Cavalry in 1962. Proving itself to be highly adaptable, it was further adopted by the Royal Corric Armada as an anti-submarine bomber in 1964, becoming the premiere Corric air combat aircraft. Production ran in batches from 1960 to 1992 with a total of 921 aircraft built, making it the most-produced Corric/Antoran combat aircraft in history and the mainstay of Corric airpower for the mid-20th century through the first decade of the 21st.

The Tiburón is a large tandem two-seat fighter with dual engines that can reach a top speed of over Mach 2.2. It can carry more than 18,000 pounds (8,400 kg) of weapons on nine external hardpoints, including air-to-air missiles, air-to-ground missiles, bombs, and gunpods. The A through D batches of the Tiburón included a TEA-4 rotary cannon for close-range engagements, which was replaced in the E through G batches with an advanced targeting/avionics suite. All remaining batches after H were designed with a hardpoint to accommodate either electronics pods or a gun system. From its testing in 1960, the L-65 set several world records in flight characteristics including speed and altitude. The lifetime average Kill-to-Death ratio of the fighter across all variants and operators is 76:1.

The L-65 operated extensively in the R.C. Defense Forces in multiple roles: aircraft served as interceptors and fighter/bombers as intended, but also as reconnaissance due to their speed, firefighting and anti-submarine aircraft due to their payload and targeting systems, and even as electronic warfare via the L-66 Martíllo (Corric: Hammerhead) variant. The Tiburón saw conflict twice in Corric service: during the Annexation of Catrás in 1983 and the Corric Succession Crisis of 1985. During the Annexation, it served as an air superiority fighter against the outnumbered Volkian GA-20M of the Catrán Air Wing, as well as a close air-support craft and precision bomber. The L-65, along with contemporary guided artillery, is credited with the speed of the Annexation. During the Corric Succession Crisis, the Fourth Air Combat Group declared support for Crown Prince Astolfo and engaged in combat with loyalist forces in ground attack and air superiority missions. This was the only historical instance of L-65s directly engaging hostile pilots also flying Tiburóns.

Outside of Corric service, the L-65 was exported to Tennabroch and Mirhaime in the 1970s, where they were adapted for carrier-based service as the F-9 Volker and the TKN-60 Phantom. Corric aircraft were upgraded throughout the 90's and early 2000's to modern standards of internal systems, resulting in the final "Batch-T" configuration that was the standard until their retirement in 2019. While no militaries currently employ them, refurbished Batch-T models still see service with the Corporate Air Wing of the Quill Gusanaszna Division, the Air Defense Wing of the International Trade Zone, and Quill Air Consultants. These private military corporations, each a subsidiary of Quill Defense Contractors, Inc., have an estimated 200 functioning L-65 models between them. It has seen combat in air defense and interdiction missions in the 21st century, notably in the Ni-Rao Civil War.