Possible Bomber Enhancement

[Manxer]

I was wondering if it would be feasible to have another dot command added that would keep a bomber at a constant speed through adjustments as long as the speed threshold was kept low enough. For instance, if my bomber was capable of doing 200mph, I could use a .bspeed 150 before I head into my bombsite. That way, while lining up my drop and maneuvering...the bombers engines would power up or down relative to the rudder and aileron drag put against them making drops somewhat more accurate.

It's just an idea as I still see that many players are still frustrated at losing a part of the game that means a lot to them. I think a lot of people are missing their drops quite often because of fine tuning to the aircraft just before drop.

[jonnyb]

An enhancement I've thought might work would be to allow someone to join as a bombadier.  This way, the pilot could keep the speed and altitude level, while the bomber did the calibrations.

It would be interesting to see this...if it were even possible.  Of course there would be some technical issues to overcome....like who actually controls the path of the plane?  IIRC, B-17 bombadiers would have complete control over the aircraft on the actual bomb run....

[Wlfgng]

reduce the throttle, hit X

as long as you callibrate for 30 seconds or so, and set the alt correctly, you'll hit the tgt.

[Manxer]

If you use rudder to re-align once your speed is set, will your aircraft try and maintain a constant speed? Or will the drag created reduce the speed of the plane? If you're not answering the first part...then you're not addressing the post correctly. The intent of the post is to see if this is a possible way in which to alleviate the frustrations caused by the changes in the bomber model. Does it make sense? What I believe you're implying is that a bomb drop is not affected in any way by late maneuvering just prior, or directly over the target. This in my opinion would keep the problem as is, instead of providing a fairly realistic solution (mimicking the pilots input).

I do like jonnyb's ideas, although I don't think the bomber community would appreciate being forced into a multicrew situation.

Note, that I'm not a bomber player. I just sympathize with the community enough to try and help find a way to keep them interested in the game.

[Shiva]

If you use rudder to re-align once your speed is set, will your aircraft try and maintain a constant speed? Or will the drag created reduce the speed of the plane?

When you turn your plane, the added drag from the deflected control surfaces slows your plane somewhat. When you steady on your new course, the additional drag is removed, and your plane will accelerate back to its previous speed. How long this takes depends on how drastic a turn you make, how much thrust your engines are producing at the time, and how heavy your plane is. When you're close to target, you want to make small corrections only, so you don't introduce large errors into your drop.