horseback

1. Spitfire Mk IX (a lot of potential variety here; Mk IXs featured two different wings, different styles of rudders, elevators and sights--what are we going to get?) 2. Focke-Wulf FW-190A-5 (actually, this is a bit earlier model than I would prefer; an A-8 would be preferable) 3. P-47D-28 Thunderbolt (without a glass jaw DM, particularly in the engine compartment if you please) 4. Bf 109K-4 (with a promise of a more common G variant) 5. Typhoon Mk Ib (absolutely overdue in a WWII combat sim) 6. P-38J-15 Lightning (the Lightning's cockpit was considered an ergonomic nightmare; people will be rushing to directly assign buttons or axes to avoid a clickable 'pit setup once it shows up) 7. Mosquito FB VI (I am not a fan of multicrewed aircraft being modeled for single player simulations; in my opinion, these should require a co-op setup with players filling at least the two or three most important crew positions) 8. Boeing B-17F/G (see my above comment; the Fortress demanded two pilots and a couple of auxiliary crewmen just to get off the ground and find a target) 9. Douglas A-26B (a fine aircraft, but I just can't get excited about it; the B-26 Marauder would be ever so much better for a WWII sim) All this said, I would happily forego the last four in exchange for a razorback Mustang...P-51B/Cs with Malcolm hoods and the ammo feed fixed were generally considered better than the D model, especially at altitude; the last of these were still flying in combat in December of '44 and their pilots didn't give them up without a lot of fuss. cheers horseback

I see no reason to worry about trees as collision objects if I'm flying a P-47 in close air support: I've seen a few dozen other examples over the years... cheers horseback

God, NO!!! :disgust: I want him as far away as possible from the P-47 or any other project involving US aircraft powered by the R-2800. He might be fine as an adviser or as a prestige association, but I don't want to see a repeat of the Terminator 2000 rear gunners, the late-war US fighters' ridiculous trim demands or the glass-jaw engine DMs. Thanks but no thanks. cheers horseback

The size of the map is a bit of a disappointment (expectations can be a biotch), but It looks like we'll get a territory reaching approximately from Cherbourg to Le Havre and a good bit south--assuming that my Google Earth distance thingie is accurate. Still, even in 1944, Normandy was a lot 'busier' than the Black Sea area, especially if they have to make time to create new landmarks, vehicles, buildings, ships as well as the aircraft flight models at the level advertised. Naturally, once the basic work is completed and '44 World is up & making some money, we can start whining about tiny maps and demanding the rest of the Channel area with clear consciences.;) cheers horseback

Yeah, apparently it was partly due to the toe-in (or was it toe-out?) of the main wheels. Supposedly, if you got just a tiny bit sideways Bad Things Would Happen. I've also read that it was better behaved on a grass field than it was on concrete or tarmac (the Spitfire is supposed to be 'nicer' on grass as well). All versions of the P-40 were reportedly similar in difficulty landing & taking off, but there's a LOT more current knowledge about the Warhawk (there are a bunch of them still flying around--often with the most garish and unauthentic paintjobs you could imagine). cheers horseback

Besides the Mustang and the FW 190D-9 already available or deep in the pipeline? There are a fair number of Merlin Spits of various marques, Corsairs (F4U-1 through F4U-7), Allison powered P-40s of various types, late model (FM-2) Wildcats, TBF/TBM Avengers and a jillion or so T-6/SNJ Texans/Harvards being flown into every little airshow in the USA you can imagine. There are rather fewer P-47s and P-38s flying today; they are probably a lot more maintenance intensive with those turbosuperchargers, and you don't see many Hellcats or Airacobras either (not as sexy as the F4U, I think). I've seen as many as six P-47s in the air at the same time and around four P-38s at the Chino Air Show in the last five years or so, so they are out there, in various states of modification. Regardless, there are more flying examples of each of the above aircraft than there are of the FW 190D-9, the Spitfire MkXIV and the Bf-109K that have been mentioned in the official releases or by Ilya on these boards. There may be two or three examples each of authentic restorations of the A6M or Ki-43 still flying with the original engines as well, which may not bode well for fans of the Pacific war. AFAIK, there are no 'authentic' flying examples of the J2M (Jack), N1K (George), Ki-61 (Tony) or Ki-84 (Frank). I think that the main issue will be access and reliable documentation. There's a fair amount of potential candidates for the present time. If they follow the DCS World model and provide a free flyable aircraft with the module, I suspect that you'll get the Texan trainer--it's well known and documented, and it was widely used to acclimate pilots moving up from the more forgiving primary trainers of the WWII era. We'll need trainer time if we're going to fly 'full real' flight models of the models already mentioned; the Mustang is well known to be pretty forgiving for a WWII fighter--wait 'til you try to take off in that 109 or God help you, a P-40. Those will be hard. cheers horseback

Having read big chunks of this thread, it seems that we have a small portion of facts and a large portion of conjecture. Instead of deciding what Ilya's team will do and then criticizing it, I would prefer to wait and see what they come up with. I DO like the idea of a separate '44 'World'; the fact is that the Black Sea is nice and all for a modern warfare scenario, but it isn't an appropriate stage for late WWII era Western fighters (and I tend to associate it with That Other Sim's Kuban missions). Also, a similarly large Normandy map (hopefully including a big section of the English Channel and at least a strip of the southern coast of England) would be radically different in 1944 from modern time France. As long as I can fly my Mustang in both 'Worlds', it's all good so far. The proof will be in the execution, and if I have to select a separate icon from my desktop to load the new '44 World' before accessing my Mustang, Jug or Spitfire (or Dora or Kufurst), then I'll deal with it. I suspect that there will be those who will want to play only the WWII scenario, and not want to fill their hard drives with data dedicated to the modern DCS World that they will never use, just as some here are concerned with stuffing their limited SSD space with a separate DCS '44 World. If I read the official statements correctly, the current model of the P-51D, the FW 190D-9 currently being prepared, a new Spitfire Mk XIV (with the Gryffon engine?), a new Bf 109K and (I think) a P-47D (D-25 or later I assume) will be available to plug into the DCS '44 map at release. I'm assuming that there will be some unflyable AI types to supplement that to act at least as off-line opponents/targets, and possibly developed to become flyable models later. That's a late late-WWII selection; Ilya's assurances about fidelity seem to make that almost necessary, but one limited to post-September (or thereabouts) 1944 aircraft. Even so, that is potentially so much better than what is available right now that I'm grateful. I'm eager to see what is in the works, and I'll save my criticisms for the actual offered product(s). cheers horseback

Actually, the score when the combat was Zeke vs Wildcat was about 1.2:1 in favor of the Wildcat drivers by the time the Hellcat was introduced, and once we add in the later war FM-2 stats we get up into the two to one or better ratio. Of course, the FM-2 was much more competitive with the late war Zero (if not better up to 10,000 ft) in terms of performance, and the pilot training and aircraft maintenance and manufacturing quality factor tilted the odds significantly. Pre war trained USN/USMC pilots had an extremely high standard of professionalism coupled with some of the best air-to-air gunnery training and standards of the period. Give them an aircraft that was a decent gunnery platform, good guns and could take a few hits, and they could make anyone's life difficult. Give them good radio comms to facilitate teamwork, and they had a better than even chance against the IJN's best pilots (and many of those were lost at Coral Sea and Midway) with the lightly built Zero, which featured a spotty radio system at best. The Wildcat was just that, even after the FAA's requirement for more guns at the cost of firing time screwed up the F4F-4. Also, by the time the Solomons campaign started, the Thach Weave was well known to be effective and the Aleutian Zero was starting to give up its secrets. cheers horseback

Let's petition for a Memorial Day to Father's Day Sale! That would be May 27th to June 16th... cheers horseback

A few things for users of the basic Trackclip: 1. No berets, tams, or watchcaps. Real (not straw) cowboy hats are borderline, unless you've and any potential witnesses have had a few adult beverages. I don't even want to think about trying to mount it on my headset--the neighbors already have too much to talk about. Visors are ideal--get the black one; I got the white one five years ago, and it's gotten a bit grayish, to be charitable 2. If, like me, your primary 'cockpit' is located near a window, make sure that the blinds don't leak. Little rays of sunshine will invariably appear at the most critical moments, and the effect is a lot like an epileptic fit. 3. Make sure that the area behind you is free of mirrors, remote controlled CD players, TVs and pets with reflective eyes (my ex's cat occasionally looked over my shoulder, resulting in the aforementioned epileptic-like fits, but I think he was her demonic familiar, so your mileage may vary) 4. The Pro uses the power from the USB port, and it has an extension that allows you to use the same port for your TrackIR or your headset without any loss of function. Used properly, the TrackIR is somewhere between sliced bread and a night of frenzied sex with a hot young nymphomaniac (if I remember correctly) for the dedicated simmer; I thought I was okay with the POV hat and a little left handed mouse wiggling, but I was wrong. cheers horseback

Key words: Armor Piercing Incendiary Tracer (APIT). Off the top of my head, I believe that they had a solid armor piercing core with a tracer/incendiary jacket. Impact on the target was more visible than standard armor piercing, to aid aim. Hitting the ground or hardened/paved surface would send stuff flying all over the place, but it would mostly be from the softer jacket material while the penetrator might drill into the ground or bounce, depending upon angle and hardness of the surface. I would think that a lot of the initial energy would be lost with the first impact and that the ability to penetrate even light armored surfaces would be lost. It would, however, make a lot of noise and distraction and tear anyone outside the armor to bits. cheers horseback