Blackbird12

It's not about the drag, it's about the exhaust thrust losing effectiveness (for example the A6M5 gained speed thanks to the new exhausts pipes, the BMW801D power chart even has a curve for the exhaust thrust), I agree that the shrouds drag is insignificant, in the past I tried to find some charts about the exhausts thrust of the merlin but I could'nt get something useful. Here is a drawing of the "saxophone exhausts" (the saxophone name is about the whole pipe system) :

I'm not new to DCS at all, I came to DCS when the Spitfire came out and started to follow the developement seriously when the A8 came out. Since day one I prefered DCS to its competitor and I'm big fan of luftwaffe aircrafts and WW2 overall, and I'm bit frustrated that one of my favourite aircraft lacks some contents, same for the rest of WW2. WW2 in DCS has a lot of potential but I understand it doesn't bring as much money as more modern module, however I would have prefered if ED told us that the modifcations we asked for will not be made into the sim because of this, it would have been clear to everybody since day 1.

They are totaly capable of doing it, the fact is the A8 doesn't bring money anymore so there's no interest to develop it further and for the impact on the wings, the wings are the same as the D9 and it will not change the FM that much, it's not another wing or another engine, its the same aircraft with 176,5 kg less and a little bit less drag and maybe a slightly modified roll, all these factors are already modelled when you take less fuel, or bombs or even the ETC rack, if you take 50% ammo (it's what a I do since we don't have the option to remove the wing guns) I save something like 150kg and I can already see the difference in the climb rate, if you use the fuel in aft fuel tank first instead of both you will see a difference, even with the same fuel quantity, it's just because the gravity center moved forward and you can feel it. I already said this but the A8 was one of the two workhorse of the luftwaffe for the last year of the war and had many subvariant/modifications, some of them were used in quite significant numbers, it's like making a Bf-109 G6 without gun pods or MW50.

If they can make a guesswork on missile performance I can't see why making guesswork on removing/adding weapons of a known mass and drag would be that complicated (the performances can already change depending on the loadout, fuel, bombs, rocket...) and there are performance chart/test about it. Same for R2 kit with wing 30mm (Mk108). I would like to point out that even with the data mistake happens, all warbirds had wrong armour values (it has been corrected fairly quickly by ED)null The removal of outer guns was done at least in JG26 and probably JG2... which were based in Normandy... I think they kept the A8 in a more "fighter configuration" because they had to deal more with fighters than bombers, probably because of their locations. In my opinion all possible variants for the A8 should be : 1) Option for the boost 2) Removal of wing guns 3) R2 kit with Mk108 instead of MG151 in outer wings 4) kit with additionnal armour around the pilot The variants that aren't revelant for me : 1) Mk103 gun pod (prototype) 2) GM-1 no proof of it being used operationnaly 3) R11 kit which add a sort of autopilot and was the basis for Wilde Sau aircraft (some aircrafts even had radars), probably not many produced and not very useful either except if ED get intersted in night combat And here is the weight data of the two gun configurations :

If you know the real aircraft well, be advised you will get only the basic A8, no armament modification, no armor modifications. The module is fine, at least the same level as the other modules but for people like me who loves this aircraft irl and read dozens of books about it, it's quite a disapointement to only have the basic A8 while irl it had a lot of modifications available (I'm speaking about the most common ones)

Indeed I have this manual, but the cockpit arrangement would be useful for the ju-88 S (likely the S-3) in this case, let ED finish the A-8 dayfighter first

On the wings, it's the Fug 217, they used the Fug 216 before but it had less range if I recall correctly, if you're interested you can check the "Wilde Sau" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilde_Sau Modelling the Fug217 should theorically feasible in DCS but the problem is what the cockpit arrangement looks like, archives resarches would be needed.

I would buy it and give ED an other chance BUT if : 1) ED makes other missing things on the A8 2) ED finish what they begin (and stop saying the team is small while making new WW2 modules btw...), and fixes other WW2 issues, at least shows some interests and regularity, I understand things can be slow, but there is a difference between slow and regular (and pationate) and showing very little interest. I don't want to pay an upgrade for things that should have been part of the module since release, I understand a module need to be profitable but either they tell what's planned for the module and tell they don't have the ressources or they make a higher price for a higher quality module. I already said this but DCS is awsome and IS capable of doing great things, but it's really sad to see them doing half modules while giving some much attention to very small details.

While I agree with Zach I think some "not-historic" or "not normandy friendly" skins are welcome but the problem is due to the fact that the competition allows only 10 winners which means that the numbers of "official" skins will probably never exceed 15, quite a low number, even more if there are different nation skins

Apart from historical aspect, these skins are awesome, they make that 190 so sharp ! I highly support this ! To all 190 lovers, show ED the interest we have in this module !

I have this question : did the EN boost was really introduced before july 1944 ? There is the modification sheet speaking of introduction in 1944 if I recall correctly, and wasn't the A-8 introduced in April 1944 ?

It depends on where you level the core because Formula 1 is a car race, rally is car race too, of course but I highly doubt it's "the same". We are flying planes so it's always "the same"... then flying a fw190 is "the same" as flying a f16, I doubt it, the missions you will do in them can be similar in its core but not similar in the way you will do it, for exemple you have a navigation system in f16, in fw190 you don't have that, you will not do your navigation in these aircraft the same way... Ask people if flying (doing mission) in a f16 is the same as a WWII aircraft, I don't think they will tell you it's the same.

Your love for the p-61 is as big as my love for the Ju-188/88 S-3, and as you I can only dream about them, WWII in DCS is niche inside a niche, that's the argument against these aircraft because they "won't sell" well, while I can understand this argument there are many things that could explain the "won't sell well" instead of only the "niche" issue : For exemple there is the price issue with the maps and asset pack, but for me there is a "marketing issue" too, for exemple ED team makes many videos on features on the F-16/F-18/Apache and they start doing this before the modules come out, it increases the hype or the curiosity, for WWII there is nothing, not even an "official" startup tutorial, only the trailer comes out, of course you will catch only the people who already know the plane, the others will pass, I think many people fell in love with plane they didn't even know about it before trying it. One more issue with WWII : the planes are hard to fly, take off/landing is a nightmare for new users and again without "official" help, people get discouraged and problably passes, I have 2 friends who started flying in modern aircraft, but when I made them try WWII planes they got discouraged and kept flying modern machines And last issue : WWII in DCS was basically the same since the beginning (of course new planes cames, new DM) but the base has been the same for almost 10 years, take off, fire your guns, drop some bombs, get shot down or RTB and then repeat this all over again, some people probably got bored, it's mostly my case the mosquito is different in that way it brought some "new gamplay" I think all of this can be part of the "niche" issue which make a limit on what they do, they are of course other elements, but I think this subject is complex enough to write a book

I saw that thread (or a antoher one ?) and I looked a lot for GM-1 on A-8 and there is a performance chart and mention of the potential supply of the system before introduction of the A-8 and in the FM it's writed "The fitting of GM1 unit is basically feasible but in A-8 serie is not normally done" and from what I saw, that's it. I would really be interested if the system was used operationnaly but I doubt it a lot, and even more for the F-8, a lot of book seems to have used the same source and say that MW50 or GM-1 was used on A-8, that's why I'm looking only on historical documents for this. It seems there is the same issue with S-serie of Ju-88 : books mentions GM-1 for S-1 and S-3 but from what I researched, only the S-1 used it operationnaly. I researched a lot about the GM-1 and it seems the system wasn't used that much because of logistic issues (it was quite dangerous because of very low temperature and had to be contained in compressed tank if I recall correcty) and not very useful below 8 km and was very explosive if hit.

GM-1 make literaly no sense for F-8, F-8 used the real C3 injection for boosting up to something like 2000m, GM-1 is for high altitude from 8000m or you know something I would be really interested in. Personnally I have no problems downing 51, spitfire or 47, the A-8 is beast, many people will tell you it's a bad fighter, for me it's the best, you need discipline to fight in it but I agree that many people think the boost will change something, spoiler alert : it will change nothing if you don't fly it correctly and I agree on the fact that it isn't the magical solution, the boost came 1 month after 150 octane so it came juste to compensate it. I wish the boost because it's a feature that should be in the sim and is a missing part of the A-8 (and other things mentioned) and many people (me included) are disappointed about lack of caring on some WWII stuff and it begins with the lack of rather "basic" features