WGr21 Rocket Pods

[haggerty]

Please make them jettisonable if enemy fighter comes in icon range.

[Krusty]

Nope.

The entire point of the jettison was that it was only for absolute emergencies. There was a war on, resources were scarce, they didn't drop them when enemy showed up just to try and dogfight.

Hitech himself has said that if he added it, it would be 100% every sortie used, instead of only in rare emergency cases, so he's not adding it. There should be a penalty if you choose to fly with them, and they stay after you fire.

[haggerty]

The entire point of the jettison was that it was only for absolute emergencies. There was a war on, resources were scarce, they didn't drop them when enemy showed up just to try and dogfight.

If an enemy shows up, thats an emergency.  Its a metal tube, the country will recover.  Rather lose that than a plane and pilot.

[icepac]

I guess original poster hasn't tested speeds with and without rockets.

Once fired, there is little to no drag from the rockets.

I will up a 110g without the cannon pod and two rockets to chase down B29s.

If they have a significant altitude advantage when I find them, I fire off the rockets and enjoy a pretty fast 110.

[Krusty]

If an enemy shows up, thats an emergency.  Its a metal tube, the country will recover.  Rather lose that than a plane and pilot.

That's just not true. Encountering the enemy = normal. Emergency = going down, damaged horribly, need to crash safely and need to get those off the wings. In AH terms if that's happening you've already been shot down.

P.S. Those "metal tubes" weren't cheap and they had a significant shortage of certain metals in Germany. As far as I recall: There was never a recorded case that those tubes were jettisoned like you describe.

[haggerty]

That's just not true. Encountering the enemy = normal. Emergency = going down, damaged horribly, need to crash safely and need to get those off the wings. In AH terms if that's happening you've already been shot down.

They carried the rockets for bomber intercepting, if they were in a dogfight with a fighter you better believe they'd jettison for a cleaner plane.  Which is why I request it only be allowed if a fighter is in range of you.

[MWL]

Remember - Germans won't cross the road as long as Red Man is lit up - even if there isn't a vehicle in sight for miles . . . 

[Devil 505]

Nope.

The entire point of the jettison was that it was only for absolute emergencies. There was a war on, resources were scarce, they didn't drop them when enemy showed up just to try and dogfight.

By this argument, drop tanks should not be able to be jettisoned either. 

Hitech himself has said that if he added it, it would be 100% every sortie used, instead of only in rare emergency cases, so he's not adding it. There should be a penalty if you choose to fly with them, and they stay after you fire.

Hitech's reasoning makes much more sense.

[haggerty]

By this argument, drop tanks should not be able to be jettisoned either. 

Hitech's reasoning makes much more sense.

In the current state of affairs there is no reason to take the rockets.  They are extremely hard to hit with and have a big speed reduction.  And on the single engine fighters its better to just take the gun pods.  I'm taking them just to be different, but if I wanted to min/max my effectiveness I'd take the gun pods.

[icepac]

Is this a good enough reason to carry rockets?

[Zoney]

That's your best screenshot ever Ice, maybe my favorite in the game.










Then you ruined the magical moment by colliding, still counts though!

[icepac]

Dang.....I still had one rocket left, too.

I need to go through every film some day to select some good stuff.

I sank a cv and some guy was rolling down the deck as it angled down and he somehow made it up.

[Wiley]

By this argument, drop tanks should not be able to be jettisoned either. 

Hitech's reasoning makes much more sense.

Pardon a stupid question, but I was under the impression drop tanks were meant to be jettisoned on every sortie?  I was always under the impression the rocket tubes were meant to stay on the plane ideally.

Wiley.

[Devil 505]

The external tanks would be retained unless combat was entered, or in some cases retained even while in combat. We like to call them "drop tanks" because they can be dropped if needed, but they were not dropped every sortie.

The logic behind deciding to drop a tank or rocket tube was the same - save them if you can, but drop them to help save the plane/pilot.

Let's look at it as a matter of practicality, it takes much more time, money, and material to make a plane than it does a rocket tube or an external tank.

[JimmyC]

spitty drop tanks where made of paper....just a titbit of information

usefull tools....


“One morning Sgt. Sing, our Squadron cook, asked me if I would help him with a project to which I agreed of course. He sawed a panel from the top of a paper gas tank in which we carried extra fuel – one that had not been used. He took the baffles out of the inside and hinged the panel he’d cut out so that it could be opened and closed. Into the tank he poured 50 gallons of powdered milk mix, ten gallons of mixed, canned fruit, ten pounds of sugar, some vanilla extract and a few other ingredients that I don’t remember. All this was mixed thoroughly and the tank was hung under the wing of my plane. Sgt. Sing told me to fly up to 30,000 feet where the temperature would be about 30 degrees below zero F. I was to slip and skid the airplane around for half an hour to keep the contents mixed up until it froze, then dive down and land as quickly as possible. When I parked the airplane Sgt. Sing dropped the tank off the wing and opened it up to reveal ICE CREAM. Everyone had a feast.”