[WeatherOp]

My fav is the F-15, but I also like the YF-23, XB-70, and the X-31 EFM.

[IceFire]

I prefer the Typhoon to the Tempest.

They aren't that much different, you know. Mainly the Typhoon was a bit shorter, had straight-edged, smaller wings and only straight engine types.

The Tempest had elliptic wings, slightly bigger than Typhoon's, somewhat longer fuselage, and one of the Tempest production models - Tempest F Mk.2 - had a radial engine, Bristol Centaurus.


I personally like the tempest more, but dislike the Typhoon/Tempest family.

I much prefer an elegant, maneuverable and accurate plane - like B-239, despite its slowth in level flight... In comparison, planes like Typhoon, Tempest and for example P-47 models are crude, inaccurate and loud affairs.

I prefer accuracy over big guns. That's also why I don't feel the same attraction to current war planes as I feel towards WWI/II planes... There's no skill in busting enemy with a missile.


...I'm talking about computer games, obviously. I enjoy more peppering vital systems of enemy plane with .50cal's than blasting them from 100 miles with a missile. In real life, I would use the missile much rather...

The Tempest is a very very refined version of the Typhoon.  Tempest having laminar flow wings, vastly improved roll rate (the Typhoon had one of the lowest roll rates of any WWII single engine fighter sharing last place with the A6M Zero), four of the most destructive 20mm cannons of the war, and one of the highest top speeds at low and medium altitude of the WWII fighters.  Compared to those at saw service (so excluding the Do-335) the Tempest is faster at low and medium altitude than all but the Lavochkin La-7, FW190D-9 and specially modified P-51 Mustangs.

Its a good plane

I'm a bit of a fan.

The B-239 was a gem of a little fighter (Fins called it Pearl of the Sky) but I think they got the most mileage out of it because they had some damn good tacticians.  They trained for hit and run passes against unsuspecting Russian fighters and their gunnery skills were well developed.  That and the fact that at that point of the war...the Finns were fighting a greatly diminished VVS which didn't pick itself up from the office corps purges (from just before the war) and its brief fall behind in aircraft technology until 1944.  Although even in 1944 the Russians had quite a bit of a problem with the Finns in the air and on the ground.

I can see why you like the plane...its a great little thing.  Do you have Forgotten Battles or anything of the Il-2 series?  The Gulf of Finland and the B-239 are extremely well developed maps and campaigns.

I'm a bit of a aviation buff

[Herra Tohtori]

I've got Forgotten Battles, AEP and PF... though I do prefer the European theatre. Specifically, in Gulf of Finland maps, bcause they really are very well made - except for that huge PLAIN north of Lappeenranta....

Of American airplanes, I genuinely like only B-239 and P-40 models - other feel like flying a barn door with huge engine attached to it. Of Finnish Air Force fighters in the game, B-239 is definitely the nicest one to fly - Bf-109 G6/10 models are far behind, even though they are faster and climb better and have better armament... I do better in B-239 against those pesky I-16's than in Bf-109.

If only I found a way to reduce the dispersion in Brewster's Brownings... according to veterans who have tried IL-2 Sturmovik:FB, they say it is a very realistic experience (!) on full realism settings, but they say that B-239 guns were more accurate and didn't have a lot of dispersion set into them, so in this regard the IL-2 FB is a bit off...

And yeah, I know the Tempest is technically very different from Typhoon, I was concentrating on the appearance changes.


Other planes I like to fly are the La-5(FN) and La-7...they are excellent planes to fly, very fast and offer good maneuverability. Wide speed range of optimal maneuverability.


I'm also kinda aviation enthusiast... I have in my dreams the idea of getting aviation lisence for at least glide planes in some phase of my life, and powered flight after that... I have had the honour of getting high in a two-seater glider, two flights á 50 € and worth every cent. It would get cheaper if I had a lisence and could get a seasonal card or something like that. But boy, was it cool in caps lock. First flight I got to try level flight and some turns - it's not as easy as in simulators, I just say. Keeping the plane going straight in the air flow really needs some delicate stick-rudder co-ordination. It's very easy to overcorrect the rudder movements, and then you got the plane swaying from side to side in a very interesting way.

Paradoxally, proper level flight is actually just as difficult as performing a controlled turn...

Then we did a pair of loops and two vertical turns. Or, the flight instructor in the kitchen did, I was just a passenger in the front cockpit... Awesome is too small a word for the experience. On second flight, I got to fly a bit more, and even partially do the final approach turn.

If you EVER get a chance to try gliders... carpe diem. It's so great that your ancestors will enjoy it. Or, um, at least I feel that way.

[IceFire]

I forget what patch it was...but if you have PF (ver 3.0 or later) the Brewsters gun dispersion is FAR smaller.  All of the Browning .50cal guns got that fixed a while ago.  It was waaaay off.  Now its much more focused although your convergence distance has to do with that too.

I'd love to get in a plane...I haven't actually been in a real one until very recently.  Finally hopped on a 737 and took a trip...first in a long time.  Anyways yeah a glider or a small plane would be absolutely fantastic.  I have an uncle with a pilots license so I hope to go up sometime.  But scheduling its hard and getting good weather is harder.

[Tyrian]

I love the F-14.  That thing is just plain sexy.

I also think the (real life) Aurora is awesome.  Then there is Bird of Prey and Tacit Blue, but you didn't hear those names from me... 

[asyikarea51]

SR-71, B-2, F15E, MiG-29, Su-(forgot which one), Yak-41, A-10A Thunderbolt, F111...

Maybe more if I remembered what they were... 

edit1: F117

[Turnsky]

Sukhoi SU-47

[Mars]

I'd have to say the F-22a and the A-10

[achtung]

F-14, A-10, and the Russian SU-37.

[Kosh]

Since we are talking about nice WWII planes, take a look to this site: http://www.luft46.com/. Those are secret planes of the Luftwaffe that never flew. Some are very nice-looking.

http://www.luft46.com/misc/zrammer.html

Best. plane. design. ever

[NGTM-1R]

Bah, Brewster...crap plane. You've become enamored of the manuverablity, which is the same tactical trap that ultimately killed the Japanese. Go fly a Gloster Gladiator you freak!

I think too much playing of Harpoon has given me a love for strike planes and fixed-wing ASW. Fighters make headlines, bombers make history. The A-6E was a nice plane, best carrier strike aircraft ever built; I was sad to see them go to the boneyard. The prize for fixed-wing ASW goes to the Brit MR.2A Nimrod, narrowly edging out both the P-3C Orion and the TU-142 Bear F. The Nimrod won out for using the Brit's Stingray aerial torpedo rather then Mk46s. The Orion is an all-around good aircraft stuck carrying weak aerial torpedos, while the Bear has stupidly huge range and payload but no option for air-to-surface missiles and crappy sensors.

[Fineus]

'nuff said.

[kode]

I look like an idiot in this pic, but it's still one of me in a JAS cockpit:


but the hawker hunter is nice looking too.

[Herra Tohtori]

That would be me.

Nice plane, that one...   ASK21, two-seater glider owned by Polytechnichians' Aviation Club [PIK].

[IPAndrews]

The Su-27 is a thing of beauty.

[Wanderer]

OV-10 Bronco

[Dysko]

OV-10 Bronco

Ah... I always liked twin tail aircraft. Just look at a P-38... that's beautiful!
If here in Italy flying licenses weren't so ****ing expensive, and if it weren't already out of production, I'd buy a Cessna 337 Skymaster.

[vyper]

I don't think there's a place on earth where learning to fly is cheap.

[Dysko]

I don't think there's a place on earth where learning to fly is cheap.

But here in Italy there are taxes over taxes over taxes for everything related to flying. And the air space is very restricted for general aviation. Keep in consideration that there is also a tax for landing and for handling (on small airports, on bigger airports landing is forbidden), and you won't be wondered that many Europeans pilot avoid Italy for general aviation.

[spartan_0214]

okay, since this is probably the best place to put this, which do you prefer, Stick or Yoke?

I prefer a yoke...