Cunctator

For third parties the difficulties in developing a decent FM for a high performance piston engine tail dragger should not be underestimated. Even without complex avionics, making a DCS level WW2 fighter seems not to be as easy as originally thought. The F4U was sort of announced in 2015 and at this time Leatherneck believed that they could finish it within one year. They had just completed the MiG-21, thus were not without experience. Later they considered it necessary to develop the Christen Eagle, originally just as a studying project to learn how to code such planes properly in DCS. The VEAO P-40 looked almost finished for years, at least to people who could fly it at events, but never made it to release.

Sadly, I think nobody can disagree here. Month for month the Hornet gets new highly complex weapons made from scratch, while the Fw190 A8 doesn't even have a simple drop tank. But I think DCS WW2 is on the verge of becoming something truly great, if they could only finish what was already announced so long ago. Week for week I hope to read something about the new AI planes, maps or DM in the newsletter. Once the new DM is out, at least 3rd parties can build up their own future proof modules from there. I hope the new free map, also usable for WW2, will increase player base and thus the incentive to work on WW2 stuff. A great step in the right direction. At the moment the entry cost seems to steep. Aircraft + map/assets pack bundle + campaign = 120 $. For a comparable experience the vastly more complex Hornet is just 80 $, which comes with quite a lot free missions plus of course the free modern day assets and Caucasus map.

You can always look for aftermarket detail sets to enhance certain kits. For example Eduard is releasing a colored photo etched set to upgrade Italeri's A-10C in 1/48 with an accurate cockpit next month. Scalemates is very useful to find kits, reviews and after market sets: https://www.scalemates.com/

Grumman TBF Avenger, since the Fw 190F8 will hopefully follow the A8 soon.

F4U-4, or F4U-2 Night Fighter. Since at least the F4U-1D will hopefully released soon, my second choice would be P-38, or F7F when talking about prop fighters not limited to WW2.

It's already released. Tested it myself. It came with the latest open beta patch, but for some reason there was no change log.

Response from Lockheed: https://www.f35.com/news/detail/lockheed-martin-comments-on-defense-news-reporting

Ju-87 were also used as nigh bombers against the western allies until the end of the war.

The adjustable cowl flaps, operated by that hand crank, were only added as an afterthought to more flexibly regulate airflow through the engine compartment. Early Fw 190A models had just fixed gills as exit for the airflow. The airflow through the oil coolers exits through a small gap between the nose ring and the cowling. The width of this gap could be adjusted on the ground. For me it looks like the efficiency of the oil coolers could actually increase if you close the cowl flaps with the hand crank. Pressure inside the engine compartment should increase, thus more airflow will be forced through the oil coolers instead of over the engine.

+1 "The bar", the holy grail of Fw 190 simulation.

I hope this does not mean that work on the new warbird DM will come to a halt once again. It seems to be so close to release now. It happened before when developers were removed from the long announced new DM to work on the Yak, with no visible progress for months.

+1

North Cape/northern Scandinavia map would be my bet. - Beautiful scenery, mountains, Fjords and the northern sea. Good for terrain masking - Great strategic importance, the Russian naval bases and airfields around Murmansk and the gateway to the Atlantic - Only sparsely inhabited, so easy to convert for WW2 and modern day use, while much less unique 3D objects are needed at all. - Lot's of action in WW2: Soviet vs. German fought for years on the Murmansk front, German attacks against Arctic convoys. British attacks against German coastal shipping and other infrastructure. AI Ju-88 and Mosquito are coming. - Almost any plane in the sim or upcoming would be at home. From I-16, British F4Us, Mosquito and Fw 190A to F-16, F-14, F-18, Viggen, anything Russian made, modern and Cold War Harriers. Would be a good map to gradually introduce more Russian WW2 planes which should sell well. - Also a natural fit for the upcoming Kusnezow module

I would greatly appreciate faster progress with the Harrier one and a half years after EA release, but detailed damage modeling is hardly an unnecessary bling bling item in a combat flight sim.

New DM for WW2 planes a main feature coming with 2.5.5?

Since there is no official statement of any kind it looks like ED has not yet made a decision.

Since the same space is used for various armament control panels, something like that should certainly be the case.

+1 For GIUK gap Norway map

I hope we will finally get AB 250 and AB 500 cluster bombs. One of the most important weapons of the german ground attack arm in the later half of the war.

Yep. Or remember the Black Shark 2 surprise release. To avoid disappointment later I only expect what was explicitly announced in a news letter, shop description etc. In every case it will probably take at least a few months until we will see the F8 in game. But as already said here, the A8 in itself will already be a capable ground attack platform. It was the successes of the ordinary Fw 190 fighter bombers on the Channel front that lead to the development of the specialized A2G variants.

Skywriting with much more complex shapes is practiced since the 1920s. No drones needed for this.

One last Fw 190 A-5 is still flying with the BMW 801. https://flyingheritage.org/Explore/The-Collection/Germany/Focke-Wulf-Fw-190-A-5.aspx

Valid point. So, if people are worried about exactly what is available (or any other aspect of the module), they should wait until there are some reviews or user reports. A somewhat less vague product description would be nice indeed. For the F-16C they already posted such a list, just as they did for the Hornet before early access.

That was unexpected. D-Day anniversary release, nice!

I never really understood why they didn'T continue to expand the Korean War plane set after they already had the late P-51, MiG-15 and F-86. The conflict would have been a great platform to 9ntroduce the finest, and most popular, piston engine fighters from East and West. Even Luthier and his team once worked on a later abandoned Korea sim some time before the WW2 Kickstarter. Now they should try to stich together everything with as few pieces as possible. Thus a Bf-109E, especially if we will indeed get a strait of Dover map, or A6M (China, opponent for upcoming F4U) for example.