Ahhhh....thot was a fun, ...and late...., night during the Con.
Especially once the means to get hold of one leaked arena wide.... RV-8's ALL over the place.
Then they shut them down... only ones left were those still in the air and hotpadding between missions. Once word got out, whoever was still in them would not tower out.... once you did, you lost it.
Mine took damage, and I still rearmed 3 times before I was finally downed.
And, yep, all sorts of experimenting done with them that night..... dogfighting, killing GV's, flattening towns, flattening hangars.
Great movie there too. Gives a small idea of what they were like.