SIX! New planes for IL2-GB announced!

[Flashy]

On 3/3/2026 at 4:09 PM, sevenless said:

Lots of content to look forward to in 2026. A-20G, B26B, B-25CD, FW-189, P-47M and P-39Q

Not even one new WW1 plane among them... that is sad... The FW-189 is the most interesting thing in that list for me because its quirky, but I was hoping they would at least make an effort this year to fill one of the many gaps in the WW1 plane set... guess not.. 

[Enceladus828]

1 hour ago, HarryM said:

Thought they were "too much work", now getting 3. AI lending a hand?

It could possibly be that they found a team that was capable of doing the task or some developers had free time to help out. Just because somebody says they got what it takes doesn't mean it's a guarantee, they first have to prove it. One possibility could is that work on the B-25 interior was started and it was only going to be that plane along with the P-47M and P-39Q but then realized the B-26 and Fw-189 could be done too. Better to wait until you know for sure what will happen than announcing something and then having to revise it.

[Avimimus]

41 minutes ago, Juri_JS said:

I've done lots of research on Eastern Front night fighting in the past and I don't think there is anything available. NJG 100 is one of the more mysterious Luftwaffe units anyway and there are many open questions. For example how two Ju-87 D-5s ended up in their inventory. Were they really hunting Po-2s with Stukas?

Yeah. I've seen it written that the Ju-87D-5's in these units were 'nags' used for liaison work. They would have made decent U-2VS hunters though - good turn rates, good visibility, good low speed performance, and the two 20mm cannons - they'd probably be slightly more effective than the Fw-58s used. I also find it interesting that some of the highest scoring U-2VS hunting aces were He-111 pilots.

But it appears there is no evidence the D-5 was used for this role intentionally (although other D-5 units could've opportunistically attacked U-2VS if they happened upon them during one of their own night harassment operations).

[Juri_JS]

11 minutes ago, Avimimus said:

Yeah. I've seen it written that the Ju-87D-5's in these units were 'nags' used for liaison work. They would have made decent U-2VS hunters though - good turn rates, good visibility, good low speed performance, and the two 20mm cannons - they'd probably be slightly more effective than the Fw-58s used. I also find it interesting that some of the highest scoring U-2VS hunting aces were He-111 pilots.

But it appears there is no evidence the D-5 was used for this role intentionally (although other D-5 units could've opportunistically attacked U-2VS if they happened upon them during one of their own night harassment operations).

Just found this information in Gebhard Ader's History of the German Nightfighter Force: 

Probably the strangest German night fighter type of all belonged to NJG 100 late in 1943: a Ju 87D-5 acquired by Hptm Schoenert to hunt the Soviet ‘runway crawlers’, the slow Po-2 biplane night harassment aircraft. Schoenert wanted his aircraft fitted with oblique armament, but it is not known if it was ever used operationally. In any case, Schoenert, who was transferred to Werneuchen late in December, did not fly it again, but ‘his’ Ju 87D-5 appeared on strength returns for some time afterwards.

Edited March 5 by Juri_JS

[Avimimus]

28 minutes ago, Flashy said:

Not even one new WW1 plane among them... that is sad... The FW-189 is the most interesting thing in that list for me because its quirky, but I was hoping they would at least make an effort this year to fill one of the many gaps in the WW1 plane set... guess not.. 

Yes. Although the really significant gaps are mainly mid-1915 to mid-1916 (Morane-Saulnier N and Fokker D.II come to mind - along with a couple of representative two-seaters for that era i.e. Caudron G.IV, Morane-Saulnier L, B.E.2c/B.E.12, LVG C.II or Albatross C.I). We could also do with an F.E.2 with a fixed forward firing gun, weaker engine, or swivel cannon.

For the rest of the war, the Airco DH.5 and Rumpler C.IV come to mind as the most significant - as well as a couple of important engine variants for existing types. Of course, there are some other interesting types (e.g. Nieuport N.12 & Hannover CL.II fighters, Voisin VIII night bomber - and who wouldn't want a Roland D.VIb?) - but it is hard to call them significant 'gaps'. The same goes for that strange oddity of 1916 that is the high performance Albatros C.V (it'd be fun... but it wasn't that significant).

Then there is Venice/Isonzo... of course. That'd be wild. I can't help but to imagine that they do Venice/Isonzo as the start of a 'third generation' of WWI... it'd keep the new product from competing with Flying Circus... quite unlikely, but one can dream dreams... can one not?

[AFKAMC]

2 hours ago, HarryM said:

Yes, A-26 was a hot ship. Was a funny bug in "MiG Alley" that they got mixed up and put the Marauder in there...

I also remember the wrong B-26 appearing in Rowan's Mig Alley. But Rowan weren't the only ones to get it wrong.

In Graham Greene's novel "The Quiet American", the main character rides along on a French bombing raid over Vietnam:

"The Gascogne Squadron possessed only small B-26 bombers — the French called them prostitutes because with their short wing-span they had no visible means of support."

...which is a reference to the Martin Marauder, not the Invaders that the French used in Indochina.

[Avimimus]

2 minutes ago, Juri_JS said:

Just found this information in Gebhard Ader's History of the German Nightfighter Force: 

Probably the strangest German night fighter type of all belonged to NJG 100 late in 1943: a Ju 87D-5 acquired by Hptm Schoenert to hunt the Soviet ‘runway crawlers’, the slow Po-2 biplane night harassment aircraft. Schoenert wanted his aircraft fitted with oblique armament, but it is not known if it was ever used operationally. In any case, Schoenert, who was transferred to Werneuchen late in December, did not fly it again, but ‘his’ Ju 87D-5 appeared on strength returns for some time afterwards.

That is a very interesting find!

Given the structure of the tail - I assume that the only place for the oblique armament would be in place of the gunner... which would be quite interesting. Obviously it lacks the documentation to create if it can't be shown to have happened... but it does potentially create good cause for using our existing unmodified D-5 as a night hunter.

@LukeFF - Is it possible to create a one aircraft squadron in the existing campaign system? 😄 Likely an irrelevant question as NJG100 doesn't seem to have been on any of our maps (I gather they were mainly stationed around the 'centre' of the Front? Never near Leningrad nor Odessa?) but still an amusing question!

[Catch]

1 hour ago, Flashy said:

Not even one new WW1 plane among them... that is sad...

It has been logged and underlined twice in my notebook of disappointment. 

46 minutes ago, Avimimus said:

and who wouldn't want a Roland D.VIb?

Anybody with even a remote modicum of class and taste I'd wager. There's only a few of us left Avi.

[Enceladus828]

51 minutes ago, Avimimus said:

Then there is Venice/Isonzo... of course. That'd be wild. I can't help but to imagine that they do Venice/Isonzo as the start of a 'third generation' of WWI... it'd keep the new product from competing with Flying Circus... quite unlikely, but one can dream dreams... can one not?

I’ll create a thread in the Korean section in the coming future but my guess is that they would start with the Italian Front with an Arras sector map to also fly the SPADs, Nieuports, Hanriot and Camel where they are most known and also include some well known German aircraft for what if scenarios over the Dolomites and Adriatic peninsula. Afterwards would be something like Galicia, Balkans, Palestine and then a complete Western Front.

[Koziolek]

14 hours ago, Asgar said:

love to see the bombers, but the „more engines than usual“ comment from a while back makes even less sense now.

Oh, I don't know. Six new planes, and only two with just one engine. It is absolutely "more engines than normal" when compared to other releases

[jokash]

33 minutes ago, Enceladus828 said:

I’ll create a thread in the Korean section in the coming future but my guess is that they would start with the Italian Front with an Arras sector map to also fly the SPADs, Nieuports, Hanriot and Camel where they are most known and also include some well known German aircraft for what if scenarios over the Dolomites and Adriatic peninsula. Afterwards would be something like Galicia, Balkans, Palestine and then a complete Western Front.

You fantasizing about all that - you cant even start the career other than in January

[LukeFF]

1 hour ago, Avimimus said:

Is it possible to create a one aircraft squadron in the existing campaign system? 😄 Likely an irrelevant question as NJG100 doesn't seem to have been on any of our maps (I gather they were mainly stationed around the 'centre' of the Front? Never near Leningrad nor Odessa?) but still an amusing question!

I think so - the Ar 234 unit on the Normandy map IIRC has only 2 planes.

[Avimimus]

56 minutes ago, Catch said:

Anybody with even a remote modicum of class and taste I'd wager. There's only a few of us left Avi.

They just haven't seen 'er!

By the way, I actually learned about the Roland D.VIb from the developers - it was one of the aircraft that was in development for what would eventually become Rise of Flight... (the other unfinished aircraft were the Rumpler C.IV and the Airco D.H.9)! We got the Airco D.H.4 (which is basically a D.H.9 - but the more historically important, if less visually pleasing, variant)... but still no Rumpler or Roland 😉 Except in our dreams.

Honestly, it is nice to have those two in my dreams! Silver linings to every cloud and all that...

S!

[T24_Martin]

GB ist auch a great game and it is getting better and better!

I would really love to see some technical improvements also. This game can live and extend over the next years. Maybe the developers find ways to implement some of the improvements of Korea.

Anyway I would even pay for GB again to transfer the GB series into the next gen level of Korea. Between all the flight sims, this is still my first go to.

[robzerg]

1 hour ago, T24_Martin said:

live and extend over the next years. Maybe the developers find ways to implement some of the improvements of Korea.

Hear, hear! I'd love to see even a few of the improvements ported over - especially the sound design & AI!

[AcesDarthBubu]

AI and comms!

[VISHNU]

I'm just happy for anything new, including these bombers!   The bombers of today,  in VR,  pale in comparison  to my very first flight sim, Intellivsion's B-17 bomber with Intellivoice!  I'm definitely feeling extremely old!! 😞

 

 

Edited March 6 by VISHNU

[MaxPower]

On 3/3/2026 at 7:30 AM, Vendigo said:

FW-189? Really? Already looking forward!  

And also backwards... and to the sides!

[FlyingShark]

The bombers, the P47M, the P39Q and the FW189, all great news, been hoping to get them for years.

 

Have a nice day.

 

🫡

[AndreiTomescu]

Guys, to put it straight (not my usual approach) : as long as there are enough of us keeping active (=payware) interest in GB, there are going to be reasonable add-on, maybe even slight improvements.

[Flieger]

I have been waiting for the P-39Q, great news. 

The P-47M is obviously not here for historical significance but performance; this is the way...

I hope the Fw 189 is a third party venture. It is nice and quirky, of course, it just not worth prioritizing over countless others (and I am not talking about 190/109 variants, or German planes for that matter).

 

On 3/4/2026 at 2:24 PM, FAW_Tromplamort said:

I would have hoped for a Ju-88G

Were they not all night fighters with radar?

The most advanced day fighter variant would be the R-2, basically a C-6 with better engines and armament. 

[Juri_JS]

On 3/5/2026 at 11:30 AM, sandmarken said:

The Fw 189 is going to be a lot of fun. I have been wanting a plane like it since we got the U-2VS for the Soviet side. This plane will be the perfect one for a scripted campaign. It will allow for unusual mission types. I have some ideas already. 😁

Over the past days I did some tests with the games recon/spotting mechanisms to see how well Fw-189 missions will work in the game. Photo recon and artillery spotting work fine, but I am not a fan of the games visual reconnaissance feature, which was the main mission type of the Fw-189. The feature works ok for stationary targets, but not for moving targets. Would be much better, if we could place markings of spotted targets directly on the flight map, with tools similar to those used right now for measuring distances. It would be great in multiplayer, if these recon results could be made visible for all player's of one side. 

And another suggestion for the devs:

Fw-189 crews had binoculars. It would be great if the binoculars we have in Tank Crew for commanders could be made usuable in the Fw-189.

 

 

[sandmarken]

1 hour ago, Juri_JS said:

Over the past days I did some tests with the games recon/spotting mechanisms to see how well Fw-189 missions will work in the game. Photo recon and artillery spotting work fine, but I am not a fan of the games visual reconnaissance feature, which was the main mission type of the Fw-189. The feature works ok for stationary targets, but not for moving targets. Would be much better, if we could place markings of spotted targets directly on the flight map, with tools similar to those used right now for measuring distances. It would be great in multiplayer, if these recon results could be made visible for all player's of one side. 

And another suggestion for the devs:

Fw-189 crews had binoculars. It would be great if the binoculars we have in Tank Crew for commanders could be made usuable in the Fw-189.

 

 

The artillery spotting script makes me seasick in VR. I tried it with the Hurricane Diaries campaign.😂😂

 

I saw an interesting video where a Fw 189 spots a target and then drops the location to an artillery crew as a note in a flare container. That type of mission can be made in the editor. I figured in a scripted mission, check zones, HUD messages, and marks on the in-game map would do. The player will be the pilot, and the radio officer/spotter will do the picture taking, noting positions, and so on. Using the Kuban or Leningrad map allows low flying in interesting terrain, doing different types of missions to showcase the abilities of the plane. Also what you did with the bf109 recon campaign taking pictures was pretty cool! 

I doubt it will be very interesting online, just like the u2vs it will be best used in heavily scripted campaigns.

Edited March 8 by sandmarken

[MajorMagee]

Binoculars in Tank Crew work great, except for when you are moving!

[AndreiTomescu]

2 hours ago, sandmarken said:

The artillery spotting script makes me seasick in VR

Yes, indeed, you've told me so, and i am wondering to what is this related, since another person, testing a campaign not dedicated, but containing several artillery spotting missions, hadn't this issue.

From a medical perspective it could be related to:

- eye perception

- the use of glasses (not contact lenses) with vr

- the particular vr model

- the fact that in artillery spotting mode the head moves are blocked

I'm asking myself this because I find this kind of missions very rewarding and historical accurate.

You can actually SINK a large warship with a tiny aircraft armed with 2 machine guns!

There is no match for 4-6 105 mm cannons in terms of firepower.....

The hole process of avoiding flak, even enemy fighters, while correcting fire from far away, taking into account target movement, observing splash area, anticipating future hits zones, well , i find this rewarding.

To have a campaign centered on such activities: I think it's gonna sell well.

What is a visual reconnaissance mission?