While attempting to use the B-29 in the MA I noticed that the bombsight seemed to be off. I noticed that after calibrating your bombsight while having your speeds matched with your E6B and pickling your bombs when the reticule crosshairs where exactly on the target, the ordnance would always seem to fall short. Discussion amongst my fellow squad mates seemed to arrive at the same conclusion. After reviewing several forum posts on the subject and watching one of my squaddies get flamed repeatedly. I decided to run some experiments in the TA with the B-29. I used different speeds and altitudes and did my best to calibrate to the most exacting standards that I could. I believe in a couple of screenshots you will see that my calibration may have been off by + or - 1mph or + or - 1 foot of altitude, so I will concede to that margin of error. Anyways here are the results of my tedious testing.
I used the 4,000lb loadout with a formation of B-29's. They made the biggest craters and were easily discernible from 30,000ft through the bombsight. I used the "bullseye" targets in the "level bombing" portion of the Training Arena map. I did my runs at approximately FL200 and FL300. Three different bomb runs were made and the ordinance was pickled only after stabilizing the bomber for one sector. I performed a maximum speed run, a bombing run at approximately 220 mph indicated, and another run at approximately 200mph.
Here are the results:
Speed = Maximum
Altitude = 30,000
Loadout = 4,000lb bombs
Weapon Release:
Impact Result:
Speed = 220MPH
Altitude = 30,000
Loadout = 4,000lb bombs
Weapon Release:
Impact Result:
Speed = 200MPH
Altitude = 30,000
Loadout = 4,000lb bombs
Weapon Release:
Impact Result:
Speed = Maximum
Altitude = 20,000
Loadout = 4,000lb bombs
Weapon Release:
Sorry about this seems the next 3 screens I wanted to use got lost on the upload to mediafire...This was supposed to be
the Max speed release screen shot...I will update this when I have time to run the experiment again.
Impact Result:
The result was that the ordinance landed just shy of where the reticule was pickled
Speed = 220MPH
Altitude = 20,000
Loadout = 4,000lb bombs
Weapon Release:
Don't have this release shot either but I do have the result below.
Impact Result:
Speed = 200MPH
Altitude = 20,000
Loadout = 4,000lb bombs
Weapon Release:
Impact Result:
If you notice in many of these screenshots the (Projected Impact Point) or PIP (green + sign in the bombsight), consistently lags behind the bombsight for every drop and every condition. Even when the aircraft is stabilized and your Drop altitude = to your actual altitude and calibrated airspeed matching your true airspeed in the E6B. Overall, though the ordinance seems to fall consistently close but behind the pickle location. I know that this isn't true for every screenshot but I also did this test with the 500lb loadout, only I didn't target the bullseyes but certain objects on factories, fields, etc, so i did not include the 500lber test runs seeing as the results weren't as measurable by using the bullseye targets. I have noticed that as the true speed is reduced, the disparity between the PIP and the Reticule is even greater. This difference is exaggerated at lower altitudes. The B-29 bombsight seems to be less accurate the lower and slower you go, making it very difficult to do a quick calibration for precision bombing. My recommendation is to make use of larger ordinance packages if you are attempting to precision bomb at low speeds and low altitudes. Hopefully, the larger blast radius will deal out enough damage to your target to destroy it. Also, to utilize this aircraft in a precision bombing roll I recommend that you spend the time necessary to calibrate your bombsight thoroughly before your drop, while flying the aircraft towards the upper limit of its speed envelope. Make sure your Drop Alt = Alt and your Calibrated Airspeed = True Airspeed listed in the E6B. I had much better accuracy when I kept the airplane close to its maximum speed at both 20,000 and 30,000 feet. Unfortunately, my maximum speed data for the 20,000 ft altitude is missing. Personally, I do believe the reticule could use a little more tweaking. I believe that this would help to more accurately match the level of precision utilized with the bombsights in the other level bombers.
Anyways, this was all I had time for and I hope it helps those with questions or concerns about the B-29 bombsight.
