#10 WWII Era Aircraft
F5A-Tub by Ping
User friendliness:
The F5A Tub flies very well, the controls handle nicely and everything is labeled correctly. The cockpit is built in such a way that everything is easily accessible.
The stabilizer works very well. The landing gear works rather well, though during some landings it got damaged. The Camera feature is a nice add-on, though due to it not being zoomed in at all, the image quality is next to useless. The radar works well enough and is about as useful as you'd expect a ww2 aircraft radar to be.The cockpit also includes a handy binocular and a first aid kit.
8/10
Performance:
The plane handles really well, though its control surfaces do not react as fast as it should be. The guns do not work without infinite ammo, but that is also fixed by including a counter system for the bullets, so the guns don't actually have infinite ammunition. The aircraft is pretty speedy, with a maximum speed of 105m/s with WEP and about 96m/s with full throttle. Below the fuselage are 2 hardpoints, though without any suspended weapons on them. As the description on the Steam page displays, the flaps impact the pitching by a lot, causing the aircraft to tilt upwards, and in a few landings resulted in the aircraft beginning to do a looping before hitting the ground with the tail. Due to the amount of XML used in the fuselage, it´s survivability against anti air cannons, like light autocannons, is pretty low. Being taken out by sometimes just a single burst of kinetic ammunition from the basic enemy AI. This is rather unfortunate seeing as the main purpose of the aircraft is as a fighter. Even on night fighters should the plane withstand at least a couple of hits
The range of the aircraft at full throttle is a respectable 590 to 610 kilometers coming along at about 1200 Liters per hour. This means the flight time (at maximum throttle) is around 90 minutes, give or take a little.
7.5/10
Design:
The plane has a rather sleek look, inspired from various real life world war 2 aircrafts, such as the famous P47 Thunderbolt.The Paint Job is rather basic, with a white coloring all around, except on the top of the fuselage where a dark gray is painted on. The plane has some neat details such as the Pilots name, a checkered engine covering, a fake antennae for the radar, slanted wingtips and color variation/ texturing
Though overall it is a basic aircraft shape. The Elevators, which are medium control surfaces look out of place and somewhat bring down the shape of the tail. Another nice additions are the fake but moving ailerons
7.5/10
Overall: 7.67/10
Feedback and Suggestions
-Make the aircraft respond a bit faster
-if you add a camera, make sure to zoom it in at least a little bit so the image quality isn't straight out of a 1980s computer game
-Make sure the aircraft can at least resist a few hits, even more so if it's designed for primary combat use.
IAR81c by Secret
User friendliness:
The IAR81c requires two switches to be flipped before flight. Battery and engine. The flight controls are perfectly usable. The pitch axis is too sensitive though. The stabilizer makes long flights easy. All the buttons and readouts do exactly as one would expect. The dive bombing sight works very well but it and the sight are a bit too dim and make using them a bit hard in bright weather.
8/10
Performance:
The IAR81c has a top speed of 100 m/s in WEP and 83 m/s without. In dogfights the IAR81c is easy to use but isn't great. The roll rate is fairly limiting. Fuel is provided by 3 medium fuel tanks giving it a respectable max range of 110 km at WEP and 120 km without. The engines cannot use WEP for very long because of overheating. It is armed with 2 20mm cannons and 2 mgs giving it enough firepower to effectively attack its enemies.Overall a bit underwhelming performance, but not terrible.
5/10
Design:
The IAR81 has a good fuselage and wing shape. There are a lot of paintable signs that have rivets painted on. The guns are well hidden inside the wings. The paint is a green-brown camo with some Romanian markings. There is a fake control line from the tail to a pole on the right of the cockpit. The wings are a bit wide. All of the readouts and switches have Romanian translations. The cockpit is cluttered like many ww2 fighter planes. Overall a very charming look.
9/10
Overall: 7.33/10
Feedback and Suggestions
-Reduce pitch sensitivity
-Increase roll rate
-More cooling for more WEP time
Hurricane MK II CN by Dio.
User Friendliness:
All of the buttons and switches in the Hurricane do as advertised. Some of them are hard to hit because of the way the cockpit is layed out. The fuel tank gauge does not work. The speed dial is supposedly in kilometers per hour but reads in meters per second. Brake is misspelled as "break" on the throttle. The aiming reticle is hard to see because it's pretty dim. The flight characteristics of the Hurricane are good. It is easy to fly and the gyro control keeps the plane stable.
7/10
Performance:
The Hurricane has a good top speed of 102 m/s and has the turning capabilities to use its speed properly. Make sure to not turn too hard though or the engine will stall because of it being fed by a scoop intake. The bombs and rockets are pretty effective and 2 rockets and 4 bombs can be carried. It has 4 light autocannons set up to stagger fire, making it very easy to hit opponents. In dogfights the Hurricane does quite well because of its tight turning circle. However such dogfights cannot last long because of its issues with overheating. The Hurricane has a fuel tank with 375 L of fuel giving it a mediocre range of 75 km at WEP and 137 km at cruise throttle.
6.5/10
Design:
This Hurricane replica looks pretty good. It's got a blue camo and a sleek design. It has lots of paint blocks with realistic paint detailing. It has xml exhaust which looks excellent, and the landing gear retracts at different times which is a nice touch. The cockpit is charmingly messy as many WW2 planes were. However, there is significant Z fighting on one side of the aircraft, and because of the width (3 blocks) there are a lot less paint blocks on that side leading to an "ugly" side and a "pretty" side. For being a Hurricane, it ends up looking a lot more like a Spitfire.
8/10
Overall: 7.16/10
Feedback and Suggestions
-improve cooling
- Make fuel gauge work
- Pump air into engine to prevent stalling
F-2 Sea Falcon by BOMPS
User friendliness:
The F-2 Sea Falcon is a very easy plane to use. One button turns everything on. All the buttons do exactly as advertised. On takeoff the engine should not be throttled up to 100% else the prop will strike the ground. The cockpit organization is a bit weird but other than that it is extremely easy to work with. The gyro is well tuned and it flies with ease. Inside the cockpit there is plenty of equipment.
8/10
Performance:
The F-2 Sea Falcon is a well performing plane. It has a respectable top speed of 103 m/s. It can maneuver controllably in a dogfight albeit kinda slowly. The pylons work exactly as one would expect. On said pylons are small bombs that aren't super effective. At 100% throttle the Sea Falcon has a range of about 100 km. At 50% throttle, it doubles that range. The two light autocannons work effectively and stagger fire, making it easy to hit enemy targets.
7/10
Design:
The Sea Falcon has a basic shape and paint job. It has a blue main body and then white on the bottom. It has lots of paintable signs with kill marks and USAAF stars. There are fake engine exhaust ports that light up randomly. There is an engine compartment that opens up for repair and maintenance. The gear retraction looks excellent and the wheels hide very well into the wings. Overall the base fuselage is a bit bland and the paintable signs are a bit cluttered and feel tacked on.
5.5/10
Overall: 6.83/10
Feedback and Suggestions
-Add texturing to paint
-Refine wing and fuselage shape
-Organize dials and switches in the cockpit
Ram110 Bolter by Reons
User friendliness:
The controls of the bolter are immediately intuitive to anyone who has flown a plane in Stormworks before. With the acrobatics limiter on, the plane is very stable and easy to fly. With it off the plane becomes much more like a fighter. It has a solid pitch rate, slow roll rate, and a good rudder. When pitching the plane's roll axis becomes very heavy. This makes it a handful to use when in a dogfight. There are no lights in the cockpit, making night operation difficult because the pilot cannot see the switches. There is a temp sensor in front of the cockpit instead of an aiming reticule. This makes aiming very very hard. The fuel dial is for the main fuel tank only. The drop tanks have no fuel dial available to the pilot. This is not a huge problem because when the drop tanks lose fuel, the main fuel tank will begin to drain. The engine idles very poorly as it sometimes will lurch forward and
5/10
Performance:
The bolter is a fighter aircraft and will be judged as one. The top speed is very fast at 145 m/s with the engine limiter off, and 117 m/s with it on. With the engine limiter off, the engine heats up very quickly. With it on the engine does not overheat. As previously stated, the pitch rate is good but the roll is heavy when pitching. This is a serious issue in dogfights. Another issue is the use of machine guns because of the limited ammo of 50 rounds per gun. The machine guns do minimal damage against targets. The range of the bolter is absurdly large at about 2200 km with the engine limiter off, and 2100 km with it on.
6/10
Design:
Overall the bolter looks fine. It's got a grayscale color scheme and looks bland. The shape of the fuselage is a basic tube with a taper on the front. The proportions look about right apart. The wing is very straight and looks odd when viewed from above. The bolter has contra-rotating propellers that are somewhat covered up by xml blocks. It has 8 machine guns that are well hidden in the wings. The drop tanks look about perfect and really add to the look. The cockpit looks very bland as well, as it has only a few buttons and a lever, and no other shape. When folded up the gear looks a bit funky but not bad.
6/10
Overall: 5.67/10
Feedback and Suggestions
-Make engine idle
-Fix the issues with rolling and pitching at the same time
-Add an aiming reticule
AQ15 Warden by GM6
User friendliness:
The AQ15 Warden is not a simple plane to use. It has a cramped cockpit that makes finding the button you want very difficult. Most of the buttons and dials do as one would expect. The nose wheel steering switch actually controls the tail wheel's steering. The current heading dial makes no sense and is useless since there's a compass anyway. There is both throttle and collective which is a bit confusing. There is no stabilizer. The flight controls are awful. The roll has a single speed which is too fast, the yaw is the same, and the pitch is twitchy and unstable making it hard to do any sort of maneuvering. There are lights around the aircraft but none of them can be turned on. The landing gear switch is hidden by one of said non-functional lights. Overall it's a handful to fly, but not in a fun way.
3/10
Performance:
The plane will not turn well. There is a single pylon. Top speed 105 m/s. Good range of 550 km. The 4 light autocannons stagger fire very quickly making it fun to shoot and easy to hit targets
4/10
Design:
The AQ15 is a unique plane. With stubby wings and a fat fuselage, it looks like an overfed puppy. With 4 light autocannons. And a big engine. The wings are straight and have stripes on them. The paint is very desaturated and has some stripes along the fuselage that make it look less like a boring tube. There are some random details spread around the plane that look nice and add to it overall. The ammo drums stick out the bottom of the wings quite conspicuously. There are some paintable signs that read "KREEBATOON". The cockpit is super cramped but really does look like a WW2 fighter plane. Overall a very nice looking plane.
9/10
Overall: 5.33/10
Feedback and Suggestions
-Use a more effective gyro
- Fix the heading dial
- Have an automatic collective control
Weserflug 1003 by Sparks
User friendliness
The Weserflug has one button to start up. The helicopter flight is easy to use. It's very stable when not inputting anything but can be a bit twitchy sometimes. The collective throttle is far too sensitive. The buttons all do as advertised. The axis binds for the seat say that pitch is W/S which is correct for helicopter mode, but in plane mode the pitch changes to Up/Down, which is the collective at the same time, making flight in plane mode very hard. There are no interior lights making night use very hard. The controls while in helicopter mode are easy and responsive, but while in plane mode the controls are very weird and seem to not respond much at all. It is not stable in plane mode.
4/10
Performance
The Weserflug is a strange aircraft because it's both a helicopter and plane but doesn't really do either especially well. It's unique in that it does both. As a plane it can do up to 50 m/s but sometimes it'll decide to go faster and hit 80 m/s but then it'll slow back down again. In plane mode it has a max range of 400 km and in helicopter mode it has a max range of about 80 km. It cannot dogfight or intercept anything, and has limited ammo for ground attack. It can't really do much effectively.
4/10
Design
The 1003 is a tilt blade helicopter. It's obviously meant to be a late war German wonder weapon. It has a forest camo and a white underbelly. It is very small. It's decorated well with some iron crosses and some numbering. The cockpit is cramped but in a way that one would expect on an advanced ww2 aircraft. The gear is close to the center and tucks away nicely. When yawing in helicopter mode, the wings tilt back and forward for thrust. It looks cool while doing so. It doesn't try too hard to look good with random decorations. In the end it's just a very cute machine.
8.5/10
Overall: 5.17/10
Feedback and Suggestions
-Fix keybinds
-Make plane mode control better with hidden fins
-Gunsight
Wish.com B-17 by Shimo
User friendliness:
The WC B-17 is a strange plane to use. There are 3 seat positions: Gunner, pilot, and flight engineer. The flight engineer is basically useless. The gunner has 2 guns to control on the back. The guns have systems to prevent hitting the tail. While these are in place it is till possible to hit it. The pilot's seat has buttons scattered everywhere with many useless buttons that could be consolidated into a single button. The pitch axis is very twitchy and comically fast. Roll and yaw axes feel appropriate. All the buttons and dials do as advertised. The radar works and has intuitive readouts. When the bomber is in CAS mode it is stable but when it is not it's gyro fluctuates a lot and very hard to use. The engines explode unless the throttle is below 50%.
3/10
Performance:
The WC B-17 is comically fast at 184 m/s. Even though it's a bomber, it has frontal guns and can turn as if it were a fighter, making dogfights in it a blast. As previously stated the engines explode unless the throttle is below 50%, but even at that throttle setting it can still reach about 120 m/s. It has lots of room for bombs. The bombsight is reasonably accurate. The bombs do a decent amount of damage. There is plenty of ammo for the guns. For a bomber it is useless. As a funny dogfighter it is gold. It has a good range of 250 km at 100% throttle and 325 km at 50% throttle.
7/10
Design:
The WC B-17 is a unique plane to look at. The engines are way too large, the gear is unbelievably cursed, and there's random bits in some places. The paint scheme is basic. There's gray everywhere but with some red accents and some USAAF stars around. The interior is all white and feels unfinished. There are exposed microcontrollers everywhere. The shape is generally smooth albeit way out of proportion. Somehow when the gear goes up it looks even weirder.
4/10
Overall: 4.67/10
Feedback and Suggestions
-Order from another retailer
-Complete the interior
-Give it gyro that works
Thingy by Frags
User friendliness:
There are 2 buttons on the Thingy. Go, and the canopy. Both are self explanatory and work as expected. The aircraft is very stable and easy to fly. However, the yaw axis is on the up and down arrows instead of the left and right. There are no readouts or instruments for the pilot.
5.5/10
Performance:
Quite slow for a suicide plane that has to fly straight at its target with a massive warhead on the nose. It has a max speed of 75 m/s. Decently maneuverable but is hindered by the inverted yaw which makes it more difficult to actually hit a target. It is a rocket plane and as such the range is only 4.9 km until the rockets run out. It has 65 seconds of flight time. When the warhead actually hit its target, the target is completely obliterated.
2/10
Design
There is no paint, but the shape is pretty good. The canopy is very snug. Very little to say about it. Perfectly fine looking albeit a bit boring.
5/10
Overall: 4.16/10
Feedback and Suggestions
- more sped
- fix controls
- artificial horizon and other readouts
