Cunctator

Was AGM-84 ever integrated? As far as I know dedicated anti ship missiles are just a theoretical capability, provided by the AV-8B+ radar. They were on the Spanish wishlist, but even integration was never funded. https://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/european-navies-worry-about-harrier-arms-22768/

+1 For the Normandy idea. The map seems to be a perfect fit for the AV-8B. Providing CAS for Marines at the Normandy beachhead out of auxiliary airfields directly behind the front lines. Using the Harrier in a Cold War scenario it was originally envisioned for.

Very nice to see how the Harrier comes together. :)

The USAF is already seriously looking for an alternative cheap CAS platform. If the current US government understands one thing, than the danger of monopolies for the customer. https://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/usaf-requests-funding-for-low-cost-fighter-test-434520/

FLIR on HUD already looked pretty convincing in RAZBAMs FSX Harrier (especially considering that FSX wasn't designed for this kind of tech). I have no doubt the final realization in DCS will be great.

Happy new year! Hope 2017 will also be the year of the F4U.

The FAA designations did not mimic the USN ones. The later Corsair Mk. IIs had identical capabilities to the F4U-1D. (while MK. III and IV was used for largely identical Brewster and Goodyear built F4Us) And we don't know if we will get any other F4U-1 versions together with the F4U-1D. Since the differences between the F4U-1A,C,D and British mods are rather minor things, I think the chances are good to see them in DCS as well. Especially since LN already announced to model multiple versions of the F-14 with much greater chances between them.

Despite the transition to F4U-4 in spring 1945 the F4U-1D was still used by the bulk of frontline squadrons until VJ day. With the Dash one series they will cover all of WW2 and allied air arms. Based on the number of books and model kits the WW2 F4U-1 is also the much more popular version of the Corsair.

The big unknown is how much stuff they want to release with the Corsair? They talked about period AI units and of course at least the Iwo Jima map. Will they wait until enough stuff of the hinted Pacific project is finished or are they willing to release the F4U before?

There were as many encounters between F4U-1D and K4, D9 as A-10s over Georgia. At the end DCS is a sandbox sim and F4U-1 vs. late war German fighters a plausible scenario as all of them were in service at the same time.

The only way to produce some proof is to make high quality scenery for another sim, but if you have already invested that much time elsewhere to master a totally different terrain engine you will just stick to it. I think ED probably hoped that some FSX developers would switch over to DCS. But there aren’t that many left that still dare to develop sceneries for large areas and they seem to be deeply entrenched and solely focused on their respective platform. I really hope we will see an open terrain SDK at some point, so that a lot of people can start playing with the tools and see if they can master the challenge to produce whole maps.

According to this ACP document top speed in clean condition is 417 mph/ 20.000 feet, close enough to 419 mph to be well within the expected variance between individual examples of WW2 mass produced fighters (and their error of measurement). That what is essentially still a 1943 F4U-1 is competitive vs. the best enemy fighters at the end of the war speaks for the design.

A North Cape / Murmansk map would be my obvious choice. With northern Sweden included it would be suitable for F-14, Viggen and even the Corsair campaigns (FAA strikes against Tirpitz in Altafjord).

I hope everybody who hasn't just discovered DCS (or any flightsim) last week should know by now that despite best intentions things can take longer than anticipated. The great thing about RAZBAM is that they provide regular updates on their progress. I think most disappointment originates when people are left in the dark about the state of development and suddenly something that is expected in one or two months is delayed by another year.

Brilliant!

Razbam is posting a lot Harrier WIP screens on Facebook lately. Development seems to be really building up steam by now :). I am curious in which state they will consider it ready for early access.

I certainly do so. I am much more interested in history than getting the best possible version of an airframe. The Israeli victory in the Six Day war is one of the greatest achievements of the jet fighter era. Nothing would be more appropriate for a military sandbox sim.

A Fulda gap map would be the natural theater for the bulk of the current planeset. A lot of work, to faithfully represent densely settled western Germany, but also with lots of highly detailed maps and geodata available for all periods of aviation.

Kinematic performance. The F-35 is limited to Mach 1.6. Transsonic acceleration values aren't apparently that great either. Someone compared it with the F-4. The fact that the USAF continues to modernize the F-15C and plans to operate them till 2040 strongly suggests that they don't have that much confidence in the F-35 A2A capabilities. On the other side Mach 1.6 with a full weapons load is actually very good. Especially since no external pods or tanks are required. New battleships were built until aircraft carriers had proven to be the dominant assets in naval warfare. Maybe the same will happen with stealth aircraft. However, if somebody builts another F-22, i.e. a supercruising, Mach 2+ airframe airplane with similarly sophisticated sensors and stealth than the F-35, than the latter would be in serious trouble. But only if these planes can be fielded in sufficient numbers to rival the numerical superiority of F-35 equipped countries. Thus actually quite a lot of ifs. I doubt the new Chinese fighters will beat decades of experience in stealth, avionics and sensors too soon.

Cortex didn't release a top quality module before...

Looks pretty good and complete! :)

Very well done

I hope there will be any kind of public support for map creation once 2.5 is finished. There is a great plenty of freely available Geodata out there, as there are powerful tools to manipulate it. Like QGIS. Northern Africa between the Cyrenaica and Egypt would be another candidate for a historically significant but sparsely inhabited map that would not require to model any large or numerous cities with hundreds of landmarks.

Interaction between the plane and the environment is the one thing where the actual simulation aspect of all modern flightsims could improve most. I tried to recreate some of the pioneering flights with FSX in the past, but if your plane can't be caught by a sandstorm, or any hot wind, or cross a mountain pass with the help of ridge lift, they were just predictable and uneventful at the end.

Gameplay actually looks pretty good and intense. For me and my friends "a game about everything" was a big argument in favor of PCs when I was young. That were great times when small teams could make AAA titles in less than a years and each piece of new hardware revolutionized the experience. I guess it took less hours to make "The Train" than a single locomotive for DCS.