German bomb release mechanism

[F/JG300_Gruber]

Hi, 

 

I'm talking specifically about German level bombers (He111 and Ju88) in this post.

 

Question is simple : will we, at some point, get something that has at least some elements of authenticity in the bomb release system and how the player interact with it ?

 

PE2 BOMB SELECTOR AND RELEASE SYSTEM :

Simple knob selector with 0.05, 0.1, 0.25 and 0.5s release interval.

 

 

 

JU88 BOMB SELECTOR AND RELEASE SYSTEM

SCREENSHOT at : 300 kph IAS, altitude 2800m, no wind, OAT -25°C, 0.5 sec drop interval

 

 

The same one at 400kph IAS, after a bit of acceleration on the same level.

 

 

Good point :

- The groundspeed ring seems to be sort of linked to the aircraft airspeed. 

- Everything down to the tuning knobs are already animated

 

Bad points :

- No precise amount of bombs selectable (only 1-2-4-8-all)

- The interval settings available are identical to the Pe2

- No logical link between how the thing work and the available commands in the bombsight/key binding list

- No key bindings for altitude, speed, wind settings of the bombsight. Nobody I spoke with likes having to fiddle around with the mouse while flying. Huge immersion killer.

- Groundspeed calculation of the animated disk seems to be rather off the mark (higher than IAS, but lower than the TAS values I get)

- Values indicated by the bomb spacing disk are even more off the mark (80m for 0.5s on the last picture corresponds to a groundspeed of 580km/h...)

 

I can understand that copy paste the GUI model of the Pe2 as an interim solution during the development of Battle of Stalingrad, but nothing has changed ever since with two more German bombers being released with the same incorrect system. One could argue that the Ju88 was a big chunk of research and design to work on, and I'll agree with that, but the team manage back then to get some significant research and modelling done on this plane :  the interval release selector is even animated and take into account the aircraft airspeed (even if the actual calculation of interval is mathematically wrong). Having something correctly modeled wasn't that far ahead. 

 

Then came BoK and the He111-H16 wich was a rather low complexity project with only relatively minor changes from the H6. In my eyes this one should have been a perfect occasion to work on the existing bomber fleet. Not having spent much effort on that last bomber to correct some old H6 bugs (still there today), add some new functionnalities and improve fidelity of the aircraft systems is really something I regret from the team. The H16 having been rush-released amongst the firsts in BoK development was a big disapointment for me, since it was the plane I had the highest hopes (and hype) for.

 

When I see how much you care about modelling detailed gyroscopic gunsight for the Spit mk9, carefully tuned P47 turbocharger performance, or highly realistic tank tracks motion, but do nothing about what is literally a copy/paste of the Pe2 ser87, released almost 5 years ago on every bomber, it is quite frustrating for people who are genuinely interested in bombers and looking for a decent level of accuracy.

 

Regards