Britain's Carrier Planes

[udet]

I am reading this book about aircraft carriers. The early war in the Mediterranean is a very interesting and often overlooked piece of naval history.
The Brits had carriers but each could carry a relatively small number of planes,all outdated- the Blackburn Skua for dive-bombing and sometimes used as a fighther, later to be replaced by the Fairey Fulmar, a two seat fighter-2 seat jin order to be able to perform recon as well.
And of course, the tordonuts, the venerable Fairey Swordfish and Albacore-yummy sounds like tuna salad.
Oh,I almost forgot, for fighters, they also had the Sea Gladiator,another biplane.
What's my point-well it's that even if a lot of plane seem obsolete compared to the later warbirds of the war, or even compared to other planes of their time, they all deserve the same recognition for the part they played in making history.
Therefore the early planeset needs some new additions.
No,I am nor squeaking,just pointing out a fact.

[Widewing]

Originally posted by udet
I am reading this book about aircraft carriers. The early war in the Mediterranean is a very interesting and often overlooked piece of naval history.
The Brits had carriers but each could carry a relatively small number of planes,all outdated- the Blackburn Skua for dive-bombing and sometimes used as a fighther, later to be replaced by the Fairey Fulmar, a two seat fighter-2 seat jin order to be able to perform recon as well.
And of course, the tordonuts, the venerable Fairey Swordfish and Albacore-yummy sounds like tuna salad.
Oh,I almost forgot, for fighters, they also had the Sea Gladiator,another biplane.
What's my point-well it's that even if a lot of plane seem obsolete compared to the later warbirds of the war, or even compared to other planes of their time, they all deserve the same recognition for the part they played in making history.
Therefore the early planeset needs some new additions.
No,I am nor squeaking,just pointing out a fact.

I don't think you're squeaking, however.......

Let's pause and consider what the RN flew from carriers that we already have.

F6F
F4U
TBM
Seafire
Sea Hurricane (the Hurri I is close enough)
F4F/Martlet, several versions (two versions coming soon)

For the Combat Theater, the Mk.IX and XIV could be substituted for later Seafire marks.

Swordfish and Albacore are virtually useless in the MA, so I don't see any motivation to spend the time and effort on these. Fulmar and Firefly might be worthy of consideration, but it appears that HTC is concentrating on the Pacific theater for the time being, and relatively obscure aircraft are probably a long way down the road, assuming they ever get modeled.

I'm sure if HTC could wave a magic wand and please everyone, they would do so. As it is, I'm sure they make their decisions based upon what they believe to be in the best interest of their game. Within that context, it's seemingly impossible to find fault with their decisions and selections to date.

In a perfect world, we would have every type that served during the war. Well, it's not a perfect world, so we must use what's available, and that includes something like 70 different aircraft! I don't know about others, but that impresses the hell out of me.

My regards,

Widewing

[thrila]

Seafire with 4*20mm would be nice. Blackburn Skua.....hmmmm...not so sure about that one.  The fairy swordfish would be cool though.

while i'm in this thread i might aswell hijack it.  Bring the Beaufighter to Aces high!!!  (and the stuka while yer at it)

[cajun]

Originally posted by udet
I am reading this book about aircraft carriers. The early war in the Mediterranean is a very interesting and often overlooked piece of naval history.
The Brits had carriers but each could carry a relatively small number of planes,all outdated- the Blackburn Skua for dive-bombing and sometimes used as a fighther, later to be replaced by the Fairey Fulmar, a two seat fighter-2 seat jin order to be able to perform recon as well.
And of course, the tordonuts, the venerable Fairey Swordfish and Albacore-yummy sounds like tuna salad.
Oh,I almost forgot, for fighters, they also had the Sea Gladiator,another biplane.
What's my point-well it's that even if a lot of plane seem obsolete compared to the later warbirds of the war, or even compared to other planes of their time, they all deserve the same recognition for the part they played in making history.
Therefore the early planeset needs some new additions.
No,I am nor squeaking,just pointing out a fact.

I agree, Sea Gladiator and Fairey Swordfish Both played a VERY important role in ww2, I'd love to see them both, the Sea Gladiator was used up untill 1943 or 1944 (in combat) it served in the battle of briton and was the first to engage the german bombers (If I read that right) and had a great advantage over the german fighters in manuverability.  The Fairey swordfish was used through out the whole war from beginning to end! it sunk a at a minimum of 20 German U-boats and damadged a good deal of ships including the bismark which they did not loose a single plane in attacking! The SwordFish MKIII also had a radar mounted under its gear to detect subs/ships!

Gladiator:

[cajun]

And as for them being obsolite, well not really... We have the val, the hurricane I, A6m2 and P40 all of which the Sea Gladiator could out preform, as well as being able to outturn ANY other plane on the game! and how could you have an early planeset with out biplanes (I'd also like to see CR42 which had a top speed of 314 MPH only 2 mph under the hurricanes top speed) and the Hs-123 and I-153 which both were sometimes fitted with 2x20mm cannons ...

I'm looking forward to the val for dive bombing, maybe it'll hold me untill we get biplanes

[Replicant]

I would have liked to have seen a Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm Corsair (F4U) in AH because it was the Royal Navy that first used the Corsair from aircraft carriers!!!  

[RRAM]

Originally posted by cajun
And as for them being obsolite, well not really... We have the val, the hurricane I, A6m2 and P40 all of which the Sea Gladiator could out preform, as well as being able to outturn ANY other plane on the game!

what have you smoked?...I want some of that thing!!!!!!!...a gladiator outperforming a P40, a Zero and a hurri?

Are you insane?

and how could you have an early planeset with out biplanes (I'd also like to see CR42 which had a top speed of 314 MPH only 2 mph under the hurricanes top speed) and the Hs-123 and I-153 which both were sometimes fitted with 2x20mm cannons ...

Best top speed I've ever seen listed for a CR42 was 270mph. Please list your sources, because you won't try to convince me that a draggy-as-hell biplane with a 850hp toejamty radial engine in its nose is going to fly just 20mph slower than a Hurricane I with its 1150hp engine, without any kind of hard data.

[Ripsnort]

The Swordfish theory could be cross-used for a Training plane as well.  (Hmmm, I smell a 5 week TOD where you start out in Bi-planes and move forward in time each week ending up with either a Meteor or 262 ! )

[Karnak]

A Firefly was the first British aircraft to fly over Tokyo in WWII.  As I understand it, Fireflies served mostly in the Pacific.

PRAM,

The numbers I usually see for the Hurri I put it at 314mph for top speed, thus he actually said that the biplane was just as fast as a Hurri I.

[Nashwan]

The Skua would be nice for historical reasons, but not much use in the MA.

First plane to sink a major warhip in action, first British plane to shoot down a German plane in WW2.

[cajun]

Originally posted by RRAM


Best top speed I've ever seen listed for a CR42 was 270mph. Please list your sources, because you won't try to convince me that a draggy-as-hell biplane with a 850hp toejamty radial engine in its nose is going to fly just 20mph slower than a Hurricane I with its 1150hp engine, without any kind of hard data.

I have found my sources for CR42 many places and they all list it as 314 MPH, and as for P40/A6m out manuvering a biplane! HA! Biplanes were by far the most manuverable planes in the war, infact in mongolia the I-16 mono plane was replaced by the much more agile (and actuelly faster!) I-153biplane which was sometimes fitted with 2x20mms!

besides the fact the early war planeset just wouldnt be complete with out a few biplanes, especially when many like Hs-123 which served up untill 1944 in combat and fairey swordfish served untill the end of the war!

[Karnak]

Max speed I have for the CR42 is 267mph.

Monoplanes would eat it for lunch.  Not surprisingly, Hurris and Spits did just that to them in the Battle of Britain.

[cajun]

Sure you arent getting it confused with I-153? I'll check in some other places on the top speed....

[cajun]

I may be thinking of another Biplane, but I know I read somewhere about 1 of them having a top speed of 314 mph...

But I don't think they'll gettin eatin by spits/hurris

But is'nt this thread about navy planes?

[brady]

I am all for the earler Planes but I do think the Firefly would be a great choice for a CV aircraft, a much better choice imo than a Heldiver.