Mogster

I strongly suspect It’s not just a case of data availability or not when it comes to Russian aircraft. As I understand it the Russian government has passed wide ranging laws covering digitally reproducing military hardware, many ED employees either reside in Russia or have ties there. I don’t think I need to spell this out. Matt W has said previously that if 3rd party developers wanted to include Russian aircraft then that would be OK. However It’s not a simple task for non-native speakers delving in to Russian documents, even if they are available. In contrast F35 is a western multi national manufacturing project and is being exported to many other countries. In a few years there may be 20 nations with them. Thats a big difference to the F22 even which is a purely US manufactured and fielded effort which has never been exported and export enquiries have apparently been refused. I see the F35 as similar to the Eurofighter that’s being developed for DCS, it’s a German variant iirc, not a British one as data isn’t available on the British variants, even though they are similar. ED has previous ties to Lockheed Martin also. People seem to choose to ignore that there’s stuff missing or with massaged data even on the A10C, one of the more complete modules. Weapons data for in service weapons is clearly massaged also. I could fly these aircraft in MSFS but the physics model really seems to have issues with fast jets, I don’t find them enjoyable in that engine. If EDs F35 offends then don’t buy it, it’s that simple.

I find myself wondering if ED have a desktop sim contract with one of the F35 users, or have had enquiries in that direction. Whatever, this has caused a stir unlike any recent announcement. Im sure it’ll sell in droves. A B variant for some QE carrier and SPEAR3 action would be nice at some point.

Aye, I posted about this in the WW2 Hawker Tempest thread. I thought he might have some recognition here. I didn’t know him but he had appeared on the UK WW2 WHW podcast in the heritage heroes episodes. The WHW guys re-released one of their episodes with him, I downloaded it looking forward to more news about progress of the Tempest V, but heard something else entirely. I’m surprised how affecting the news was to me. Grace seemed like a great guy, a true historic aviation enthusiast with an incredible knowledge of British historic aircraft. He was also a young guy, when the historic aviation business seems mostly populated by guys of a certain age… He seemed like the next generation, with not only incredible engineering knowledge but also great ideas about operating the aircraft safely. A great loss to his family of corse, but also the historic aviation scene worldwide. RIP.

Just thought I’d add to this post that Richard Grace, who features above, sadly died of cancer a few days ago. This is a great loss of course to his family but also the UK and wider global warbird community. I didn’t know him but from his appearances on the UK WHW podcast he seemed like a great guy and a true historic aircraft enthusiast. He seemed to have not only immense knowledge of WW2 aircraft but a lot of thoughts on how to operate them safely. A sad loss

Great videos with Weeks and Richard Grace from UK Air Leasing discussing Weeks Tempest V restoration. Air Leasing were responsible for the Tempest II above and it seems Air leasing are going to work on Weeks Tempest V. It is mostly the aircraft that Grace’s father owned previously. Seems this might actually happen…

Some ground running recently.

Data for the SE5a is apparently pretty good, also the Fokker D7. Other WW1 aircraft much less so.

Quite a bit about the differences in this thread. GR9 with radar and a full a-a loadout would have been very interesting. Damn the bean counters… GR9 could have supplemented increasing numbers of F35Bs on the QE carriers for some time. Would have given the RN airborne anti shipping capability with Sea Eagle and possible later derivations also.

Ron Zambrano when interviewed on the now defunct ACS podcast said Razbam initially intended to model the GR9 and Illustrious. They modeled the USMC version when information on the RAF version made this impossible. Same goes for the Sea Harrier. Information on UK stuff remains classified for a long time it seems.

Always a sucker for new land to fly over. Paid for the whole thing, I’ll end up buying it anyway…

It is odd as there was a Luftwaffe base nearby. I have read various things from fuel shortages, antipathy between the Kriegsmarine and Luftwaffe leading to poor co-ordination and infiltration of fighter control by Norwegian resistance. Whatever, none of the daylight attacks on the Tirpitz in Norway seem to have faced strong Luftwaffe opposition.

I mean there’s no record of any RN F4U a-a action with the Luftwaffe, at least that I know of, happy to be proved wrong. It wouldn’t be too ahistorical to include it though.

As I understand it RN and USN F6Fs were used from carriers during Overlord and Dragoon. Theres not much info on RN F6Fs vs the Luftwaffe but the USN F6Fs did engage air targets I believe. So it wouldn’t be completely ahistorical to have an a-a and a-g F6F campaign on the Normandy map, but it would need suitable carriers. F4F was used by the RN but not over France during the Normandy campaign it seems, unless anyone knows better?

I think less assets to produce credible historical missions would be applicable maybe. There were Italian aircraft in the BoB, and TFC have a very beautiful CR-42 The Mediterranean and Malta is quite large in the British view of WW2 also. It’s just such a large and complex theatre.

Apologies, but I don’t understand. Should Pacific Theatre Operations (PTO) or Eastern Front (EF) be in there somewhere?

With a few changes we can have the map for Channel 1940. The good thing about the BoB is that you can create credible scenarios with relatively few flyables and AI. The flyables are in the low hanging fruit category regarding references and surviving examples also. You can use the same, near enough, aircraft and for BoF scenarios and Barbarossa. Id love the Med and North Africa. It’s mostly overlooked but is increasingly viewed a very significant theatre for WW2 aviation, particularly for the Luftwaffe. However MTO requires many more aircraft types, ships, carrier ops, and maps we don’t have. PTO is the same and apparently it’s a nightmare for references beyond a handful of US types.

I can feel a FW190 windscreen bar discussion coming on

I do wonder if even a medium threat CAS environment is just too hot for aircraft now. You can suppress and destroy long range anti aircraft assets but short and medium range kit firing from an ambush stance is a much more difficult proposition In Ukraine air defences are being cued onto target by thermal, e/o sensors, remote radars or just someone’s ears, no one with any brains is turning on a radar without a target being detected already by other methods. The F35 is an incredibly loud medium sized dark coloured aircraft with exhausts hot enough to melt steel. The only reliable way to detect a hidden mobile anti aircraft asset is from muzzle flash or missile launch at which time you’re about to be reaching for the ejection handle in a few seconds. You read online suggestions that the F35 is going to loitering over the battlefield doing CAS and SEAD at the same time, surely it’s too big, hot and boomy for that?

Tempest II not V unfortunately so has the Centaurus up front. Really gives an idea of how large an aircraft the Typhoon/Tempests were. Fabulous aircraft, hopefully it’ll make an appearance on the 2024 UK airshow scene. Problem with the Typhoon/Tempest V will be the Sabre. Merlin or Centaurus are much more of a known quantity, especially the Merlin. Just having a Sabre engined Hawker as a ground runner would be a start.

At least it’s slightly more believable than owning a TF-51D on government wages…

Aye. “Theres no such thing as a free lunch” comes to mind.

It you include the whole world it would prevent the issues surrounding specifically modelling certain modern conflict zones… When you start including aircraft with decent range like the Mosquito, C47 and C130 you need bigger maps to use them properly. Many of the included aircraft have short legs but AAR capability. RAF Eurofighters have just bombed Yemen from Cyprus.

WW2 Extend The Channel map East, Belgium, Holland and Germany. Mediterranean, Malta, Sicily, Tunisia Solomon Islands

1:26 Marianas Maug islands?

I’ve used the A10s fire system with good effect, I’ve also shut down and re lit the engines in the A10 in flight. The A10 was designed with survivability in mind though. I can’t really comment about the other aircraft. However I’d imagine when you start throwing chunks of hot metal at an F-16 any hits are likely to be critical. The F-16 is really just a turbofan with wings and a tail attached and a guy strapped to the front.