The 171st - 49th Rivalry was an aggressive 10 year long rivalry between the CVW-171 and the VFA-49 Ghosthawks, starting in the later stages of 2007 and finally ending in early 2017. The rivalry is a significant part of history in the English speaking community of YS due to a number of changes and trends that it brought to the community, as well as the amount of collateral damage that it caused. The concepts of community combat standards, the HQPGAC addon design standards, the website YSFHQ, the group Brotherhood of Honor and the closure of YSPilots all have origins in this rivalry.
Series of Events[]
Red Phoenix Fighter Squadron Origins[]
Both squads origins are from the Red Phoenix Fighter Squadron, which had a significant power base upon the combat community in 2006 and they also harnessed a plane called "The Ivan" which was highly controversial as many that did not see eye to eye with the RPFS saw "The Ivan" as a cheat plane. This was until Shinji founded the 171st Fighter Squadron as a secretive unit to revolt against them in 2006. At the time the 171st Fighter Squadron founded by Shinji was a group that used fictional aircraft with their own custom dats, but this would later change into a more formal squadron in 2007 named CVW-171 which was purely naval based and used only select real life inspired aircraft and which were heavily based upon the stock F-16 dats and combat standards formed by Raven and Talon to starkly contrast the RPFS' Ivan. This re-organisation of into a Carrier Air Wing was lead by Bombcat and Iceman, who would later rise to become significant players in the community.
In contrast, the then leaders of the VFA-49 Ghosthawks would start off in a specialized sub-squadron of the RPFW, the 49th squadron. However, the leaders of the 49th squadron, Bucknasty and Stormpilot, had disagreements with RPFWs leader Zeus and decided to break away from the RPFW and form the VFA-49 as an independent squadron. The new squadron also harnessed naval capabilities, a stealth aircraft carrier, and high performance aircraft, more similar to that of the RPFS in contrast to the 171st's more traditional aircraft. This contrast would later become a hotbed of controversy between the two squadrons that fueled the flames of the rivalry.
2007 Alliance[]
The two squads banded together at the 49th's beginning as a result of Iceman and Bucknasty being on the same page as each other, and despite their differences, regularly trained with each other. However, the partnership between the two squadrons ended up being short lived when a number of 171st members ended up being drawn in to the VFA-49. Bombcat and Iceman were passive towards these developments, but a new member of the CVW-171 who would also later become a significant figure in the community, Margatroid, was vocally up-in-arms, accusing the VFA-49 of attempting to cannibalize the CVW-171 by poaching members, and disproving of them as an ally due to this. Other newer 171st members started to agree with his views, and the CVW-171's official stance with the VFA-49 changed tune not long after, starting the first conflict between the two squadrons.