Pickle bombing

[Major_Hans]

Anybody tried pickle bombing yet?

In case you don't know what that is, during WW-II bomber raids only the lead plane of a squadron of bombers used it's Norden bombsight.  The other bombadiers in the formation just simply sat in their plexiglass nosecones watching their leader.  When the saw his bombs drop, their bombadier would then drop his own bombs.  The pilots of the other planes just held formation instead of letting the Norden sight (which they were not using) fly the plane by remote autopilot control.

You may notice in some films from those raids where the first bomb of the stick of bombs dropped by a B-17 is smoking.  That is to make it easier to see.

Now, remind yourself that the whole formation doesn't drop like that, just the individual squadrons within the formation.

This tip might make holding multiple player bomber formations tighter when you drop your bombs.

[Vulcan]

Its not uncommon in ToD. Especially when things are hotting up.

[Revvin]

No.9 Squadron have been doing this for as long as I can remember. We prefer to try and do things with a historical flavour and set salvo's and delay's to maximise the formations bombload. We drop on the lead bombers command and fly close formation (ie less than 200yrds) Each pilot is given a formation position and has to stick to that position and we fly different formations to allow for the various aircraft deficiencies such as the Lancasters vunerability from low 6 attack. The following pic was taken from a formation of approx 6 aircraft with AI (click for larger version)