#5 Dive Bombers
C-302 Javelin by WaFtAk
The Javelin is a rather easy aircraft to use, with all the controls labeled and functioning properly, but the general cockpit layout is rather confusing. The only indicators missing are if the parking brake, mouse aim and stabilizer are toggled on. Additionally, no binds are available for controlling the throttle, and it may only be controlled by manually adjusting the lever on the left side of the cockpit. Seat binds are also set up in a weird way, with important controls like bomb release being moved to later binds, and primary binds are used for toggling the engine, or the landing gear.
The up/down axis controlling the flaps is also rather counter intuitive, with the up arrow deploying them, and down arrow retracting. Employing weapons is rather easy and straightforward.
Full power of the engine gives the aircraft a top speed of 320 kph, and allows for around 335 km of travel before running out of fuel. Handling is comfortable, and maneuverability is more suited for a fighter than a dive bomber. The aircraft stalls at around 120 kph with flaps out, making for comfortable low speed handling.
Hard landings can collapse the landing gear legs, as they are made of several subgrids to allow retraction.
8/10
The aircraft only carries 2 bombs and 1 light autocannon with 100 rounds, and a defensive turret. The bombs are radar guided, giving them a wide engagement envelope, making employing them safer, but they may be decoyed by chaff. A buzzer lets the pilot know if the bomb has a lock and is ready for engaging. The forward firing light autocannon only has 100 rounds of HE ammunition, and it may be aimed by the HUD sight.
The back turret is armed with 2 MG's and 350 rounds of AP ammunition. Overall the guns are a bit lackluster, but the bombs are a very strong weapon of this aircraft, with their only problem being having only 2 of them.
6.5/10
The aircraft's control surfaces are all moving and designed realistically. The use of xml in the wing works perfectly together with the ailerons as well as with the flaps. The overall shape of the fuselage makes it look rather sturdy and hefty. The Italian early WW2 camo fits the aircraft really well, although it is way too far off the actual colors of stormworks terrain to make it camouflaged. The weird shape of the tail doesn't fit the overall design at all. On the other hand the plane is very detailed with paint blocks and color variations. The same goes for the bombs. The landing wheel does stand out a lot due to its thickness.
8.5/10
Buzzard by Kestrel
Everything in the cockpit is labelled and easy to understand, and there is a detailed manual explaining how to correctly use the plane. The cockpit is very cluttered which can prevent pilots who don't have experience with the aircraft from using it to its full potential. There are sights present for every kind of weaponry on board which are all accurate as long as they are used in the correct conditions. There is also an automatic canopy present which automatically closes and opens if the seat is or isn't occupied. This system is a bit of a double edged sword however, It can allow for quick escapes in case of crashes or other emergency situations but can also cause the pilot to be flung out of the aircraft while repairing damage or accidentally leaving the seat.
Performance:
Effectiveness:
Design:
B2M GreyBog by EggNog
User Friendliness:
The Greybog has all inputs correctly labelled and functional, the aircraft also handles very well in flight.
On the other hand, taking off is somewhat dangerous if you make a cold start from the hangar.
The machine gunner has some quirky control placements (the left and right arrows to rotate instead of A/D). The machine gun also has a tendency to blow up the elevators and pitch on a frequent basis.
This is a heavy aircraft, and it needs at least a somewhat long runway for takeoff.
7/10
Performance:
The Greybog goes about 350km/h in level flight and a very decent stall speed around 130km/h.
It controls nicely and doesn't seem to drift at all so no key tapping needed. The plane has some microcontrollers that make it act more realistically, this means it stalls when going vertically and actually gains speed when diving. Although you'd expect this to hamper overall flight performance and controllability it really doesn't impact it that much.
The plane does exactly what you want it to do (and what you would expect it to do in real life).
It also has a very decent range of 250km which is always nice to have. Stall simulation might be a bit too extreme.
7/10
Effectiveness:
Since aircraft is easy to fly and aim, and also has a bombsight on it, it can be effectively used as dive bomber. It recovers from a dive run well enough not to crash, and has airbrakes on it. Main armament consists of 2 medium unguided bombs, easy to aim and drop, but seem to be underpowered, because target, that suffered a direct hit had only 1 part damaged.
Secondary & Defensive armament - one Light AC in front, is aligned with sight and 1 MG turret. Turret had good firing angles and it was easy to score hits on an enemy plane.
5.5/10
Design:
The aircraft is a twin engine twin boom aircraft with a cockpit nacelle. The machine gunner's rotating turret is a very unique and cool addition to an already very unique aircraft. The Paint Job is also somewhat effective over the ocean while fitting as well.
9/10
Overall: 7.125/10
Vulture Mk1 by puteeh
User Friendliness:
Flying the Vulture is rather simple and straightforward, only caveat being a slight constant pull up, and it feels a little bit underpowered in turns, but that's not a huge issue for a dive bomber. The cockpit features all necessary readouts, but they are all displayed on the same type of dial, all the same color, and all right next to each other, making it hard to tell what is going on without prior experience, forcing the pilot to look at tooltips instead. The iron sight mounted on the nose is not properly aligned with the pilots head, severely reducing its effectiveness, though it is worth noting it's better than no aiming assist.
7/10
Performance:
Performance wise the Vulture has a somewhat slow top speed of 288km/h and a high stall speed of 170km/h, even though it might not be the fastest it has a decent range of 150km at max throttle. Control wise it handles smoothly and doesn't require much trim, only periodic tapping to prevent it pitching up. Even though the controls might feel nice it definitely isn't the fastest turning plane, it doesn't matter too much since it is a dive bomber after all but it can sometimes cause flat plane syndrome by pancaking into the ground.
5.5/10
Effectiveness:
The Vulture is very effective against unarmoured targets with its 4 light autocannons and 1 heavy autocannon.
Even tanks with good armour are still able to be pierced because of the armour piercing ammunition of the heavy autocannon. The Ammunition supply is rather small, including 100 rounds for each light autocannon and only 20 rounds for the heavy autocannon.
Volume of fire is pretty great, but sustained fire for air coverage is not doable. The bombs are not very effective since estimating where they hit is very hard.
In theory the bombs should have an incendiary effect, but in use the bombs hardly have a effect other than the immediate explosion.
5/10
Design:
The vulture looks quite nice with its tri colour camouflage and nice looking white blue coloured polish air force roundels. Overall shape is also quite nice, however there is one odd choice in the decoration department. The pumps on top of the engine nacelles are purely decorational and coloured in very bright red and blue. In our opinion it looked nicer with a smooth nacelle without the pumps. The temperature sensors on the side of the engine and small details like ladders are a nice touch.
7/10
6.125/10
PingWorks Type 34 by Phroge
User Friendliness:
The type 34 is a relatively simple aircraft to use, with little to no advanced systems requiring instructions, with pilots being able to use it within a few minutes of flying around. However, the same simplicity makes the aircraft require quite a bit of skill on the part of the crew to use properly. Only 4 small bombs are available, being completely unguided and the only aiming assist is a fixed sight. The back turret can hit the tail of the aircraft, and will set it on fire if the gunner is not careful.
The vertical speed dial displays the up/down drift of the aircraft instead of the vertical speed. The cockpit is also missing a temperature readout for the engine, and there is no good way to engage wheel brakes without looking down into the cockpit to flip on the parking brake.
6/10
Performance:
The type 34 performs decently across the board with a decent top speed of 316km/h in level flight, adequate range of 170km at max throttle and a stall speed around 140km/h. The aircraft controls smoothly but can be a bit sluggish at times. It also doesn't need trim to stay level and can comfortably cruise in a straight line.
Taking off is easy and landing can almost always be done without taking damage. One problem however, is that the engine can overheat if the heater is on and there is no way to keep track of engine temperature. As you can imagine that might be a problem.
6.5/10
Effectiveness:
Very limited armament is available, only mounting 4 small bombs and 1 defensive MG. It should be noted that this is a good armament for the 1930's, an era the aircraft was clearly meant to depict, but it leaves the aircraft with little potential in the game.
Only aiming device for the bombs is a key button and a HUD, allowing the pilot to line up the nose of the aircraft with the target, but the drop has to be estimated by the pilot alone. The gunner has a turret slaved to his camera position, allowing for quick and intuitive aiming. Supplied with 150 rounds of incendiary ammunition (100 rounds below the 1st mags are inaccessible from inside), the defensive MG has somewhat limited arcs of fire, but it can be used to hit targets behind the aircraft, forcing attackers to think twice about committing to an attack run.
5/10
Design:
The Type 34 was clearly inspired by 1930's aircraft, and pulls that look off well, with the signature blue fuselage and yellow wings of the US aircraft from that era.
The fuselage has a simple but pragmatic design, and the wings look pretty good. Decals are very basic, made without using any paint blocks, and a few miscolored blocks are present in hard to see places. Exposed engine parts on the bottom of the nose also look a bit off, but overall the aircraft looks good.
7/10
Overall: 6.125/10
Z1L Dive Bomber by EggNog
User Friendliness:
The Z1L has a rather odd mix of features. On one hand the cockpit features all the needed controls and readouts (though some dials are not set to correct values), and the aircraft flight systems keep it pointed where it was ordered by the pilot, with mouse aiming mode helping with accurate controls. On the other hand it has some really odd choices, like important controls (eg airbrake, flaps) being set by instrument panels, but putting lights controls on seat binds, severely limiting accessibility of those controls. Engine response can be extremely slow especially on spawn, with up to 30 seconds of response time from moving the throttle to getting thrust. Overall it gives a mixed user experience.
6/10
Performance:
The aircraft has a good top speed of 316 at level flight with a full load and gets a decent range of 170km at full throttle. The stall speed is around 115kph, which is good for the medium sized aircraft. The controls are very good, and it does not drift in the air. The same flight controller for stalling at pitch angles is again implemented very well, adding realism. The stall simulation also doesn't feel like its hampering the overall flight characteristics too much. Recovering the aircraft from stalling is very much possible without any problems, as long as flaps are deployed.
6.5/10
Effectiveness:
Only limited weaponry is available onboard, with 1 medium bomb, 2 forward facing light AC's and 1 gunner armed with 1 light AC. The bomb is difficult to aim, as the sight doesn't do much to indicate where the bomb will fall, being only a static arc which is mostly just confusing. Forward facing autocannons have severely limited fire rate causing density of fire to be very low. Firing armor piercing ammunition makes the cannons more suited for attacking ground targets, but the low fire rate and time on target makes that very difficult. The gunners light autocannon fires HE ammunition, and would be an extremely strong turret, if it wasn't for extremely limited firing arcs of the turret. The Enemy aircraft has to be basically directly behind the Z1L for the turret to present any threat. Mouse aim does make it intuitive.
4.5/10
Design:
A detailed multi-color camo is present on the aircraft, going through several shades of grey, with a white underside. Shapes of the fuselage and wings are nice, making the aircraft look somewhat bulky yet sleek, with the exception of the weird sides around the cockpit. The nose of the aircraft however does not follow the same design language, with an exposed engine completely disrupting the look of the aircraft. The tail also features an overly large number of support struts (made with windows), making it look odd. The landing gear is very detailed, just like the bomb that is mounted beneath the belly in a bomb cradle. Missing window pieces around the pilot are also and odd design choice.
6/10
Overall: 5.75/10
BD-4-A Dauntless by Dio.
User Friendliness:
The BD-4-A is a rather clunky experience, with unlabeled controls, overheating engine with no warnings present, and flight characteristics more resembling a brick with wings than an aircraft.
Weird things in the cockpit also include the "disable wheel brakes" button turning on brakes when toggled on, unlabeled unit for speed, which turns out to be m/s and a spot where you can get stuck on the wing. Thankfully you can reach the pilot seat from there. Visibility from the cockpit is spotty, with certain areas being ok, but others being completely obstructed by canopy bars, or the walls of the cockpit and the nose of the aircraft, due to the very low seating position.
The description on the workshop page helps offset some of the jank, but it's still a wonky experience at best.
4.5/10
Performance:
The Dauntless reaches a good top speed of 334 kph at full power and fully loaded with munitions. This goes up to 345 when they are all dropped.
A decent range of around 150km gives the aircraft more than enough time to get to the target area, engage the enemy and return to base. High stall speed of around 162 kph makes low speed handling rather difficult. The aircraft could technically still fly at that speed, but the onboard gyro does not give the pilot elevator authority to maintain altitude at that speed. This makes landings rather difficult. Additionally, the engine will overheat in under 10 min if you leave it on full power, and it won't give you any warnings before reaching self-ignition temperatures.
4.5/10
Effectiveness:
Armed with 4 light autocannons, 2 heavy autocannons, 2 machine guns on a defensive turret and 6 small and 1 medium "bomb" that are actually just missiles which don't activate their motors until a certain distance to the target is reached. This gives the aircraft a lot of weapons to bring to the fight for such a small airframe.
Radar guided weapons are accurate and easy to use, with their usual achilles heel of chaff. If bombs are no longer an option, you may use guns on ground targets, but anything that's moving fast will be very difficult to hit, due to severely limited yaw and elevator controls. Ammunition supply is quite limited, with 100 rounds per light AC, and 40 rounds per heavy AC. Some ammo drums are available for reloading in the wing, but require you to get out of the cockpit to reload by hand. A twin MG defensive turret on the back is loaded with incendiary ammunition, and while it sounds like a good idea on paper, it can leave the aircraft being burned down because of the gunner shooting the tail.
5.5/10
Design:
The design of the BD4A is nice for the most part, the colour palette is nice and there are paint blocks for smaller details like decals and access panels. The tail section is a little stubby and the nose is very long, if It could have been a few blocks shorter it would have looked nicer, there is an engine in the way of course but a different cooling setup could have solved this.
Overall it is a good looking aircraft with a few minor choices holding it back
7.5/10
Overall: 5.5
A-1 Kobra by B0MPS
User Friendliness:
The A-1 Kobra is a rather simple aircraft with little instructions needed. Despite that, the workshop page has detailed explanations and tips on how to and how not to use the aircraft, which helps with using the aircraft. It feels decent to fly, but it features an overly aggressive gyro, which can lead to annoyance on the part of the pilot. Using it in combat is easy, as the aircraft maneuvers well and radar guided weapons help with correcting inaccuracies. Cockpit features most indications and controls necessary, but some are missing. There are issues with it though, one of the most glaring ones being the canopy button not connected to electric power, requiring infinite electricity to be on in order to enter the aircraft.
6/10
Performance:
With its top speed of 430 kph, it's slow for a jet-powered plane. It is capable of performing dive runs, recovers well enough, and has good maneuverability.
Large fuel tank of a little over 6000L gives it an ok range of 150 km. Long runway might be necessary to take off, since the plane is quite heavy and does not accelerate well, and low ground clearance can cause mishaps during takeoff. A stabilizing gyro is available, which always rolls out the aircraft if no inputs are made after a while, which can be annoying if unexpected.
5.5/10
Effectiveness:
Limited armaments are available, including 3 small bombs and 8 small missiles, all radar guided. This makes the aircraft extremely susceptible to chaff, with only a few bundles rendering the entire aircraft unable to engage its targets. The bombs don't guide very well, often feeling completely unguided, despite logic being set up to guide. 8 missiles present on the aircraft are rather basic, wiggling all over the place on their way to the target. They are however capable of hitting large targets reliably, as described on the workshop page.
5.5/10
Design:
The overall shape of the A-1 is rather blocky, with thick fuselage and wings making it look very chubby.
The color choice is not amazing, but is realistic for many modern jets, with a light gray covering most of the aircraft. Some detailing is present, like roundels on the wings, but it could use something to break up the shapes more. Landing gear is too short for comfort, and retracting aft wheels partially into the wing looks odd, especially that far apart. The nose gear however does retract very cleanly. Some miscolored blocks are present, with an especially bad example on the belly of the aircraft. Overall look is serviceable, but not amazing.
4/10
Overall: 5.25/10
BV-152 Spatz by tHATbOIiNfIRSTrOW | Alex
User Friendliness:
The BV 152 is not really simple to fly, flies slow and feels sluggish. Seems way better to use as gun attacker as you can't use it like dive bomber at all because it barely pulls up. The bomb sight is way too pixelated to use properly, as the target is only a single pixel, if that. Crosshairs present on the HUD in front of the pilot don't seem to indicate the firing point of the guns, which is confusing. Instead a small horizontal line is drawn below it, which accurately shows the point of impact of the rounds. Easy to understand cockpit, though some indications are odd, like parking brake button off making the parking brake stay on.
5/10
Performance:
The aircraft isn't very fast, around 280 kph, but it can fly for around an hour, giving it a good range of around 280 km. Lack of pitch authority makes the aircraft feel extremely heavy, with several seconds needed to pitch up by only a few degrees. It feels like it'll fall out of the sky in any second, as the aircraft builds up angle of attack very rapidly, slowing down the pitch response even more. No service ports are present, so the aircraft can't be refueled nor recharged. The lack of any maneuverability is the biggest problem for aircraft. RATO really helps with take off performance, especially with this heavy aircraft and lack of pitch control.
3/10
Effectiveness:
The Spatz has overwhelming frontal firepower, equipped with 2MGs, 6 Light ACs, 5 Heavy ACs and 1 Battle Cannon, giving the pilot more than enough to destroy any potential targets. The ammunition storage is somewhat limited tho, with most guns being equipped only with one drum or magazine of ammunition. Ordinance also includes 4 big bombs and 12 small bombs, giving the pilot enough munitions to do carpet bombing, but dive bombing attacks are not an option, due to severely limited pich authority. Hitting targets can be challenging, especially with bombs. Guns are a bit easier to use, but target fixating is very dangerous, as the pitch control can leave you impacting the target with your aircraft before you can pull out.
4/10
Design:
The BV 152 clearly strives for the feeling of a german WW2 aircraft, and it achieves it well.
Tri-color camouflage is very similar to WW2 Luftwaffe aircraft, and their unmistakable air force cross is present in several places on the aircraft.
The overall shape of the aircraft also taps well into that era, which looks heavily inspired by German efforts to explore unconventional designs, with asymmetrical aircraft being one of them. The wings are more reminiscent of a high altitude fighter than a ground striker tho, giving it a somewhat weird outcome. A lot of XML edited blocks were needed to make the shape look as good as it does, and it shows that a lot of effort went into making this aircraft look as good as possible. The aircraft is well detailed, with radar antennas, other decoration blocks, roundels and other painted indications present. The overwhelming amount of munitions hung under the wing does bring down the looks some, but it's overall a very solid creation when it comes to design.
7.5/10
Overall: 4.875/10
RAM-207 Buster II by ReOns
User Friendliness:
The aircraft is rather simple to fly, but difficult to use as a dive bomber or an attack aircraft.
Onboard gyro is always set to angle limit mode, making the aircraft exceptionally difficult to use in combat, due to auto-leveling of the aircraft. Feathering the keys or trimming the axis is required to keep a desired angle in any of the axis, if it's not 0 or full deflection.
No sights are available for either the cannon or the single bomb, making it very difficult to engage targets with the one shot hard hitting weapons present on the aircraft.
The cockpit also lacks many important readouts, especially engine and navigational instruments, or any useful equipment.
3.5/10
Performance:
The Buster has a good top speed of 362 kph, allowing it to quickly descend on a target and disappear after striking. Due to the high speed and big engines, the range is limited to 35km at maximum throttle, and up to around 70km at efficient settings. This hampers the performance, as getting somewhere far requires quite time.
Another problem is that it can't be refueled at all, meaning the maximum range cannot be extended. The reasonable stall speed of 120 kph doesn't hamper the aircraft. As said previously, the lack of maneuverability is the biggest problem of the aircraft and makes targeting and diving difficult.
3.5/10
Effectiveness:
Equipped only with a single battle cannon, and one medium bomb, the Buster is armed with low fire rate, heavy hitting weapons. This would be fine if there was a proper way to aim them, but as it is they are very difficult to actually hit targets with. Once a proper aiming point has been found by moving your view, reliable hits can be scored with the cannon, but aiming with the bomb is nearly impossible due to the automatic bomb release, based on altitude of the aircraft. No alternative way to release exists, so the pilot cannot release when he sees fit, only when the predefined altitude has been reached.
No other weapons or chaff are present, and the onboard radar isn't of much help, due to the fast sweep rate and low FoV.
3/10
Design:
The aircraft is rather simple in the shape and paint job, with some shape detailing around engine nacelles, and color variations for the wingtips, and in front of the canopy. Unfortunately, that's where detailing stops, with the rest of the aircraft being mostly 2 colors, top dark green and bottom white, making large sections uninterrupted uni-colored plains with nothing to break them up. No roundels or markings are present either. Overall the aircraft looks very simple in it's design, pulling off the look of a WW2 german aircraft, and while lack of variations holds it back, it doesn't look bad or repulsive either.
5/10
Overall: 3.75/10
turbo dive bomber by Bucket of Bolts
User Friendliness:
The aircraft is kind of a mess, with unlabeled buttons and dials in the cockpit, a confusing layout and poor visibility, especially over the nose. This almost forces the users to look at the vehicle in the logic editor, to figure out what is what.
No good way to enter the aircraft exists, with the users being forced to walk onto the tail of the aircraft, and walk on it to the cockpit.
A pitch lever present on the left side of the cockpit is the only thing mentioned in the description of the vehicle. Moving it too far will result in the aircraft entering an uncontrollable spin backwards. This throttle lever is unlabeled, directly next to the engine throttle lever, which is also unlabeled. Engine throttle can only be controlled by interacting with it directly.
No aiming aids are present, and bomb release button is a toggle instead of a push.
Canopy jettison only functions when stationary on the ground, otherwise it gets pushed into the aircraft and never properly separates.
3/10
Performance:
The turbo dive bomber is very fast, although that might not be a good thing in this case. The turning is very slow and makes it very hard to make the aircraft do what you want it to, getting any weapon to hit targets is very difficult for example. You might think slowing down is an easy solution but there's a very small throttle level between stalling and going 576km/h. Another problem is the very low range of the aircraft at only 35km which severely limits what you can do in the aircraft and making it more suited as a short range interceptor. The reason for the short range is mainly the lack of gearing on the jet engine, meaning it runs at high rps which guzzles fuel like crazy, adding a 1:2 gearbox both increased the speed slightly and more than doubled the range bringing it up to 80km.
3/10
Effectiveness:
"Bombs" (really just 1x1 missiles), which are meant to be guided do not guide, and getting unguided rockets and guns on target is borderline impossible due to the excessive speed and huge turn radius of the aircraft.
If a hit is scored, it does little damage, due to only being armed with small warheads, unguided rockets and light autocannons.
Little ammunition for the guns is available, with only 200 rounds of light AC split between 4 cannons, and 100 rounds of MG between 2 guns.
Lack of an aiming sight and almost no visibility over the nose make scoring rocket hits nearly impossible.
2/10
Design:
Overall design is not great, with very simple shapes, a lot of straight shapes and little in the way of breaking up the overall form of the aircraft.
Color is similar, with most of the aircraft being painted in rather vibrant dark blue, with only 2 white stripes on the wing and dark nose breaking it up.
Some miscolored blocks are present, and not only in hidden places.
An attempt at decoration was made with a radio antenna on the top of the tail section, but that's about as far as that went.
4/10
Overall: 3/10
joe joe by sobiet union
User Friendliness:
joe joe is incredibly simple and only requires 2 buttons to start, There are 0 readouts present. The only thing on board is an artificial horizon. There are no buttons bound to the bomb drop the pilot has to look all the way up and left to drop the bomb which usually causes it to miss its target. The rudder is inverted which makes precise turns very difficult. And the overall controls are very sensitive. There is also no gyro of any kind on board and the aircraft pulls up quite a lot.
1/10
Performance:
The aircraft is rather fast for a small aircraft,and also very maneuverable. So maneuverable in fact that it's really hard to control. Its top speed is around 288 kph, with which the aircraft reaches a total range of 35km. The stall speed is around 108 kph, which is good.
3.5/10
Effectiveness:
The aircraft is armed with only single unguided bomb, which cannot be armed due to the launch node on the hardpoint not being connected and may only be dropped without dealing any damage on impact. If the bomb could be used, it is incredibly hard to aim, due to no sights present on the aircraft.
This leaves the vehicle with only suicide tactics, and has no combat potential outside of that.
0/10
Design:
The design of Joe Joe is very simple, the aircraft is completely unpainted and there are no details at all. It is extremely barebones for an aircraft with no outside, or inside detailing except the fuselage being rounded off on top and bottom.
2/10
Overall: 1.625/10