Maximum Range Of Japanese Land-bases Aircraft
 

Just wondering, as I haven't been able to find any definite answer to my question. Of course I realize it will vary depending on which aircraft is being used, but I'm only looking for a ballpark figure right now. So what would the maximum range be for an aircraft on it's outward swing?

Well the A6M2 Zero has a range of 1,675 nautical miles (half that for return leg maybe?) so presumably the Betty and Emily can go much much further, in the order of 2 to 3 times further I would think.

I do remember once reading that due to the overly cautious American pre-war submarine doctrine of "a seen sub is a dead sub", the skippers at the start of the war regarded it as suicide to be surfaced during the day within 500 miles of an enemy airbase.

Hope that helps

http://www.militaryfactory.com/aircraft/ww2-japanese-military-aircraft.asp :Kaleun_Thumbs_Up:

Thanks for taking the time to try and answer my question, guys. :D :up:

I'm impressed if the game actually simulates air operations at moderate fidelity: meaning aircraft spawn from locations where suitable air bases existed at some time during the war, and engage in operations at ranges and patterns reflecting the specs of the aircraft in question.

Having just got into the game(s) (SH4 and Uboats expansion) I don't have nearly enough knowledge of the gameplay or files to make even any tentative conclusions. However, what I have observed suggests that the sim might well be modelling at a moderate degree of fidelity and your posting of this link supports that contention.

Do I understand correctly?

I've played a lot of War in the Pacific, which is a much more detailed and excruciatingly high-fidelity thing (and more soporific as well! :) ) and having done some modding for that game . . . I can tell you that . . . the task of modeling the air operations across the entire Pacific region for even ONE side of the conflict, much less two is enormous and complicated.

Based on that, I'm a bit skeptical that the SH4+Uboat pack models air operations at what I'd call a "high" much less "ultra" high fidelity.

For example, I've spotted zero aircraft some 2/3rds of the way between Midway and Tokyo. There were only one or two of them at a time and if they were carrier based I would be surprised. It is possible that they were from Kido Butai as it was on its way to invade Midway--the date in game was about right and I did get a message about "major naval engagement" a week or so later. However, if that was the case, then KB was loitering in the empty ocean between 2/3 of the way from Tokyo to Midway about a week before they actual Battle of Midway, which as far as I recall, does not make sense. For one thing, this was too far south compared to the route KB took. I didn't get a good look at the aircraft (and even if I did couldn't confidently tell the difference between a carrier-based model and the land-based model), but I'm fairly confident they were zeros not judys or vals and they WERE white (not green or gray).

Anyway . . . all this to say: how high of fidelity is the modeling of the air and naval operations in the game(s)?

Not very. They're "airplanes", and we try to get them to do right by real life, but since this is a sub sim, the devs apparently didn't put a whole lot into the airplanes. They are a resource hog anyway. Some mods do better than others in controlling the planes, but you'll find inappropriate planes in very strange places, with inappropriate bomb loads, and to top it off, they do not dogfight with each other, and at times, it can be difficult to get them to engage enemy vessels at even a semblence of reality... If you're going to play stock, you can try Webster's Better Air Patrols, or his Game Fixes Only mods. Most of the other major mods do tweak the airplanes in an attempt to get better response out of them. Over in the FotRSU thread, we were just talking about that very thing... :lol: We've had issues with planes trying to do a "touch-and-go" on Ford Island, and crashing...