Question on 4.11.1 AI | Forums

[Steven190]

I did a quick mission flying a FW190D-9 against 2- P47's. I got behind the wing man and put a good burst into it, causing the engine to start burning and trailing smoke. It vereerd off and looked like it was going down. So I turned my attention to the first plane. We were in a battle for sometime when I was getting shot at from behind. It was the burning P-47 with fire still covering the engine and flying as if nothing was wrong.

Has anyone else seen this? If we get in that situation with a burnig plane, we lose control or burn to death.

[pugo3]

Hello,

I haven't patched from 4.10.1 to 4.11.1 yet [still working on computer problems/tweaking and don't want to add another variable until I'm satisified], but your description reminded me of a episode of the History Channel show, 'DOGFIGHT', in this case season 2, the episode titled 'Death of the Luftwaffe' [Bodenplatte encounter] where a pair of 109's did ignite the wing of a P-47 while the '47 was occupied chasing another German attacker. He kept flying with flames coming off his wing, and somehow managed to turn the tide and was chasing the 109's later in the encounter! So in your case the '47 still going seems by this example to be accurate or at least plausible. Remember Robert Johnsons' account of a 190 emptying its' ammo into his Jug before breaking away, his ammo spent, incredulous that the '47 kept flying. Lesson seems to be you need to drive a stake through the '47, it's reputation to absorb punishment is well documented. Of course, hold fire until your as close as possible for maximum effect so as not to follow the above pilots example!

In the Il-2 instructions, I recall under tips section, that it is more effective to shoot off a section of the wing than to fire into the fuselage from directly behind, as the damage here will ensure the pilot must bail out as the aircraft will gyrate out of control no matter what he does, whereas the example above with Rob Johnson shows the fuselage construction able to absorb copious damage and escape.