Why I dislike IL-2 games..

[Soviet Ace]

Originally Posted by Balderz002

I dont want to get burned here, but would I be right in saying one area the Western Allies had an advantage over Russian a/c were the radio comms in the cockpits (early war anyways)?

Most Russian planes through out WW2 didn't have radios. Just like the Japanese didn't. Why? Because they added weight as well, and they wanted to be as maneuverable as possible down at low levels.

Originally Posted by bobbysocks

in a word..NO! P 51s were not zoom and boomers. they were never designed as such but as long range bomber escorts and down and dirty dogfighters. how do i know this? 2 sources. #1 my father flew one in the war. have the films, have the combat reports, have the stories. none of his 7.5 victories were zoom and boom. #2 this link...all 51 jocks reports..

http://www.wwiiaircraftperformance.o...t-reports.html

read through these and tell me how many were Z&B? very, very few. latching onto targets of opportunity...a 190/109 crossing in front of them at the right moment...hell yes. but i would guarantee the same situation was available to russian and LW pilots in the heat of battle. hit and run was used by every country for the initial attack. to ambush...use the element surprise was everyone's tactic....it was after that where the real fighting began. some dove way, some mixed it up. LW pilots adopted this tactic because their main objective was the bombers....fighters werent going to wreak havoc on the motherland...why waste time or risk lives on them?
i will not dispute anything you say about soviet ac but this i will challenge you on and back it up by pilot accounts. the 51 was a mid/high long range altitude bomber escort. but was on par with just about everything at lower levels....again read those reports. the main strategy of LW pilots ( if they didnt bail) was to dive for the deck. a vast number of dogfights ended up well below 5k feet ( actually well below 1k). they might have started at 25 or 30k where the bombers were....but i would say more than half ended up in lower altitudes. the 51 held its own at the lower levels. as for turning....the 51 and all allied pilots knew and were schooled which turn to get the lw ac in. 109s sucked in a left hand turns...probably due to engine torgue, etc. so they tried to coax them into that kind of battle. you will see the term "luftberry"...that is a turning battle where ac are lined up like spokes on a wheel...you will also read where the 51 pilots closed the gap in turning battles with in 1 or 2 cycles. they did this dropping 10 degrees of flaps or slamming the elevator trim wheel to get the edge or flying the ac to the point of a stall. it was stated here where lw pilots were told never to dogfight with yaks below 5k... 'stang pilots were never told not to engage lw ac at any altitude. it was go and get'em... and they did to great success. 51s influence spread across continents as they flew missions from england to land in russia. did any yaks or soviet ac go from the the ussr to england? no, why? the eastern airwar and the western airwar were 2 complete different animals and you can not begin to equate the two. had germany adopted a high altitude ( 25k and above) bomber tactic/strategy russian planes and tactics would have evolved much differently. the ussr was able to use the P 39 to great success where in the western airwar it would have never been a real factor in battle. i will never say the 51 was the best fighter of ww2....i will say for the specific role it played it was. every plane designed had a specific task and arena in which it was intended to compete. its all apple and oranges...the roles of ac...the types of battles...and never shall the twaint meet. nor should they. yaks were yaks and 'stangs were 'stangs and the both did what they were designed to.....

You are absolutely correct for the most part, but I merely meant that against low altitude fighters like a Yak or La, the P-51 would be a hit and run plane because there's no way a plane like the P-51 could turn or roll with a Yak or La at their altitudes. There was no way a Mustang could dogfight a Yak or La at low altitudes, and there's not way a Yak or La could dogfight a Mustang at high altitudes. That's all I meant. Up high where the bombers were, yes the P-51 was a turn and burn fighter, but would have to use hit and run tactics against lower level fighters because they couldn't turn as sharp or roll as well as the lower level fighters. A P-51 against a FW-190A or a 109 would have a much better chance against the FW or 109 at lower altitudes because none of those planes are meant for low altitude combat; except for the 190As which early version were quite good against Yaks and La's. And it's not all just about rolling and turning, but also speed. The Yak and La were slower than the P-51; not by much actualy, but they were. They were also lighter than the Mustang, so at lower altitudes, the Mustang would be chewed up by a Yak or La if it didn't do a hit and run tactic. Same goes for the 109s, and that's why German and Axis powers on the Eastern front were told in later '44, not to combat Russian planes under 5-9,000 feet because their planes were so good at the lower altitudes.

Originally Posted by Zeroptimus

Soviet Ace, you do know that they've recently started producing Yak-3's with Allison engines for commercial sale, right? You know, just so you know...there's an air museum in Seattle about to purchase one, and I've been contemplating selling any firstborns I have for one.

Yeah, they've been producing Allison powered Yak-3 for awhile now actually. The one I sat in at Chino this year was Allison powered. But besides the engine, everything looked to be authentic. It's because Yak-11s are really just Yak-3s with a radial engine, and some people grabbed the Yak-11s and started putting Allison engines in them. Also, the reason why they're Allison engines, is because Klimov hasn't built a VK-105PF-2 engine since 1953! Also, don't just sell those firstborns for the plane, I'll help you contact Klimov in Russia, and we'll have them dig out the old VK-105 blueprints and build us one. It'd sound so sweet.