Jane's Attack Squadron is a 2002 combat flight simulator developed by Looking Glass Studios and Mad Doc Software and published by Xicat Interactive.

Based on World War II, the game allows players to pilot fifteen reproductions of that era's military aircraft and to carry out missions for the Axis or Allies.

The team experienced problems with deadlines and funding during development, with the game eventually being heavily redesigned and renamed Jane's Attack Squadron at the request of the publisher.

Certain critics enjoyed Jane's Attack Squadron's air-to-ground combat and several hoped that fans would improve the game with the included physics and mission editors.

[1][2] The game is set in Western Europe during World War II; and players may control fifteen German and Allied planes from the era, including the Focke-Wulf Fw 190, Supermarine Spitfire, Junkers Ju 88, Avro Lancaster and Consolidated B-24 Liberator.

[9] In September 1994, Looking Glass Technologies employee Seamus Blackley told Computer Gaming World that he wanted to create a combat-based sequel to Flight Unlimited, whose development he was directing at the time.

[11][12] When PC Gamer's Bernie Yee asked why the team had waited to make a combat flight simulator, Blackley responded that they wanted to "retrain" players first.

[14][15] In March 1996, PC Gamer US reported that Flight Combat was "still taxiing across the design board", and that the team planned to focus "on how the aerial manoeuvres are performed as you fight".

[24][25] In March 1999, the game was announced as the World War II-themed Flight Combat: Thunder Over Europe, directed by Hantzopoulos and scheduled for release in fall of that year.

Looking Glass claimed that the game features "moving tanks and ships duk[ing] it out on a dynamic battlefield" as the player carried out missions.

[21] Fans petitioned the publisher to let development continue, and Looking Glass employee Rich Carlson said that Hantzopoulos and others from the Flight series, roughly twenty in all, were prepared to work on the game again.

The publisher's Jeff Brown said that the decision "was based on our deep uncertainty that the project could meet any schedule given the changes in senior management and a history of missing deadlines".

[21] Brown told the website Combatsim that Electronic Arts had "worked diligently" with Looking Glass for more than two years, and that, although the game had missed its planned October 1999 release, they had been willing to delay the project into 2000.

[30] After the closure of Looking Glass, certain employees of that company moved to developer Mad Doc Software, and they hoped to complete Jane's Attack Squadron.

[38] The full details of the agreement were announced at that year's European Computer Trade Show, where it was revealed that Jane's Attack Squadron would focus heavily on air-to-ground combat.

As with Flight Combat, the game features one million square miles of terrain, planes with individually modeled moving parts and a physics-based damage system.

[9] Steve Nadeau, the lead designer of the game at both development studios, said that he looked forward to polishing Jane's Attack Squadron and "giv[ing] it a new life".

[8] According to Nadeau, the presence of members of the Looking Glass team ensured that it would "closely reflect our original vision of the game: an action-packed World War II air combat simulation accessible to users of all skill levels".

[8] Denny Atkin of Computer Gaming World wrote that Jane's Attack Squadron "had the potential to be sim of the year in 2000", but that it had been rendered largely irrelevant by delays and "unrealized design goals".

Although Atkin found the air-to-air combat "generally fun", citing "good pilot AI" and "decent" flight physics, he believed that the game's bombing runs were its most outstanding element.

[4] Andy Mahood of PC Gamer US wrote that Jane's Attack Squadron is "unquestionably an entertaining and unique WWII prop sim", but he believed that it was clearly inferior to games such as IL-2 Sturmovik.

[3] Josh Horowitz of The Adrenaline Vault noted the complex damage system, and he believed that the game "looks as good as most of today's flight simulators", although he experienced performance issues.

[6] GameSpy's Bernard Dy wrote that the game failed to live up to the Jane's Combat Simulations pedigree, and he believed that those who enjoyed "the realism of Il-2 Sturmovik will be disappointed".