What If......

[Lightning Guy]

I've never been a fan of coupled engines. Just look at how well the worked on the He-177. That pictures is pretty neat though it looks like the pilots view towards the rear would have been absolutely horrible.

 

[the lancaster kicks ass]

it wasn't great on many planes without a bubble canopie.............

 

[cheddar cheese]

the brewster buffalo had great all-round visability 8)

 

[Lightning Guy]

Well the visibility on this thing would have been worse than your average fighter because of all of that wing blocking visibility to the rear.

 

[the lancaster kicks ass]

view to the rear was always pretty bad in most planes however.................

 

[Lightning Guy]

True. But not THAT bad. The pilot would have been completely blind to anything from the entire rear quarter. And that would mean poor rear visibility for the entire flight. At least with most planes if you can't see directly behind you your wingman can.

 

[the lancaster kicks ass]

i hear that due to the shape of the fusilage the rear view in a spit was quite good??

 

[Lightning Guy]

It would have been pretty good for a plane without a bubble canopy and the clear panels behind the cockpit would have helped, but the armor plating behind the pilot would still cause vision difficulties (but that was true even of aircraft with bubble canopies).

 

[the lancaster kicks ass]

one question, how much use were the rear view mirriors?? i mean how much could you see??

 

[GermansRGeniuses]

In IL-2, not a lot. And these mirrors are the same shape and size as the real thing, so in other words, I'm guessing they wouldn't help THAT much in real life either. (C.C. and Crazy, you two most likely don't have mirrors because you have to assign a button to the function; I use Shift+M and Ctrl+M for my setup)

 

[Stuka-99]

Yeah well I heard that wingmen where there to cover your rear

 

[the lancaster kicks ass]

but your wingmen can't be there all the time, especily if they've all been shot down.................

 

[Lightning Guy]

Field of vision in a rear view mirror was pretty limited but it wasn't possible to look directly back in an airplane. Even aircraft with bubble-canopies usually had armor plating directly behind the pilot. So the rear-view mirror was better than nothing and provided very little penalty in the way of weight or drag.

Lanc, it was the duty of wingmen to be there ALL the time. And the element leader was responsible for the protection of his wingman was well. I read about one German pilot who never lost a wingman in over 1,000 missions.

 

[the lancaster kicks ass]

Lanc, it was the duty of wingmen to be there ALL the time

but they can't be there if they're involved in their own dogfight or they've been shot down................

 

[Stuka-99]

Yeah well they could have put mirrors in the planes....

 

[the lancaster kicks ass]

they did, that's what we're talking about.....................

 

[Stuka-99]

yo what if hitler were never born???

 

[the lancaster kicks ass]

another dictator might have taken over................

 

[Stuka-99]

Na I reckon Stalin would have took most of europe

 

[Lightning Guy]

Lanc, read ANY tactics manual from the time and you will find that it was the duty of the wingman to stay with his leader at all times. I know that they were often separated but that was usually due to the wingman failing to remain with his leader.