A mod approval thought for 4.09 for the 1C team

[tater]

To be fair, the notion that "No FM/weapon changes" went out the window with the Spit I is wrong. No weapon/FM changes on aircraft that a player with the stock game can see are permitted. If you changed the FM on the F4F-4, for example, and played online, you'd be a UFO since people with the stock game will see you in an F4F-4, because the F4F-4 exists in their game.

The Spit I is a NEW plane. It has a unique, new, plane slot. I couldn't fly the Spit I online because it would not exist on the server's spawn list since it does not take the place of an extant plane. No more do variant plane types replace the stock plane (with unchanged FM), but they now can be added as brand new planes. Only people with the same mod installed will ever see them.

That's why they waited til they could add entirely new planes to allow a new FM to be added.

tater