A Few More Classics, Please

[Halo]

Just when I thought I would never need to read another WWII aircraft book, Border's offers another heavyweight (literally, 6.5 pounds) for only $20:  The Illustrated Encylopedia of Military Aircraft, 1914 to Present by Enzo Angelucci (Chartwell, Spain, 2001).  

The 568 pages include hundreds of photos and drawings, plus exceptional scale charts including various types of aircraft by year introduced.  It has many more categories than most WWII aircraft books, including seaplane, trainer, observation, transport, general purpose, and recon.  

The Aces High bulletin board is saturated with vehicle wish lists, but after reading this book I feel compelled to plea for the following important, intriguing aircraft which might be particularly valuable for Aces High II, both Tour of Duty and Classic:

Bristol Beaufighter (maybe the Aussie version?)
Northrop P-61
Heinkel 219 (night fighter, WWII heaviest armed, six 20mm)
Fiesler Fi156 Storch
PBY Catalina
Short Sunderland
Kawanishi H8K
Vought OS2U Kingfisher
FW 189 A-1
Ju-52

And of course the Finnish Brewster.

And of course some other popular wants:

P-47N
B-29B
A-26B
B-24J
Ki-46 III-Kai Dinah
Pe-2 (107A)
Ki-84 Ib Frank
B-25H

If it wouldn't be stretching things too much, the seaplanes and observation planes could be much more compelling if they could call in artillery as was done in Dawn of Aces.  Spotters could function both for shore batteries and ships.  

It would be also great fun to catapult and retrieve the Kingfisher from cruisers, and operate the seaplanes from ports or other water-oriented bases (some would be amphibious too).

[brady]

I have this book, got it a few years ago, it's a decent general referance.

[Rutilant]

"Heinkel 219 (night fighter, WWII heaviest armed, six 20mm)"


Heaviest armed nightfighter of, or all of WW2?

110G2(C2?) 4 20mms, 2 30mms.

[Dr Zhivago]

Originally posted by Rutilant
"Heinkel 219 (night fighter, WWII heaviest armed, six 20mm)"


Heaviest armed nightfighter of, or all of WW2?

110G2(C2?) 4 20mms, 2 30mms.

Heres few more lw nightfighter heavies...

He219 A7/R1
2x MK108
2x MK103
2x MG151/20

Do217 J2
4x 20mm MG/FF
4x MG17

Me410 A2/U4
50mm BK5
2x 20mm MG151/20
2x MG17

Bf110 G2/R1
37mm BK 3,7
4x MG17

[Halo]

The Illustrated Encylopedia of Military Aircraft has a two-page Plate 178 (Analysis of the Armament of Second World War Fighters) that starts with aircraft having only two machine guns and concludes with the one aircraft having six 20 mm cannon, the Heinkel He 219 A-2/R1.  

Second with four 30mm cannon is the Me-262, and third with four 20mm cannon and six machine guns is the Beaufighter.  

The only Bf 110 listed is the C-1 which has the 11th most formidable armament combination of two 20 mm cannon and five machineguns.

Naturally this chart is highly debatable, the most glaring example being failure to distinguish between machinegun calibers, e.g., lumping the Hurricane's eight .303s in the same category as the P-47s eight .50 calibers.  

This carries over to an omission of firepower throwweight, the  impact of each combination's projectiles.  Unfortunately I've recycled (sold to used book store) a book that had a much more convincing plate on this, coming closer to comparing, e.g., the impact of eight .50s to four 20mm and the like.

Since Aces High is so careful in modelling such stuff, and in most cases seems to my amateur eyes to be doing a fabulous job there as elsewhere, I pared my book references considerably.  

What does strike me about the Heinkel is I don't recall any other WWII fighter, at least significantly operational, as having six 20mm.

[BenDover]

I think a load out of 4 30mms is ALOT more meaty than 6 20mms, at close range anyway.