What are the must-have (overpowerful) aircrafts in Ace Combat 5?

Question

I'm a noob to this series (I only played and finished Ace Combat X on PSP) and I noticed that on AC5 you can't have all aircraft in one "run". This is different from ACX where you could play the same mission over and over to get the money.

Now this is not a problem for me but I'd like to avoid finishing mission #28 (a random number) only to realize that I don't have enough money to buy a decent aircraft to complete mission #29.

What aircraft are a must have in this game? Which aircraft should I buy in order to finish the game without many problems? I like challenges but using lame aircraft before knowing it's lame on the first "run" is not good!

Answer 1

That's a difficult question to answer, most planes have their weaknesses and strengths so it also depends a lot on your playing style.

This guide offers an overview of all the airplanes in AC5, it also gives a short summary for every plane describing what it's strengths and weaknesses are. Using this you should be able to determine which aircraft suit your needs.