I tried to ask HT about this a couple of times but I guess he was a little swamped at the time.
The range finder for the naval guns is a nifty feature...but an adaptation to the planes could yield a far greater potential.
At present you get a bearing and distance when you click on the map. Well the bearing indicator is directly translateable to planes...click on the field to get the compass bearing on where you want to fly to and all. This could even give reason to remove the little GPS plane icon on the clip board map with it's simplicity (even adding a HUD plane bearing as is with the guns to make it even simplier)
As for the range, if it could take into account the approach rate you could get an instant estimated time till arrival to whatever point on the map you choose at the current speed. Both are rather handy features and not that out of whack with history...
even fighter pilots had 3 bearings on takeoff to follow, and ETA could be figured by speed and distance, crucial with meeting up with other flights such as bombers.
I've always hoped it would become part of the mission editor for WP purposes, but with the range finder interface it seems like it would be easier then ever to incorperate these features.
For scenarios, there could even be a mode where bearings had to be set by airfields rather then a random point on the map(as pilots tuned into radio beacons during the war) in order to navigate around, incorperating the navigation (while not near as complicated real life) and keeping it from becoming a tedious thing. ETAs would also more then likely help coordination as well.
- Jig
