Sure this has been covered but don't remember seeing it mentioned .

Are there going to be artillery marking wing rockets and/or the ground attack rockets.

I know most people hate them but I love cooking some off in a dogfight to shake people up and distract them . Never have know any to hit any one .

But would be nice a long with bombs to attack other sides planes trying to take off in team games not malay.

The Entente used Le Prieur rockets for balloon busting and even against Zeppelins until improved incendiary bullets and the Vickers 11mm "balloon gun" made them obsolete:

Yves Le Prieur and his rockets here

I'm not sure if GT is going to include air to air rockets in the sim, as they were going out of regular use during 1917.

(VikS has researched them)

Would be fabulous for ballon-busting!

Hmmm, maybe not.

If you read the quotes on FR's link they could only be used at suicidally short range and even then they were very inaccurate. Its a shame because riding into battle with 10 monster bottle fireworks strapped to your vertical wing struts looks oh so cool. One for the true mentalist

http://www.ctie.monash.edu.au/hargrave/images/le_prieur_n11_1_rosebud_350.jpg

I don't mind suicidal, it is a sim, not real life!

I guess balloons would be the best target . Thanks for all the replies. In Red Baron once I flew in a straight line and let my brother try to hit me with a rocket to see what the effect would be . He must of shot 20 and never hit me. Again I guess you need a big slow target like a balloon . Were they ever used for ground attack like the D7 that had the slight downward firing guns for strafing trenches.

I don't think they were explosive, so for ground attack they wouldn't be much use. The idea seems to have been to tear/ignite the envelope of the balloon which being filled with hydrogen would burn quite easilly, something incendiary ammo seems to have done better.

Balloons seem to have been very valuable assets, a bit like an early AWACS. Because of their value they'd be protected by plenty of AAA, machine guns and possibly enemy fighters. Couple that with the fact that their ground crew would try to wind them in at the first sight of enemy fighters then they make a challenging target. I hope this is reflected in KOTS, although moddelling balloon crew AI to be sharp but not too sharp could be difficult.

Yes I remember hearing at the first of The Blue Max that they were sending him on a balloon busting misson and the commander telling George Peppard that it is an easy misson. Then later on History channel I found out just the opp was true .

Did they have rockets that were used for arterilly support or is that only WW2 , Viet Nam etc.

Know this most likely won't be in the game but I will hope for the future .

One of the best things I liked "The Blue Max" was seeing the pilot pull the trigger, the machine guns bouncing and shells ejecting to the sides . Really had that "Giving it to them proper " feeling .

Rockets wasnt exposive, as they where just tubes with cone and filled with black powder, so their purpose was to ignite hydrogen inside of balloons.
So i think they aint gonna be too effective against ground/planes.

Didn't the Russian's use scouts with 37mm automatic cannons? Didn't the British propose television guided cruise missiles in 1914? I wouldn't be surprised if rockets were tested in ground attack.

They were just big fireworks, not explosive and without any armour piercing capability. I can't see the point in firing them at anything but a balloon at point blank range. If we do get them in KOTS then it'd be nice for them to be as inaccurate as they were in rl.

Of course they'd be nice for gameplay but it'd be very unhistorical.

IMHO I hope we do not have rockets in KoTS. All that will happen is someone will "try" using them against planes, resulting in a online chat flamefest which will turn into a GT Forum Full Out Flame Battle.If we get them they will most likely be found on a "melee" server and of no practical use other than reducing the frame rates for the user and the pilots within eye shot of them. Of course they would be nice for Observation Balloon Busting (Not Zeppelin's) it will come down to the ROE and the Honor Code of the Knights of the Sky.

Plus as an added bonus we can sit and read the endless arguements on how the Le Prieur rockets balistics are porked and how they have historical data and photos outlining the damage and devasation inflicted by the weapons. haha

IF they are going to add them in the game I would hope they model the strut and wing catching fire when they are lit off. Canvas, wood and resin is very flammable That way the Pee-lot firing them has a chance of setting his own crate ablaze! As well there should be a delay after pushing the rocket fire switch.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8a/Nieuport_16_N976_with_Le_Prieur_rockets.jpg

S!

Taco

Flying is the second greatest thrill known to man... Landing is the FIRST!!

lol.. It's not even out yet and here we are predicting 'flame fests' online already... Gawd strewth, give me strength....(mumble, groan...)

I just want dibs on the online moniker of Wilhelm von Rammen when flying Hun.

Germans get parachutes later in the war!

@ Dart.

I shudder anytime I see von in a moniker... :P

I hope they have the rockets . Adds something to the game . Won't hurt frame rates .

I want a server option to turn them 'OFF', elsewise, you guys will be shooting each other down with the things instead of using them for their intended "historical" purpose. I want this as an optional ammo loadout, only for those aircraft types that historically used them, in the campaign builder so that I can assign 'specific' (dare I say - AI only) aircraft to balloon interdiction missions. I want the risk of using them set proportionally high - as in life threatening.

I they're modelled correctly you won't be able to hit another aircraft with them unless you're extremely lucky. Even hitting a large fairly static target like a balloon seems to have required dangerous point blank firing. They seem to have been very heavy and messed up the carrier aircrafts aerodynamics to boot, I can't see them being popular on df servers.

I hope we can have them in game, maybe in an after release patch?

Who knows what's truly historical . I'm sure they were used for purposes other than their original intentions. Happens to a lot of weapons. And if you read my original post you'll see where I said it's almost impossible to shoot down a plane with these things . Just like them for their distracking value . Sort of like shooting at someone even though they are out of range .

Just really hoping the game comes out at all.