I'm always curious at the way a given planes suitablity for the game is argued. This isn't a push for or arguement against any particular bird...
1) No question that there are certain planes that are obvious...
To me the 410 and G.55 are the best examples here...arguments for various russian yaks/migs I find less so since other very similiar planes already exist. Arguements for Japanese planes (late war) are somewhat similiar although less compelling....
2) The early war set is by far the weakest (outside of BoB) and from a scenerio/FSO perspective this is far and away the most needed aspect to beef up.
3) Looking at apparent game utilization the FSO/snapshot numbers are roughly 7-10% of the player base. As a general rule EWA/MWA runs significantly less then the LWA's often again in the 10% or less range. Looking at the LWA's plane useage is heavily skewed toward higher performance "late war" rides with the hurricane 2C & Tiffie being the most obvious exceptions.
The current perk plane set sees fairly consistant use but already has the 152 dropped (and the SpitXIV should be).
So....
Given the reality that the true "historical" needs are going to appeal to less then 10% of the player base I'm curious how things will progress as we move into the second decade of Aces High.
Other then a few obvious deficiencies most of the planes that will see wide spread use are already here. A few other possibilities do exist but for one reason or another dont really meet the "criteria" (which I dont recall ever seeing "officially" anywhere....
The most obvious historically correct "oddball" is actually an early war plane that did see combat and was fielded at "squadron" strength...but as a "private" airforce....
The H-100D was a 1940 plane with a top speed of 416 MPH and significantly better raage then the 109E it "lost" out to and was flown in combat by Henkle test pilots defending henkle factories...
Going beyond that as myself and others have posted the F6F-5 was factory engineered with a 2 x 20mm option and over 1000 daytime fighters were so configured (primarily the P){however some standard F6F-5's left the factory with 2 x 20mm near wars end as well....
The germans had numerous "field mods" for a ton of planes that operated in non standard configurations as needed.
Again as already posted numerous places a couple of planes were fully operational but didnt "see combat". The meteor is the most notable since it owuld be the "other" jet but the F7F also fits here as well.
Another plane the DO-335 was ordered into production but the factory was bombed. The 34 actually built were not all "prototypes" but some in fact were early production birds.
It would seem looking forward that either we're going to get more and more "niche market" birds with limited use or at some point we'll need to revisit how "we" decide what gets included. Since the upcoming CT as well as the FSO/snapshot/scenario are the true "historical reenactment" somce weight should be given to continuing to "flesh out" the appropriate planesets....as for the MA....it really is the LWA's and some thought should be given to an occasional bone or two...which inevitably will need to be bigger/faster/badder to draw attention and use.
As much as I like the F7F I do think the D0-335 would be an interesting addition for LWA play...just some food for thought looking at the next 10 years...
