Muzzy's Preliminary B29 Review

[Muzzy]

Regarding fragility:

In combat, my first Superbuff got tore up by a P 38 with only a couple of bursts, shearing off a wing on the 2nd pass.  Also, as I mentioned in other threads, I cut a 29 in half (broke the fuselage in two just behind the wings) with a few hispano rounds.

In regular flight: One of my squaddies crashed because he didn't get a stall warning, another lost control surfaces in a very shallow dive.

[amulford]

I can vouch for that also.  I lost ailerons in a VERY shallow dive.  IAS was less than 325 MPH.  TAS was lees than 350. 

Methinks there are bugs to be ironed out with this bird.  No way should you be losing control surfaces in such a manner.

Something else which happened to me.  I jumped to another plane to get a better targeting solution on a bandit. When I went back to the #1 plane, I could not see any of my instruments.   I was no longer in the pilots seat. Any of them.

[W7LPNRICK]

Diving too fast or too steep will rip both elevators off way before a main wing. Yes I did that. 

[dstrip2]

b29 damage offline test:

Titanic Tuesday wasnt treating me well so i played around with the b29 offline. my first flight the ack at a vbase handily destroyed my b29 halfway through my first pass, no 37mm impacts were observed (was planing on making passes and getting shot till the b29 gave up, just to get an idea of the punishment it could take). i was a bit surprised at how easily 3 different fires were started.. and decided to up a c2 with b29 target drones. a VERY short burst from d600 from the 12.7 mg's in the nose 1) ate thru the flap and 2) started an engine fire. subsequent short (like 1 second or less) bursts in each engine and the forward/right/bottom section of the fuselage gave me a b29 with every tank on fire and just one flap missing besides. it is actually easier/more probable for a hit in the engine to start a fire than to damage the engine.

made subsequent high side runs on a fresh bomber with the same result, again just with the mg's in the nose of my c2

set other offline drones to an a6m, p47d11, g4m, n1k, b24, b17 and did the same things to them with just the mg's as i did to the b29

in short the b29 is a much larger and just as flammable target IMO as the jap planes with their lack of self-sealing tanks/armor etc, most comparable to the b24 in terms of durability but with seemingly larger ares to hit to inflict 'threshold' damage


these things are easy meat if a hit can be scored

im sure there are other guys who have played with our new toy offline and i would assume my experience would be easily repeated


edit: sorry for hijacking thread here, noticed lots of other "b29 such and such" threads and didnt want to add another one. my bad guys
</hijack>
 

[thomace]

another interesting point that probably isn't modeled in the 29...when you punch holes in a thermos...it makes for explosive problems...pressurization problems would require them to drop below 10k and make for a very long flight home...

[Urchin]

To be honest, B-29 was known to catch fire. I'll have to wait till I get home to find the exact passage, but something around the engine was made out of magnesium to save weight.  Unfortunately for the aircrews, magnesium is extremely flammable.

[Oldman731]

another interesting point that probably isn't modeled in the 29...when you punch holes in a thermos...it makes for explosive problems...pressurization problems would require them to drop below 10k and make for a very long flight home...

If memory serves, it was SOP to depressurize the plane before entering the target area.

- oldman

[moot]

To be honest, B-29 was known to catch fire. I'll have to wait till I get home to find the exact passage, but something around the engine was made out of magnesium to save weight.  Unfortunately for the aircrews, magnesium is extremely flammable.

I think I remember reading this same comment and someone with technical experience, or who read cumulative practical reports, replying that shouldn't be reason enough.  Were any of the other bombers in AH designed this way?

[Chalenge]

In RL history, Curtis Lemay ordered the B-29s to low altitude raids due to poor high altitude accuracy.

In AH, due to perk prices, lack of Tokyo size targets, and B-29 fragility, low alt Superfortresses will not be a common sight.

No... he ordered them "lower." Low alt means below 15k. LeMay ordered the bombers "down" to 23k.

[Ten60]

To be honest, B-29 was known to catch fire. I'll have to wait till I get home to find the exact passage, but something around the engine was made out of magnesium to save weight.  Unfortunately for the aircrews, magnesium is extremely flammable.

The most relentless problem was the 2,200 hp Wright Cyclone R-3350 twin row radial engine. It had a persistent inclination to overheat, swallow valves and even catch fire in flight. In an effort to produce more horsepower from a lighter engine, the crankcase was made of magnesium, a very light, very strong metal. The problem was magnesium is also a flammable metal. When that was combined with the additional problem of a fuel induction system, which tended to catch fire and burn long enough to catch the magnesium afire, it became a very serious situation.

Non bullet related burning.  They overheated VERY easily especially in early service times.

[dstrip2]

I think I remember reading this same comment and someone with technical experience, or who read cumulative practical reports, replying that shouldn't be reason enough.  Were any of the other bombers in AH designed this way?

yeah the AH b29 burning seems to be from large weak fuel tanks. flying offline and 8/10 times the damage received from ack is either a fuel fire or a pw. have yet to have any engine or gear get hit, and a disproportionately small number of control surface hits 

[SectorNine50]

1/4 bag she climbs better than the lanc with 20 500lbs, on @ 1150 Appr. 40 minutes of fuel  will get to 30000 no problem
Will try 1/2 bag with 40 500lbs next.
roll rate is slightly faster than the sun crosses the sky
 I used all of the runway and 2 notches flaps, make sure you have nothing in front of you at take off ,
 gear up and slight back pressure till 150mph then 1 notch flaps, 165 no flaps, 180 start climbing

I found very good results leaving the flaps up until right before you wanted to rotate, then throwing down 1 notch.  It's kind of a bush pilot take-off style, but it allows it to gain speed with minimal drag.  I found that with two notches, the B-29 wanted to pick up it's nose a bit early which caused a good deal amount of drag.

That got me off the ground the fastest with 100% fuel and full bomb load.

[Muzzy]

After flying the B29 in the Special Events arena I learned that it's best use will be in high altitude strikes at 25+K.  At that altitude there are few planes that can effectively boom and zoom it and its guns become more effective for protection.  I encountered 2 fighters during my run (Ta152 and Bf109k4). They made 2-3 high speed passes before falling behind, then both tried for a tail shot and were summarily dispatched.

If you'd like to cruise around at high alt and carpet bomb several targets, than the 29 is your ride.  At least one of my squaddies likes flying missions like that, and more power to him.

[mipoikel]

Regarding fragility:

 Also, as I mentioned in other threads, I cut a 29 in half (broke the fuselage in two just behind the wings) with a few hispano rounds.

Was it me?  First day it was out, about 16k alt over A24. I saw a spit and LA7 behind me.

[rainnman]

I am getting some reports from our bomber wing that at high alt cruise with wep on engine fires are occuring.