The first DS1 Mallard was completed in May of 1935. The Dixons had to build it with the parts they had available, and it looked it. A box-like wooden fuselage held rear-mounted wings, covered in a patchwork of armor bits. The engines didn't quite match, the four guns came from three different manufacturers, and some control cables were exposed. But it flew, and the desperate citizens of Pocatello had no real choice. Dixon & Sons were given financing to construct more.
     The next few Mallards weren't much better than the first, but eventually the company made enough profit to begin ordering standardized parts. The current versions still use a boxy, wooden airframe, which cuts down on the costs, but limits the G's a pilot can push. The wings are located towards the rear of the plane, with stabilizers near the front. The twin, 8-cylinder Wright engines provide speeds around 250 mph, and the light airframe allows for fast accelerations. However, the throttle has only two settings (evidence of the Dixons inexperience), limiting the usefulness of the acceleration rates. The Dixons are working on fixing this.
     While the Mallard might suffer from poor agility, it makes up for this in weapons. Two .60-caliber cannons in the nose, and a .50-caliber cannon on each wing can quickly rip off any foe's armor. The Mallard only has two hardpoints for rockets, as it was found the wooden wings couldn't support more weight. The weight savings went to extra armor protection instead, for a total of 660 pounds, good for its size.
     The biggest problem with the Mallard is its cockpit. When the Dixons built the first one, they were limited by the material in the family scrapyard. Glass, fragile as it is, was not in abundance. They made due with what they had, and so the cockpit canopy ended up very small. The resulting poor-visibility has caused complaints, but even though they now can, the Dixons haven't changed the design, because no one has ever died from a canopy hit in a Mallard. Pilots have died when bailing out and running into either the engines or the rudder, though, but these are such inherent problems it would take a complete reworking of the plane to fix them.
     The original, mismatched Mallards have all been stripped of parts, but the modern version is found in many places. These planes are easy to maintain, with most parts still not entirely standardized, so any replacements will do. They are the fighters of choice around the northwestern Disputed Territories, and have been used in the People's Collective and Lakota regions. Mallards are widespread, though, and can be found most anywhere on the continent. Ironically, several have made their way into pirate groups, the very people the plane was designed to fight against.