jabo wrote:
Would be interesting to hear your views on the IJN late war aircraft. Which to fly and etc.
Jabo,
In general I find the IJ planes fragile and a poor match for the faster & more durable allied rides. 0nly EAs we can engage are the Bombers or allied pilots that make a mistake and lose their alt or speed. The biggest issue is structural failures. I think we lost more to broken wings than enemy action.
This may be historic, but don't recall reading about IJ planes breaking apart in flight. Guess you would have more signals that you are over stressing your air fame in real life.
The George is a great plane but hates alt over 25k and any downward pressure on the elevator breaks a wing. The Frank is fast in level flight, but how often do you really use level speed in combat? Climb and dive rates and handling are more important. The KI84 does feel as quick as it use to be and the biggest problem with the Frank is it is awful fragile above 400mph, so forget about chasing a corsair or Jug at high speeds. She use to turn better with combat flaps deployed at lower speeds.
The J2M is less maneuverable but the best plane we have to compete with the allied rockets above 30k, and a bit more durable in a dive. Canon dispersion makes it difficult to hit anything beyond D3, where as 50s can reach out to D6 or 7 effectively. I personally find the cockpit views in the Raiden a challenge. Pilot position 2 seems to work best. Also, she is the slowest plane in the series under 10k.
With that said if you can get close enough, or if the allied pilot is foolish enough to turn with you, the Type 99 20 mils work great.
And Juice has had a good series flying the J2M.
Oskar