Quote:
Originally Posted by Marabekm
I like carriers.
There were 5 such engagements:
Coral Sea, Midway, Eastern Solomons, Santa Cruz, and the Philippine Sea.
The first 4 took part in 1942. We have the plane sets available for those. Just need a flyable TBD. With the exception that the D4Y1. (But it was more of a reconnaissance plane at this time. Standard ship board dive bomber was still D3A) And the TBF and TBD are AI only. I know the TBF can't be made flyable but perhaps someone can work on the TBD.
The Philippine Sea would require a little more. For the Japanese the only flyable plane currently available is the A6M5. The B6N is in game as AI only. So maybe this could be made flyable? And then as mentioned above, the is no D4Y model at all.
For the U.S. its a little better, the F6F, and SBD-5 are available and flyable. And again unfortunately the TBM is out of the question. Like the D4Y there is no SB2C.
Just an interesting fact, the SB2C was very unpopular, most VB units preferred the SBD. During the Philippine Sea, the only 2 squadrons equipped with the SBD, were VB-10 and VB-16. Of the 26 SBD-5s used, only 4 were lost. Of the 51 SB2Cs used, 43 were lost. But the problem was, the government had already agreed to purchase the SB2Cs from Curtiss. |
You argue against the SB2C with loss statistics, and want a flyable TBD? I'm a bit puzzled. SB2C had bad statistics initially but turned out fine in the end -though crews still didn't like it.
A flyable TDB would not be viable for most carrier battles, as after Midway they were finished as a front-line plane. So TBD would be useful for one and half a battle. What we would need is a flyable TBF -erm, yes, not viable either. So a replacement for the TBF would be good - and there are few options, the SB2C or with a little leeway a B6N or even a Barracuda, and I'd take any of them, just to have a bomber/torpedo bomber for mid to late war allied carrier operations.