Dreaming of a future sim...

[JG27_PapaFly]

Originally Posted by IceFire

I know what you mean about a more what-if scenario... And you should probably watch The Sky Crawlers:

You've got it Ice, I mean a purely what-if scenario, with prop planes of the highest performance that are developed from scratch, using state-of-the art technology. I could imagine this as a proof-of concept addon to SOW, with one or 2 planes. Since ww2, aviation has gone a very long way. Aerodynamics, structure, composite materials, fly-by-wire systems, avionics, engines...
With today's technology, an engine with a cylinder capacity of around 40 liters could easily produce 3000+ horse-power, and be much more fuel efficient.
The warbids of WW2 were very limited in many aspects: view from the cockpits was bad, poor aerodynamics (especially in the high subsonic speed range), very high stick forces at high speeds and poor controllability, poor weapon designs....

Compare that to, say, and F16: that plane represents the peak of development, incorporating lessons learned from 2 world wars, several smaller scale conflicts and more than 30 years of a cold-war arms race.

I like the what-if approach of skycrawlers, but their planes are still low-tech and too much inspired by WWII. Just look at all the ww2-style gauges and the view-obstructing bars in the windwhields.

The existence of the predator-drones and the sucess of helicopters and the A10 tunderbolt2 in nowaday's conflicts clearly show that the usaf are looking for scaled-down, cheap solutions. Military prop-planes will probably gain more importance during the coming decades.

S!