Drop Tanks

[Have_Gun_Will_Travel]

After seeing a profile of a aircraft sporting a drop tank and knowing there are none which are available in il2, perhaps its time to have them added as a feature? 

Obviously there are more pressing issues but still perhaps the team can look into adding them at some point.

 

 

 

[AEthelraedUnraed]

Drop tanks are already being worked on, and have been for at least more than a year, as can be read about in several Developer Diaries They can be seen in e.g. the following screenshot:

They're quite possibly coming with the release of Battle of Normandy (where they would be quite necessary for aircraft like the Bf-109), which is supposedly only days from now.

[Bando]

I believe the devteam is reworking the fuel system as a whole. Drop tanks may well be a part of it.
Drop tanks were a real thing for some planes in these days, but on our current maps, I don't see the urgency.
 

[KevPBur]

Funny, many people complain that a filight time to target of more than 10 minutes is too long. Others what to fly for 2 hours with absolutely nothing happening on maps you can cover in 30 minutes.

[Denum]

18 minutes ago, KevPBur said:

Funny, many people complain that a filight time to target of more than 10 minutes is too long. Others what to fly for 2 hours with absolutely nothing happening on maps you can cover in 30 minutes.

On the Normandy map the Griffon can basically fly across, very quickly do something then needs to fly back, and even then you're running the real risk of not having enough fuel.

 

Luckily the Mustang is an option though.

[IckyATLAS]

1 hour ago, KevPBur said:

Funny, many people complain that a filight time to target of more than 10 minutes is too long. Others what to fly for 2 hours with absolutely nothing happening on maps you can cover in 30 minutes.

I love real flights, from Parking to Parking and they were often pretty long on the European theater.

The Rheinland Map has a full diagonal length of 630 km. The Kuban Map is 660 km. A round trip Kerch to Tuapse is 500 km and Kerch to Sochi is 700 km.

Maximum operational range of the BF109 as an example without drop tanks is around 850km or less it depends on variants. You cannot do a return trip of 700 km and have also 15- or 30-minutes combat time on target. During flight you can optimize consumption and fly not too fast (which makes it for a long duration trip), but in combat you gobble fuel very fast, and if you had some nasty encounters on your way, it is even worse. Either you have drop tanks or you can do stops and refuel in a friendly base if any on your way, but in general you fly over hostile airspace.

Range of the Yak9 is 675km, much less here.

If we take bombers who fly slower in average like the Pe2 the maximum range was about 1160 km. In the Kuban case you may be able just to do it all depends on speed and altitude and having no trouble on the way. The fighters will not follow and cover you all along without drop tanks.

 

I have in my Kuban campaign Mission Nr. 6 which is a Pe2 bombing flight with escort. The leader of the escort is you in a La 5fns2 that has about 750 km maximum range.

The return trip in this mission is 400 km straight and so no problem for the Pe2. The Pe-2 and the cover planes all starts with fuel tanks at full. But you have nasty encounters on the way and on the target, and you must cover the bombers, so you have to keep flying nearby. I received a comment from those who flew the mission that basically you cannot succeed this mission because the La5 was out of fuel and had to crash land before reaching its home base (hard condition here). I have now to check and change conditions to make this mission passible to succeed.

It is a good example about how you can be short on fuel even at a shorter range that your theoretical one. You can decide not to cover your bombers and fly back but there are other conditions that apply, and you may get court-martialed.  

Many German, British and US fighters had without drop tanks ranges around 750 km. Some exceptions are the Zero (1800 km) and The P51D (1200 km) and this without drop tanks.

5 hours ago, Bando said:

I believe the devteam is reworking the fuel system as a whole. Drop tanks may well be a part of it

I agree that if they add drop tanks the whole fuel system must be properly simulated, I mean with the fuel flow on the fuel indicators and switching the various tanks or drop tanks. The drop tanks are one of the tanks in the plane and often there can be multiple. This means that the fuel consumption as well as the instrument indication must be "real-time" and react to the switching of the internal tanks back and forth and so on. This means a complete fuel simulation set for each plane as each one is specific. I suppose this will take some time, and it may be installed first on one plane, later on another one, and so on during development of another BOX campaign.

[Luftschiff]

I agree that most of the time drop tanks are pointless - but I also fairly frequently have to return to base after long CAP patrols in MP, especially in the 109 and would welcome it. It's rare that a flight-to-target-and-back would ever require them but patrolling up and down the map for an hour, some extra fuel would be nice. I am looking forward to the fuel update.

[LukeFF]

7 hours ago, Bando said:

on our current maps, I don't see the urgency.

 

You can already run out of fuel on the Rhineland map if you start at one of the airfields at the far eastern end of the  map, such as Nidda - and that's with the Dora-9. Carrying drop tanks was very much a reality for the Germans by 1944, to even include Normandy.

[Alexmarine]

8 minutes ago, LukeFF said:

 

You can already run out of fuel on the Rhineland map if you start at one of the airfields at the far eastern end of the  map, such as Nidda - and that's with the Dora-9. 

 

Most of the 109-flying units are barely playable on Rhineland exactly because most of the time one has to fly well on the max range of internal fuel, the 190s units fares only slightly better as you said. Not sure but definitely even some allied units on the same career will benefit from external fuel as some of them are based pretty westward...

[IckyATLAS]

37 minutes ago, LukeFF said:

 

You can already run out of fuel on the Rhineland map if you start at one of the airfields at the far eastern end of the  map, such as Nidda - and that's with the Dora-9. Carrying drop tanks was very much a reality for the Germans by 1944, to even include Normandy.

Form your remark I feel that we may get them not so far in time. You probably know more than us mere mortals. ?

[Avimimus]

5 hours ago, KevPBur said:

Funny, many people complain that a filight time to target of more than 10 minutes is too long. Others what to fly for 2 hours with absolutely nothing happening on maps you can cover in 30 minutes.

 

Well, I'd honestly like it if the campaign had an option closer to the AQMB - one with an air start near the combat area. But I'd also like to sometimes start with an almost empty droptank, or to encounter enemy fighters carrying droptanks... because it is historically accurate.

 

Also some of the bomb-loads for the Fw-190G or the Bf-109 loadouts for Bodenplatte make a lot more sense with droptanks, as do Spitfires generally

 

P.S. I'm actually a bit worried that the current default waypoint layout will be used to the AQMB for Flying Circus II - thus making missions much longer due to the lower airspeed - whereas having the IP waypoint be closer to the target area would be desirable.

 

 

[BMA_FlyingShark]

15 hours ago, KevPBur said:

Funny, many people complain that a filight time to target of more than 10 minutes is too long. Others what to fly for 2 hours with absolutely nothing happening on maps you can cover in 30 minutes.

That is also 'cause they have nothing to do during those long flights, at least for now, and that can get a bit boring for some.

Having to manage your fuel would make long flights more interesting.

 

Have a nice day.

 

[PB0_Roll]

I don't mind long flights, as long as I'm getting paid to fly these.

 

For pleasure flights, I'd rather use 256x time acceleration until next eventful area, as IL2 46 (modded), SF2 or EAW allow.

[mspyker13]

Jeesh i really hope theyre still being developed into the game

[JG7_X-Man]

This would have been a great addition to the BoB map

[=SqSq=SignorMagnifico]

On 1/18/2023 at 2:08 AM, mspyker13 said:

Jeesh i really hope theyre still being developed into the game

Looks like we will never see fuel drop tanks added to Great Battles (or Bodenplatte). 

 

I'm excited to know that IL-2 Korea will support drop tanks.

 

However, I'm disappointed to see this feature first promised almost seven years ago (for Bodenplatte) won't be coming to Great Battles.

 

This is a broken promise in my book.

 

Dev confirmation there won't be drop tanks: (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdUXr1qurR4&t=2164s)

 

Original drop tanks feature announced for Bodenplatte 11/17/2017. https://il2sturmovik.com/news/360/announcing-battle-bodenplatte-flying-circus-tank-c/