You're right, it is nothing new. As you mentioned, we had Deathstars in AW. B-17s in that game were as agile and maneuverable than a Zeke and widely used for defense. We had the same thing as well in Warbirds. In WB, players would up a B-17 and turn on Otto and use their bomber as ack. In the early days of AH, players would use bombers the same way that was done in WB. Players would park their bombers on the runway and use the plane as ack, which is why bombers no longer can fire the guns while on the ground.
Well, Bruno P. Gaido would be disappointed to hear that.
http://usnhistory.navylive.dodlive.mil/2017/04/24/toughness-aviation-machinist-mate-first-class-amm1c-bruno-peter-gaido/On 1 February 1942, five Japanese twin-engine bombers made it through the USS Enterprise (CV-6) combat air patrol (fighters) defenses following the U.S. carrier raid on the Japanese-held Marshall Islands. All the bombers missed and turned away, except the badly damaged lead plane, piloted by Lieutenant Kazuo Nakai, which turned back in an attempt to crash on the Enterprise.
As the aircraft neared the ship and anti-aircraft fire seemed ineffective, Aviation Machinist Mate Third Class (AMM3/C) Bruno Gaido leaped out of the catwalk, climbed into the back seat of a parked SBD Dauntless dive bomber (his normal position as radioman-gunner when the plane was airborne), and swiveled the plane’s aft twin .30 caliber machine guns and opened fire, standing while pouring accurate fire down into the low-flying bomber’s cockpit, causing it to lose control.
The bomber barely missed the flight deck, its wingtip cutting the tail off the SBD Gaido was in and spinning the parked aircraft. Gaido continued firing on the bomber throughout, until it crashed in the water on the opposite side of the ship. Gaido then calmly grabbed the fire bottle from the SBD and extinguished a pool of flaming gasoline on the flight deck left over from the crashed bomber.
Thereafter, he disappeared into the ship, worried that he would get in trouble for leaving his watch station. Vice Admiral William F. Halsey, the task group commander, ordered that the unidentified gunner be found. A search party eventually located Gaido and brought him to the bridge, whereupon Halsey spot-promoted him to First Class, as everyone who observed the event credited Gaido with keeping the Enterprise from being hit in the extremely close call.