I haven't been on in a week or so, or logged in to AH. Been busy.
I appologize if I sound curt, but I've argued this pretty much every time Krusty starts one of his bomber rants, and its getting tiresome.
And I'm sorry to be curt right back: You bring this and another comment up EVERY time, and are wrong.
Your claim is that cruising speeds are ... frankly... very high. You've brought this up before, and once claimed average economy/cruise speeds were 10-20mph slower than MAX speed. Not much fuel economy saved that way, eh? The point was range, not speed, and duration, not blowing your engines out. Even the much more powerful B-29s later in the war could not climb on military power. There was a post in one of the many B-29 threads talking about how it took x hours to climb to x alt, and they might have reached 30k (or was it 25k?) in 30 more minutes but they would have risked the engines doing so, so had to throttle back even further. The numbers you come up with don't jive with actual fuel consumption reduction. Meaning what you say is "cruise" is not cruising, but almost wide-open-throttle. There would be little to no fuel savings dropping 10 or even 20mph on a 300mph plane.
Aircraft manufacturers have a tolerance of performance they allow to vary in every worthy craft. I can't recall whom, but I believe somebody has stated many allowed 5% performance difference. For a 300mph plane that's 15mph. So while 2 aircraft could be worthy of shipping to the USAAF, one might fly 285mph on max power (full fuel consumption) whilst another might save a few minutes of gas by pulling back a fraction on the throttles (often the speeds you claim as cruise) and yet the lower tolerance plane will run out of fuel before it's halfway to the target. You have yet to pull out any "cruise" speeds that make sense, Stoney, and this is why I disregard your comments whenever you (repeatedly) make these responses to every bomber-related-thread I make.
Ok, we've already discussed that the throttle setting works both ways--i.e. a fighter gets to run Military all the time just like the bombers do--so that's a wash.
It is not a wash. Bombers did not run at full milpower, even in the thickest of flak and fighters. Their saving tactic was FORMATION, POSITION, and ESCORTS. The box formations were rigidly adhered to (for US bombers), so that their fellow bombers could all cover themselves. They flew at cruise/economy settings out of necessity, and the formation kept them alive. Whereas fighters engaged at milpower and even WEP every time. Fighters could run at military power form 30 minutes to over an hour depending on the plane. They always engaged at full power (if not WEP), so you are comparing Ferarris to Ugos. The comparison is a wash, and the argument stands. Fighters DID perform somewhat similar to the specs they have in-game, but bombers did NOT perform like this. I fail to see why "it's a wash" and why the fact fighters can do it cancels out why bombers SHOULD do it. It's like saying "My mustang can hit 80mph without blowing up, so therefore my Ugo van should be able to hit 80mph without blowing up" -- it's a false argument, and far far too naive for the likes of Widewing to make. [WW is said to have made that around page 4-5, I was skimming so I missed his actual post]
To those that mentioned wind: It currently does not work in AH properly. It's not wind, it's just lateral motion, moving everything regardless of surface area or friction (wheels against ground, LVTs in water, etc) 10mph "thattaway" and is totally inaccurate in how it should work. Not only does this ruin any ground handling or takeoff/approaches, it made it impossible to stop LVTs in neutral because you could not stop the vehicle to reverse or shift gears during Stalin's Fourth. Wind doesn't work, that's why we don't use it. The FSO/SEA folks did a lot of testing on it and have shown it's screwed up.
Batfink: I killed one B17 while he was still passing 25k. At that time I was able to actually manuver. This was the only alt that any of the fighters got kills on the bombers. Up at 32k+ I could not. My second kill was essentially a suicide run. I was out of fuel, having chased a B17 so far that 75% internal fuel on a Ta152 could not save me. Not even with a long-span 152H-1 could I match the B17 performance at 32k. I could not nose up to get any alt over the bombers (thus no chance to make ANY diving attacks, with speed) and I could not turn around doing 180 to make a single slashing guns pass inside their icon range, and well the second you get outside icon range you're no longer attacking, and they can turn (even a few degrees away) and you'll not get back to them again. I took a Ta152 up to 40K once -- and have screenshots of myself over an enemy HQ to prove it -- and the plane cannot sustain this alt in level flight unless you're on auto pilot. Even banking a few degrees drops your alt, you power is nonexistent, and turning around takes complete concentration on your instruments (not any targets outside of your plane). Technically it can fly high, but it cannot engage anything that high. Even the vaunted 262 can't fly above 30K in this game. It can barely operate in level flight at this alt.
