[Suicide]

why is there no aircraft in 40k, on the battlefield ???

[MechTau]

Generally, when an aircraft is on the battlefield, it is a smouldring wreak...

I assume you mean fully armed, fully functional flyers still several hundred feet above the ground.

Rules for flyers exist. They are experimental, but fun. Go find them.

Also, read Double Eagle for 40k air combat. It made me want to buy a Barracuda. Which I might still do... I certainly have the money.

[Morgue]

There are, but it's all specialty stuff. Beyond that 40k is squad level combat so the need for air support is rather small. Even in modern combat you don't really see helicopter support for anything below battalion strength engagements and you can forget fighter/bomber craft for anything that small. Although when looking at armies like the Tau or Eldar virtually all of there vehicles can fly to a limitted extent.

[Vash113]

Actually there are, forgeworld produces a number of flyers. However for general 40k the engagements are far too small to allow the appearance of flyers. These are aircraft generally zooming around at high speeds ranging from high altitude to space engagements. There is however epic and battlefleet gothic which depict the massive battles that go on around the small engagements depicted in 40k and the space battles going on to establish the air superiority that would be needed for fighters and other flyers to appear over battlefields.

Remember in the grand scale of the engagements in the warhammer 40,000 universe even the largest of 40k battles, even megabattles are relatively small.

[Delightfully Emo]

Originally Posted by Morgue

Even in modern combat you don't really see helicopter support for anything below battalion strength engagements and you can forget fighter/bomber craft for anything that small.

Correct. If your troops came across a fortified target, they would probably call upon artilary...Which is what we already have in 40K

[MechTau]

Artillery are excellent for raining large blasts on stationary targets.

Airplanes are perfect for blasting apart tank collumns.

[Impulse]

Helicopters come in the form of Valkaries or Vultures. More advanced armies have skimmers, which work just as well as helis.

Flyers are fun, but fragile. My baracuda never managed to make it's pionts yet. It's been shot down too many times.

[RealMenUseCarbines]

Man, oh man, my warhammer illiterate friend always busts out this comedy routine every time my other friends and I play Warhammer:

"So it's the 41st millenium. Technology is so advanced that aircraft are nowhere to be seen, yet chainsaws are still widely accepted as fashionable weapons."

As for helicopters, I'd say that the hammerhead IS a 41st-millenium of a heli, rather than what people usually see it as (a tank). It's even called a "gunship" for God's sake.

[Luy22]

If you want some dogfights over 40k battles, play epic :P. Looking at the Imp squadrons of Lightning fighters and valkeries made me want to do epic SO bad.