There are many generic skins that change with the theater of war, which can't be selected manually.

It would be nice to have each generic skin as a bmp in your skin folder so you can choose for instance a western europe p47 generic skin in a pacific theater map. Or winter cammo in a summer map.

Each new plane is welcome.
But I think it would be possible to have more planes easily whitout heavy modifications, by using the existing in game aircrafts in order to dispose many of missing variants.

Some examples:

GE: Me109 E1 & E3, Me110 D, E & F, Fw190 A2,A3,F9
GB: Hurricane mk IIa & Sea Hurricanes, Spitfire/Seafire mk I & II, Blenheim's fighter variant & IV-V (with improved defensive armament), Beaufighter Mk I & VI.
US: P40's F-K-L-N, P38's E-F-G-H, F4U1 Birdcage & F4U4, SBD's 2-4-6, B-25 C (field mod) & J strafer variant, A20 strafer (field mod).
USSR: A20 (field mod with UB machine guns and UTK rear turret)

And the list is far from being closed.
Sorry for my bad English.

I have a small request. There are many times when I would like to fly as a pilot or bombardier, but not both, in single player. I find it tedious to have to fly the aircraft, aim the bombsight and worry about fighters at the same time.
I think it would be realistic to allow the aircraft to be flown by AI (autopilot), and still have manual control of the bombsight and bomb release. And on the flipside, it would be nice to have an AI fellow as your bombardier so I could concentrate on flying.
Any thoughts?

I'm part of the CVW-13, and we mostly fly VT-13, a torpedo squadron. We love flying formations and all that Zekes vs Wildcats, but on servers with more flak, the risk/reward of torpedo bombing is really off.

Apparently the problem is that the explosive charge is not enough. It is realistic, but since ships only have "above the waterline armour", then the effect of explosives on a less protected, below the waterline area is not modelled. Therefore, each torpedo does a minimal, irrealistic amount of damage.

I would suggest counter-balancing by either 1) having torpedos with more explosives, or 2) modelling underwater armour as well as above waterline armour. Either way, if ships entered evasive manoeuvres, it would be the best thing ever :)

Cheers!

I understand, what you are heading for, but wasn't the bombadier flying the plane during bomb run?

On some planes - yes, on some other - no. And on some even others, bombardier was controlling plane indirectly through bombsight, connected to an autopilot.

Actually, most of the bombsights in IL-2 game are very simplified operation-wise, or even worse - work completely different, then IRL.

On top of that, bombardier in the game is actually same, as the pilot. Bombardier and bombsight views in game are just another viewpoints for the pilot, from the game mechanics point of view. And that, I believe, is main and most difficult to overcome problem, which wouldn't allow making more realistic bombardier to pilot operation and cooperation in the game.

a) there is no difference between "underwater" and "above water" strength of the ship hulls in the game, in other words, there is no such thing as "above the waterline armour", or "below the waterline armour" in the game;
b) real life WWII war ships had more or less adequate underwater protection, especially designed to withstand underwater ordnance detonation;
c) and finally, just as my personal opinion: most torpedoes in the game are way too effective, comparing to the real life, actually. Even destroyers and transports, which didn't have the underwater protection could often survive single torpedo hit IRL. In the game - they don't.

Torpedo-bombing was certainly a thankless job. Single "kills" were rare, and it was really a group effort. (Another reason for dividing points online for a shared kill: everyone wants to be the last one to drop the torpedo)

On the other hand, even one torpedo hit would do damage - the ship might list, slow down, or sit dead in the water. Many ships in the game have an "all-or-nothing" DM: The ship is either healthy, or stopped and sinking... Even the big ships like BBs and carriers have their simplifications.

Unfortunately, Il-2 wasn't designed as a sim for torpedo bombers, so many concessions were made in ship modeling. In order to be up to par with folks' and my own desires, everything about the ships will have to be redone completely from scratch: ship AI, convoy behavior, subs that dive, and also more detailed DM so players can damage the engines, blow up magazines or fuel, knock out guns, or destroy the bridge, etc. That's a Herculean task.

Somewhat related: In Silent Hunter 3 (a sub game) one has to make sure his torpedoes are going to hit the hull of the ship perpendicularly. If the angle is too shallow between the path of the torpedo and the side of the hull, an impact-pistol torpedo can bounce off, doing no harm. Magnetic-pistol torpedoes explode under the hull, eliminating this restriction, but as far as I know, planes didn't carry those (you have to know the draught of the vessel you're going to hit).

Good idea. I've asked for it myself! :)

Adding new variants of new planes, and increasing the loadout options for existing planes would make a lot of mods redundant. It would also be relatively quick and easy to do, since little new 3d modeling, FM and DM work would be needed.

For planes equipped with the Norden bombsight, you can already do this. Training video here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BY3i7BlCPo

Some late war RAF and Luftwaffe planes had similar sights, which allowed the bombardier to essentially fly the plane during the bomb run, but the British and German versions of the Norden sight aren't yet in the game.

What isn't in the game is an AI pilot who will respond to your commands as bombardier. This would be much the same thing as the Norden sight, but with slower feedback and more chance of error if the pilot overcorrects, undercorrects or doesn't react in time.