[MikkOwl]

The view should remain with the crewman, as even in IL-2 one is only teleported to outside view if trying to bail out or the aircraft is completely destroyed (which is defined as everything exploding into tiny pieces, either in-flight or by striking the ground hard). This means we shouuuld be able to see such awesome events.

A lot of cool stuff could be possible some time after the game has been out. Third party improvements of crew behaviour. What I rank highest is that the pilot and crew were rendered and stopped being ghosts. It feels quite messed up (even after many years of 'mostly' seeing the phenomena) looking around in the cockpit or wherever and having no legs, arms, torso - nothing. And the controls move by themselves..

I'm willing to bet that the crew/pilot body rendering will come, and be done at first more statically, but then better and better. Because like with almost everything in any game so far, realism sneaks in. For the longest people were used to 50km/h movement/strafing speeds and high jumps due to Quake being so dominating in FPS. The reaction of some friends when introduced to rainbow six was very hostile. Then the idea of aiming through iron sights. Many thought that was ridiculous, impractical - who would want to do that? Can't see properly, what the hell. Years later, a standard in most cases. The only explanation for this resistance to simulation (the type that should appeal to them to begin with) is that previous experiences set a norm and expectations to how a certain type of game is supposed to be like. Just like in India, a movie can only be truly successful if it contains at least 7 dance and song numbers (or something like it).

I get side-tracked. I wanted to say that, I think some cunning third party maker will release some ultra-immersive B-17 & crew simulator, where the crew can move around in the aircraft, get sucked out, medic attending to wounds, messing with the ball turret getting jammed, reloads, full body rendering etc etc.

EDIT: Remaining in first person and seeing arms unbuckle, pull the canopy release and then try to get out, and remaining in there and in control of the view all the way to the ground. That is immersion. We already heard parachutes were steerable, and there may be a slight chance we can thus be in first person view at some point when leaving in the aircraft.