Quote:
Originally Posted by Sita
(Post 713238)
we don't have good reffs for more famous plane like Su2 and others ...
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Isn't there a surviving Su-2 at the Museum of the Great Patriotic War, or, is it a replica?
If it's real, that would make it easier to get pictures of the cockpit and turret interior.
Your point about not having good reference materials is extremely important, and something most players forget.
It's not enough to just have a simple 3-view drawing, an artist's profile of the camouflage scheme, general data on dimensions, armament, and flight performance, and a few anecdotal pilot's reports.
Ideally, you want factory blueprints, pilot and mechanics manuals, plenty of flight testing reports with performance graphs, and access to a surviving example of the aircraft in factory-fresh condition.
It's even better if the flight test reports cover testing of the first production machines and tests of captured aircraft (likely to be in poorer shape and more typical of production aircraft in the field), not just tests of the prototype.
For rare aircraft - particularly early war aircraft - some or all of this data is missing. There are no surviving aircraft because they all got destroyed or were recycled to make new aircraft. Manuals and test reports got lost or were destroyed during the war or soon after.
The manufacturer of the aircraft has probably been out of business for 70 years, so nobody remembers how the plane was made, and production records and blueprints were lost long ago.
Aircrew who flew the obscure type were never very common to begin with, and many died during the war. In any case, they're all going to be dead now, and because they flew an obscure aircraft type, it's very likely that nobody thought to interview them about that plane while they were alive.
All that means that someone trying to model an obscure plane has to fill in the gaps himself and make some guesses about actual flight performance. It helps if you have an advanced degree in aeronautical engineering. :)
