B17 & B24 COMPARISON

I am my squad's (the Haze) buff flight leader. When the B24 was released, I needed to know which plane was best for our purposes. I ran several very simple tests, all offline. Here are the results.

CLIMB/RANGE TEST

For this test, using the ATW map, I took off from F4 and headed North (0 degrees in turret). I stayed level (200 ft) and near 150 ias (about 75% throttle). As the plane crossed the first horizontal grid line, I started my timer, turned on auto speed, and went to 95% throttle (to simulate the lead of a formation). I took 12x 500 pounders and 30% fuel and .speed was set to 150 mph. The raw data is below each chart. I took a reading (in the nordon and on the map) every 5 minutes rounding to the nearest 100 feet and mile. At the end of the test, all buffs had slightly less than 10% fuel left.

Altitude Covered over Time

This shows that only the B17f lagged in ability to climb. Also note it shows the operational ceiling of the B17 lower than the B24.

Distance Covered over Time

Once again, all planes are pretty tight with the B17f falling behind.

DURABILITY TEST

I wanted to know how the buffs could take a bullet. This is more a test of survivability rather than testing for weak points (like a glass elevator). All tests ended with the explosion of the center fuselage. Note that this is not a true test of combat, as it does not simulate a con attacking from behind the plane (in general). What I did is take each plane and start it on the runway of a small enemy field. All starts were on the fuel end of the runway and all 4 acks started shooting (1 50cal, 2 20mm, 1 40mm). Each bomber was loaded with 20% fuel and 500 pound bombs, but I believe this is irrelevant. Below is the chart showing the time till explosion on 10 trials. Time was rounded to the nearest second.

Seconds till Explosion by Trial Number

	B17f	B17g	B24d	B24j
1	29	16	23	17
2	35	35	18	22
3	32	42	24	38
4	43	25	25	20
5	18	20	17	20
6	34	32	23	36
7	26	42	28	28
8	55	35	20	29
9	29	40	17	22
10	35	49	20	14
avg	33.6	33.6	21.5	24.6

This shows the B24 to be weaker than the B17, with the B24d being the worst.

SPEED

For this test I set the altitude in set-up and flew from F1 in the AWT map. I then steered the plane from 045 to 000 from the nordon. All the planes tended to completely level off about 300 ft above what I had set. I considered this irrelevant and it was consistent, so I left the alt where it settled. The buffs were loaded 20% fuel and 500 pound bombs. As the buff crossed the first grid line, I started my stop watch. This gave the plane some time to get up to speed. I then stopped the timer when it crossed the next grid line, travelling 1 grid length (20 miles).

Time to Cross 1 Grid Length at Altitude

time in M:SS altitude in ft.	B17f	B17g	B24d	B24j
15000	4:22	4:14	4:06	4:07
20000	4:14	4:00	3:56	3:56
25000	4:04	3:55	3:50	3:51
30000	4:06	3:57	3:51	3:52

The B24's were consistently slightly faster when compared to the B17's. If you figure 1 grid equals 20 miles, the 15000 alt data shows the B17g speed at about 283 mph and the B24j at 291 mph. A difference of 8 mph. Times grouped closer as the altitude increased.

TURNING

I wasn't quite sure how to do this. But, that didn't stop me from making up and running 3 tests. (hehe)

In the first test I approached a small base from 20,000 feet with throttle set to 75% with 20% fuel and 500 pound eggs as shown in this picture.

I wanted to know turn capability in the nordon. Coming from this angle, I was able to hit the marked ack and the hanger easily every time with all the tested bombers. Also, with all tested planes, I was able to hit the fuel and hanger on some runs, although this would knock the nordon off of green. Result: no significant difference between buffs. I am aware that I only tested a left turn here, but there are more tests to come

I ran the second test also from the nordon using the same set up. Maneuvering from here I went to full angle (immediately after hitting 'fly') and timed how long it took to turn 180 degrees. Both directions, and for ALL tested planes, it took about 30 seconds to get around while losing about 2000 ft in alt. No noticeable difference here either.

In the third test, once again with the same set up, I did all turning from the cockpit and with no rudder--ailerons and elevator only. I waited till the plane was up to 200 mph and then made my turn. I kept the plane at 20,000 ft in the turn and did many runs, taking the data from my best runs. ALL planes in BOTH directions took me 27 secs to get around in this test. However, I noted a difference in the final speed.

Speed (mph, indicated) After the "Flip"

B17f	B17g	B24d	B24j
160	170	175	170

The B17f lost a lot of energy in the turn, while the B17g and B24j did much better. The B24d was left with the most. Note that if you try this test yourself, I took my best times at getting around. I did not average and estimated the best as I could.

LOAD OUTS

This is no test, but is important when comparing these craft.

Number of Bombs per Loadout

	B17	B24
100's	24	20
250's	16	12
500's	12	12
1000's	6	8
1600's	6	8
2000's	2*	4

* includes 8 100's

The B24 has some great load out options in the 'big egg' department. The lighter bombs are pretty useless in the game.

SUMMARY

OK, remember, I did this so I knew what to fly when. Basically I have come to the conclusion that I will never advise flying the B17f to my squad, as the B24d is far superior in all but durability. I feel this weakness is easily made up for by its speed and climb in the early to mid war setting. However, I remain a fan of the B17g and will be using it for most missions. I can't totally rule out the B24j because of it's loadout for 1000 and 1600 pound bombs. There are some missions (like attacks on strat targs) when 2 more of these heavy ords is very nice to have.

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