Впечатления знаменитого летчика-испытателя Эрика М.Брауна об АВН.

[Пахомов]

Собственно,взято отсюда:http://ubbxforums.ubi.com/6/ubb.x?a=...1634#875101634

Приношу всем свои извинения за отсутствие перевода,катастрофически не хватает времени,как только смогу,иль ,может,кто возьмется?
Очень интересная статья,Браун-кавалер многих высших наград Великобритании,в прошлом военный летчик-испытатель,и его комментарии об игре вдвойне интересны тем,что он на самом деле летал на всех упоминающихся в ней(в статье) самолетах!



Here in the pages of The Aerospace Professional we occasionally review flight simulations for home PCs which are now getting ever more realistic and graphically rich. Widely thought to be a the pinnacle of WW2 air combat sims is Il-2 Sturmovik: Forgotten Battles (Il-2:FB). Developed in Russia with a team led by Oleg Maddox, the game has received rave reviews from PC gamers, pilots and critics alike for its immersion, attention to detail and rigorous flight models. But how 'real' is Il-2:FB? We asked a special reviewer - the renowned military test pilot, Captain Eric M. Brown, CBE, DSC, AFC, MA, FRAeS,RN, Past President of the Society, to evaluate some of these 'virtual' aircraft, the majority of which he flew in real life, from the Il2:FB and the Aces Expansion Pack and comment on what he found.

The Aces Expansion Pack builds on the earlier Il-2:FB and adds 29 new flyable aircraft, including four varients of the P-51 and Spitfire, biplanes such as the Gladiator and Fiat CR42, jets such as the YP-80 and He-162 and even oddities such as the Mistel parasite combination, Me-163 rocket interceptor and Bf109Z and Gotha Go229 'what-if' designs. Also included are seven new AI-only aircraft, three new theatres in which to fly and a host of new campaigns (offline and online) and single player missions.

For the review, we used a Saitek X45 joystick and throttle HOTAS system (RRP £69). This allowed us keep maximum hands on throttle and stick instead of hunting around on a keyboard - an important consideration with a highly complex sim like Il-2:FB where, if you select the highest realism settings, you will need to control radiators, flaps, tail wheel lock, mixture, prop pitch and other controls. A TrackIR2 head tracking system also shows off Il02's virtual cockpits to best effect and improves situational awareness.

Focke-Wulf Fw190A4

Starting out with the Fw190A4 as a 'base' model to fly we encountered some initial problems. Captain Brown commented that the torque in particular seemed over-modelled - kicking in straight away on low power settings when the real thing was a much more gradual experience. He also observed that the rudder seemed extremely sensitive in relation to the real thing which resulted in some unintended yawing, especially on take-off.
However, by trial and error, we re-calibrated the control settings so that their sensitivity was reduced considerably - bringing them in line with his recollection of the aircraft. The ailerons, he found, were particularly light and allowed the Fw190 to match closely its famous roll rate.
At height, he found that the Fw190 was extremely reluctant to lose speed with a closed throttle, staying at 380kn/h and Captain Brown felt that the loss of speed should have been more substantive. however, once we got to a lower height of around 1000meters and under, the speed seemed to drop off more quickly.
What about combat tactics for the Butcher Bird? "The Fw190 was best employed in the vertical - it could stay in a high-speed dive and then stay in one-third on a turn with a Spitfire IX before breaking off into a zoom climb," said Captain Brown.
Ilyushin Il-2 Sturmovik

The next aircraft to be tested was the Il-2 - the backbone of the Red Army's air units and the subject of the original game when it came out in 2001. After reducing aileron sensitivity to match Captain Brown's recollections, we got to a good replication of the heavy ground attack aircraft's handling - and a useful contrast between it and the lighter Fw190 fighter.
The view from the cockpit, which shows the large amount of armoured glass, was recreated exactly but suprisingly did not distort the vision in the real thing.
On the survivability of the Il-2, Captain Brown said: "It was not a particularly good aeroplane. The Russians were tactically naive - it was no wonder the German aces were able to run up such huge scores when there were big gaggles of 50+ Il-2s to attack. I asked Erich 'Bubi' Hartmann (352 kills) once if he had ever fought in the west - he said he had, he hadn't scored once, had been scared the whole time and thought himself lucky to have lasted a month - it was a whole different ball game."

Messerschmitt Me163B Komet

Captain Brown is one of the few pilots who have flown the Me163 Komet and thus is uniquely qualified to comment on and test the virtual Me163. For this flilght we had downloaded a 'skin' (or paint scheme) from www.il2skins.com by an author called Tchaika (where thousands of unofficial free skins made by fans are available for download) of Captain Brown's actual Me163 that he tested in 1947 from RAF Wittering during unpowered glide tests. Interestingly the US took two Me163s to be test flown the same way but never managed to get them into the air.
He noted that the aircraft needed a slight reduction in rate of roll - it being slightly too sensitive in that manoeuvre. After some brief tweaking we managed to get it 'pretty good' according to Captain Brown.
Take-off of the real Me163 needed extra-special care "like being in a runaway locomotive" and great attention had to be made to stop the aircraft "getting away from you." Tail-heavy trim of five degrees was used on take-off and for the explosive climb. In the sim, the aircraft certainly pitched up steeply when full power was applied.
Despite its fantastic speed the aircraft would never have gone supersonic. "It wasn't designed to and would have had compressibility problems," said Captain Brown.
Unfortunately a bug in the game (to be addressed in the very near future in a free downloadable patch) meand that a ground take-off with power (the "sharp start" according to Me163 pilots) does not work but, once in the air, Captain Brown was able to demonstrate the Me163's phenomenal climb rate - "Under four minutes to 40,000ft which, in those days, was unheard of."

Mitsubishi A6M2 Reisen (Zero fighter)

This early model of the Zero Captain Brown found to be quite accurate - interestingly for an aircraft that was the epitome of a 'turn' or 'angles' fighter he noted that the real thing's ailerons were nothing special - but our settings now seemed to have settled on to happy settings that gave good control harmony and replicated the 'feel' of the wartime aircraft as much as can be with a PC screen and joystick.
He recalled: "The Zero showed the Japanese design philosophy - attack, attack, attack. There was no armour of self-sealing fuel tanks. The cockpit canopy didn't even jettison in an emergency - the philosophy was once you got in - you were staying in until you either came home or got shot down."

Messerschmitt Bf110G-2

With a later fighter-bomber mark of the Zerostroyer (sic) Captain Brown found this to be 'pretty good' - we had evidently managed to find the sweet spot for the control settings. "In the Battle of Britain they were outclassed but made a good nightfighter." how would the Bf110 be fought? "Well, in the Battle of Britain they were used as escorts, flying level with the bombers and using the rear machine gun but they were also be used in a dive and zoom climb attack - one pass before making their escape."

Junkers Ju87D-3

Captain Brown found that the Stuka model handled well generally and tried some practise dive bombing attempts. However, the Ju87's dive brakes seemed to operate unusually - in the real thing the brakes 'locked' once they were deployed, according to Captain Brown, and it also had an automatic pull-out system that kicked in at a certain height and allowed the pilot to escape. However, the chilling sound of the Stuka's siren was replicated - which added to the immersion and the cockpit showed the dive angle etched into the glass at the side - a useful aid in performing the correct dive profile.