Sakai has a stiffy for the D0 217, we had a HUGE debate over the He 177 vs Do 217 and the He 177 in general hear:
http://www.hitechcreations.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=70404 I am spent, so I will sumerise:
He is wrong I am right.
The He 177 is a better choice for AH than the Do 217.
I would be happy to see the Stuka, and certainly make good use of it in the CT. A very approparate mid to early war plane not realy a late war plane though.
I can appricate him wanting his favorate plane though.
A snipet from the above debate from hell:
Some Quots From Wings of the Luftwaffe by Capt. Erich Brown:
P.48:
The first intack example of the He 177 test flow by the Alies was one that was stolen from a German airfield, by a comando raid just for that pourpos! And the piolet who flew it had "Zero" knowledge of the plane and had this to say:
"He did not find it a particularly difficult aircraft to manage"
P.49:
"It was an extreamly advanced concept"
p.52:
" The He 177 showed no tendancy to swing and tail could be rasied easly in the take off run, showing light and effective elevator response."
" the aircraft came up off the ground at 93mph"
p.54:
" a check of stabality showed it stable about all axes"
" the controls were all remarkably light"
Althought he did feal the elevator was dangeriously light and was carefull with it.
The He 177 was capable of preforming 60 degree diving atacks and it's air frame was strong enought to handel this.
p.56:
"I pushed the the speed up to 323 mph and their was very little increase in in control heaveiness, pull out from this trimed speed at 2g being possable with two fingers of one hand."
" since the posable pull-out acceleration was 2.3g with a flying weight of 27 tonnes, it was vitail to know the flying weight of the He 177."
" the stalling characteristics of the He 177 in a clean state were mild."
" Their was a pronunced buffet at 115 mph before the nose droped at 112 mph."
"with flaps and undercarage lowered, howeaver the aircraft buffeted violently at 87mph, before the nose droped at 84 mph"
" on the glide down to circute altitude at 137mph, I checked out the trim changes resulting from lowering the gear and flaps but in neitehr case were their any. The glide angle with engines throtled back at 106mph was very flat, this making touchdown easy."
In all fairness Capt. Brown was not paticulary fond of the He 177,The above example( He 177 A5) was flow quiet frequently for several months in the UK and then at a slower rate, untill being delevered to the US for testing, and no fires were reported in the UK.
So in conclushion we can derive the following from what Capt Brown had to say, the main wories he had while flying the He 177 were related to mechanical issues which would not be of issue in AH, the plane despite reports to the contrary was Strong, and the reports of it breaking up in flight were from mishandling the plane not du to structeral issues, heck it is prety easy to rip the wings off and A20 or B 26 if you get careless, this is a bomber after all The He 177 was also, not that bad of a plane to fly as is exemplified in the above quotes.
From a purly historical aspect it is clear that this plane had no signastudmuffinnt impact on the war, and had problems in it's development , this cold be said of several planes in AH right now. History has made a case for the He 177 that is not refutable imo, howeaver that case has no bearing in the discushion as to wheather or not the He 177 should be in AH.
capt. Brown had this to say about the Do 217:
"Writing an epitaph for this last of the Dornier bomber line to see combat, one would perhaps say that it had been a moderate aircraft which established an undistinguished but honourable operational record."
" preformance was such that it's forte was obviously nocturnal"
( he is refering to the "M")
He likened the Dive bomber aspect of the D0 217 to the He 177.
He considred the D0 217 Decidedly underpowered.
Araments of the D0 217K:
Two 7.9mm MG 81 in the nose,one 13mm MG 131 in the dorsal turet, one 13mm MG 131 in the ventral position, two 7.9mm MG 81 guns in lateral positions aprox. 8,000 pounds of bombs.
He 177A5:
One 7.9mm MG 81, in nose, one 20mm MG 151 in forward gondola, two 13 mm MG 131's in dorsal barbet,one 13mm MG 131 in dorsal power turet, one MG 151 20mm cannon in the tail, two 7.9mm MG 81's in Ventral gondola. Aprox. 13,000 pounds of bombs.
