New plane criteria

[Guppy35]

I know I don't get to decide but I was trying to think about it in over all terms.  This is what I came up with and then what my answers were.

-MA viable.  The biggest beef I see with new birds we've had is if they aren't latewar uber, the cry is 'hanger queen".  While I don't believe that's true of the 39 or 25 as many of us fly them, I would agree that the majority of AH drivers are much more interested in performance over history

With that being said, what I like to look at includes the following on top of MA viable:
-Length of service
-Areas of operations
-Scenario, Snapshot or FSO use

I ended up coming down to two birds that fit all those best at least in my eyes.

Bristol Beaufighter and Ki-43 Oscar.    Both were in it from at least 40 on to 45.  Beaufighter saw service in ETO, MTO, CBI and PTO.  Oscar covers CBI and PTO and fills a huge hole in the Japanese planeset for any early war scenario etc.

[Delirium]

Oscar would have my vote...

[Bronk]

Oscar would have my vote...

Ditto

[Jester]

Glass Nosed Mosquito - most likely one of the biggest holes in the plane-set - what - from 1941 on?

[wantok]

Bristol Beaufighter and Ki-43 Oscar

Completely agree, Guppy - these two are top of my list too.  The Beau in particular had an astonishing range of roles and theatres.

[Karnak]

Pe-2 is another that was in service for a long time, but only on the East Front.

Wellington, G4M, and He111 also had long periods of service.

I'd be happy with any of those six.

[DoNKeY]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that the b-29 saw multiple years of service, over every theater, right?

 

[Rich46yo]

 Two .30 cals on the Oscars right?

Well, at least if dogfighting dont work out I could take it deer hunting.

Yaknow your worthless when your even a Queen in the EWAs.

[442w30]

Oscar's real service length was divided by two versions.  Oscar I and Oscar II.  Big differences between them.  The I would be a good EW, Scenario ride but its use would probably be limited in the LW for many reasons.  The armament is the biggy with the two 7.7 mgs. Another is speed with 308 being max at ~13k.  If modelled correctly it would probably be the most fragile machine in the plane set.   The II is similar but with 2- 12.7 mgs and about 20 mph more speed. 

Given these numbers and performance, it would probably see less usage in the LW arenas than the A6M2.

[442w30]

One more thing. The Oscar was named Hayabusa which means Peregrine Falcon.  The first version is only 120 mph faster than a current motorcycle that bears the same name.  Of course the bike's top speed is at sea level and is actually governed to be that "low"

[Karnak]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that the b-29 saw multiple years of service, over every theater, right?

 

The B-29 saw about one year of service and flew almost exclusively in the Pacific Theater.  There were a small number of missions flown from China.

So, one year of service and Pacific and CBI Theaters only.

Consider yourself corrected.

[Wmaker]

I would put Pe-2 in place of the Beaufighter but that's just me. Both are very good candidates for the next units to be added. KI-43 should be there, no doubt about it.

Although looking at the new units AH has gotten during the last 3,5 years...I'll be very happy if we get anything with wings in it. During the last 3,5 years AH has gotten 3 new fighters, 3 new bombers and FIVE (!!!) new GVs. When I saw the preview shots of the SDKFZ 251 I really didn't know whether to laugh or cry...any new fighter would have been a better addition than it IMO. I can only guess that HTC wanted to add something completely different but considering the minimal amount of new aircraft in the recent years I just can't see how SDKFZ 251 was a better addition than a KI-43 for example.