Most useless Airplane Upgrade

[madmickey]

Pick the most useless airplane upgrade?

[bilbow]

I vote for the KI54 Hickory

[rogueusmc]

The only upgrade I usually refuse to do is upgrade the better squadrons at the front from P-40 Bs to the E models. You lose too much range and the armament isn't enough trade to lose that range. All my backwater B models get upgraded to Es to maintain the pool for the Bs on the front lines.

[bbbf]

Sonia

[2ndACR]

KI54 hands down.

The Sonia has a smaller range and bombload, but has armor which will help save the pilots life.

[bbbf]

Might agree if Sonia's werer IJN, as IJA I don't have as many pilot problems.

So I still think the Sonia sucks.

[mogami]

Hi, The Sonia works from size 2 airfields. Also the Sonia is a tactical aircraft. It is not meant for anything other then helping the troops. In China when you don't have a large airfield the Sonia provides attacking power.
In the Pacific when you first land on small atolls the Sonia can provide local defense.
If aircraft cost points other then engines to produce you'd see more value in these little aircraft. Of course if I had my choice I'd change them to mary or Ann because these aircraft as just as easy to build in the game and operate from the same fields.
Prehaps we need to add supply cost equal to load cost when producing aircraft?

[marky]

ORIGINAL: bbbf

Might agree if Sonia's werer IJN, as IJA I don't have as many pilot problems.

So I still think the Sonia sucks.

i agree with that

playing Rising sun, it was DECEMBER

and my planes were kcnockin sonias out of the sky like they were shooting SAMS and not bullets[:D]

[rogueusmc]

ORIGINAL: marky


and my planes were kcnockin sonias out of the sky like they were shooting SAMS and not bullets[:D]

planes don't shoot SAMs...[:D]

[byron13]

ORIGINAL: rogueusmc

ORIGINAL: marky


and my planes were kcnockin sonias out of the sky like they were shooting SAMS and not bullets[:D]

planes don't shoot SAMs...[:D]

They do if they're on the ground.

I don't understand the P-400 to P-39 upgrade. As best as I can tell, they're the same, and it just keeps planes grounded while they upgrade.

[Barre]

Well, if I recall, the P-400 was slightly crappier than the P-39. Sort of like going from a Pinto to a Gremlin....still, love the way they look...

[madmickey]

P-400 was the export version of P-39.

[jwilkerson]

What is "local defense" ... protection from the natives

I'll stick with KI54 ... as the worst for Japanese ( I've only been able to be Japanese in other than short ALlied tests against AI ).

[BossGnome]

i absolutely agree for the Ki-54. Sonias, however, are far from crappy. You can get pretty damn good IJA pilots bombing those chinese divisions. And they're armoured. Therefore, late war (think okinawa campaign) you can have around 70 experience 80+ IJA pilots as Kamikazes, flying an armoured plane. (actually can IJA pilots be kamikazes?). Also, out of the many troop bombings I have done with Sonias, I have only lost 1 or 2 to flak.

[Gen.Hoepner]

Hopefully when 1.5 will be out those experienced sonias pilot could be transfered to more usefull Sallies. I like the sonias, just think there are too much of them around. if i had some more sallies or helens would be just great!

[freeboy]

The first 40 u[pgrade that cuts the range.... [:-]

[Nikademus]

F4U Corsair.

Its just too mean. [:'(]

[panda124c]

P-400 20mm gun
P-39 37mm gun

[Subchaser]

ORIGINAL: bilbow

I vote for the KI54 Hickory

I believe this is already forth time when I have to repost my old posting regarding Ki-59-Ki-54 issue. Hickory sucks only in WitP, in reality it was good small handy bird, while Ki-59 did never exist as operational aircraft…

… Ki-59 data is completely wrong, it’s not so hard to figure that out even if you don’t have sources with sufficient details.

Normal take-off weight of Ki-59 was 4120 kg (2954kg empty), Ki-54 – 3900kg take-off weight and 2954 kg empty. So Ki-59 has 1166 kg of load and Ki-54 has 946kg, not very big difference (220kg). Both aircraft were equipped with the same engines Hitachi Ha-13a (Ki-59) and Ha-13b (Ki-54), with identical fuel consumption characteristics (civil version of Ki59 – TK3 was equipped with Kotobuki-3 engines (610hp), but this a/c is not Ki59). The question is – how these additional 220kg (this could have been something else, not necessarily fuel) could give Ki-59 almost double endurance of Ki-54? I guess the answer is clear…

…in reality Ki-54 was able to spend more time in the air than Ki-59, poor aerodynamics and heavier weight of Ki-59 were the reasons why Ki-59 was almost 40 m/h slower than Ki-54 and had maximum range of only 800km (500 miles) with the same engines. Overall performance of Ki-59 was so poor that Koku Hombu ordered to stop production when only 59 a/c were assembled, these a/c never were in service with operation units, only flight schools and liaison detachments were using them in Japan and Manchuria until march ’42 when all a/c were transferred to Great Japan Airlines company…

…Ki-54 as it was pointed out was multifunctional design, very good aircraft if you’ll take into account that it was designed as a trainer, it’s impossible to model advantages of Ki-54 in WitP world… ability to operate from very short airstrips and exceptional reliability for example…

[herbieh]

Hey subchaser!

Everytime I see your avatars ( those cool pictures) I just drool.
Where did ya get em from!!!?