TB3 historic and game review...

[edfrancis001 1,224]

TB-3

 

Historical and game review

 

 

Morning chaps

 

Just a quick review on the TB-3 for those that did the Winter Magic cahllenges and received the bomber and fighters as goodies.

 

 

Background 

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The Tupolev TB-3 was a Soviet heavy bomber built and operated in the early 1930’s but saw service in diminishing roles until the end of WW2, it was the world’s first cantilever wing (anchored at just one end, no support struts for example) four-engine heavy bomber and set several world records for payload to altitude achievement’s.

 

 

 

The TB-3 was of an all metal construction powered by 4 × Mikulin M-17F V12 engines delivering 705hp each while the wings did not have self-sealing tanks the engine’s did have built in extinguishers.

Foe defensive firepower the TB-3 had 8 machine guns, with two mounted in the nose, 4 mid beam and two drop down turrets under each wing, the offensive payload of the TB-3 was its primary feature, it was able to carry an astonishing heavy load for its time with the record overload being set at 12,000kg of bombs.

 

TB-3’s avoided the worst of the initial losses when the Germans invaded by being stationed away from the front where the Soviets had been amassing there own war equipment and supplies for reasons unknown, they fought in all battles often flown by elite pilots.

 

 

Some of the more unusual activities the TB-3 took part in were mother ship activities, which are carrying an assortment of disposable war equipment, they were tested carrying light tanks into battle, paratrooper’s and even squads of I-15 fighters to launch in to battle and live operations were carried out in such configurations.

 

Overall an interesting vehicle and one that deserve a place in history…but

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Game review

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Sweeeeeeeeeet baby Zeus this thing is slow, there is something to be said when you start a game and watch PBY’s scoot past you! Now we’ve all been thinking that X or Y plane seems a bit sluggish, but this is something else, when looking though the bomb site the first time I had to press V a few times as I though the game was lagging or crashed!

 

 

make no mistakes, it can be frustrating when people in fast paced frantic games go AFK however in Alpine pass, I pointed towards the far minibase, and went to make a cup of tea, after the kettle had boiled and the tea simmering I realised I was still only a third of the way across the map, so went and fed the cat, and changed a load of washing over finally it was nearing the base, and yes i took it out in one salvo. Before slowly turning around to head for another, while wondering if I should put the hoover over en-route.

 

 

 

 A few games later and I’ve just about figured this plane out.

 

-At no point should you fly this thing below 5000m, keep that in mind, if you do dive then don’t even think of climbing back up, it can barely move in a straight line, so going up at an angle with low energy reduces its climb from 1m/s to about 50cm/s – so watch your height.

 

                                                                   

 

-Go for the heavy targets, not tanks and such, hitting from 5k is more luck, it can be done, but atypically while your bombs are in flight some supertard will be staffing the heavily armoured metal vehicles with MG’s making them scatter all over the place, and these days you got to hit pretty dam close to kill a tank.

 

-Pillboxes and Microbases are good – your 3 tons of soviet bombs seems to take out the micros in one hit, and pillboxes crumble into dust in seconds, you can take out a runway and it take about 8 passes, would have taken 5 at one point but they have a slight HP boost.

 

                                                                  

 

-Watch your 6! Being a new type of plane you can attract the attention of the odd plane who will fly out of his way to shoot you down, the 4 x 7.62mm machine guns are less effective than even 7.7’s at the moment are very inaccurate (and yes I have a fully maxed bomber on every bar) – don’t rely on them to save you.  – Incidentally this plane does not appear to have the turrets under the wings, but does have the engines of that model…so could do with a fix.

 

-It should not be even tier 1... no really it has no place at this tier, with the old system (RIP) it would have worked, but in the new system; it is often matched against IL2, SpitVB, Beau’s and a whole host of gribblys. With the SB2M’s and IL4’s it’s not such an issue, one can outturn or out dive; to avoid them, this really cannot do that, and for a large plane; it’s very weak. At tier 0 it would only fight Bi-planes or at least hard cap it to tier 1 in RB (much like WG have a tier cap, but would only work in RB due to the one plane rule)

 

 

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Bugs/glitches

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Spotted a few here, the rear guns really are below par, four 7.62 on a fighter such as a chaika make short work of most planes, or the gladiator, but on this they seem to do 0.01 damage, - F4F sitting on my tail without wobbling for 30 seconds yesterday, short bursts into him plenty of sparks and such but even he was amazed; typing that it had done no damage despite hearing bullets hitting his body. – No Lag or ping issues etc.

 

(The round itself is a 7.62 x 54mm round that weighs 11.3g when using AP-I or AP-T and each DA Machine gun has 600 rpm/60 = 10rps x 11.3g = 113g/s burst mass or 452g/s when all four firing backwards.

If we compare this to the I-15 with its four PV-1 Machine guns firing the same round at 750rpm/60 for 12.5rpm x 11.3g its 141g/s x 4 = 565g/s.

Barrel length, condition, temp, all affect this but I don’t think Gaijin take that into account.

So the I-15 has a ROF of about 100g/s more and can bring down planes relatively easily, but the TB-3’s guns really cannot.)

 

Secondly this thing has a wobble in flight, not sure what causes it, but it’s the same as the G5N1 that gets that weird wobble, when flying true and steady its starts doing a slight side to side wobble, that when viewed though the bomb scope causes the crosshair to go from left to right. Not a prob for large targets but annoying hitting pillboxes from 5k as I have to use the orange cross hairs and drop 2-3 bombs instead of 1.

 

– Not sure what or why, it feels like a RB flight model not an AB one, and it’s not down to the payload as this plane is by no means overloaded.

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Overall this plane is interesting to fly, particularly if you have something else to do at the same time, like playing a full game of chess, or watching the front lawn to spot slight tectonic shifts, if your used to SBM and their insane handling then this is not the plane for you. But it was free, and therefore I’m grateful to get free goodies. ty

Edited January 16, 2014 by edfrancis001

[Rautaa 5,801]

I think it's a fun bus to fly, and far more practical than the Po-2. The TB-3 is very fragile, so it might be better to fly it when people are no longer as interested in testing their guns on the new plane.

 

By the way, do you know what the gunners who occupy the baby seats under the wings did while their gondolas were retracted? Did they have some crawlspace through the wing to go make tea in the main fuselage?

[Remm_Duchax 11]

Nice review, haven't got the plane myself since I couldn't convince myself of doing so many missions again for some planes. Luckily this review's saying it isn't so useful heheheh  :Ps

[edfrancis001 1,224]

I think it's a fun bus to fly, and far more practical than the Po-2. The TB-3 is very fragile, so it might be better to fly it when people are no longer as interested in testing their guns on the new plane.

 

By the way, do you know what the gunners who occupy the baby seats under the wings did while their gondolas were retracted? Did they have some crawlspace through the wing to go make tea in the main fuselage?

Make tea! the damm thing is slow they could have cooked a three course meal, laid out the sliverware and composed some witty anecdotes to share over brandy before it gets to the target :P 

[Rautaa 5,801]

Make tea! the damm thing is slow they could have cooked a three course meal, laid out the sliverware and composed some witty anecdotes to share over brandy before it gets to the target :P 

 

Obviously, the wing gunners both cooked and served the meal, but only got to eat possible leftovers...

 

This reminds me of the XB-15, which had enough space for crew to operate in shifts, and wing tunnels with access to the engines. If the TB-3 had similar tunnels, you'd imagine they could have used the crawlspace for a similar purpose.

 

Then again, I have no idea how many crew members the ingame version of the TB-3 actually had. There are 7 visible crew stations, but they could have operated the aircraft with less, or more crew members.

[M0bius_One 60]

Having all 4 engines on fire at the same time is quite the spectacle, and with its top speed even in a dive won't put them out.

[Juiceter 2,284]

I use this all the time - it's a good troll plane, (except for when you come up against rockets, of course). Very useful bomb load (if you can get to where you are going, usually the airfield(!). The engines seem to be well protected. Doesn't like Buffalo hits for some reason (which seem to take it out far faster than most other a/c @ tier 1). But a good XP earner nonetheless.

 

The slow speed tends to work in your favour as you are the last to get targeted, but don't expect to climb or dive very fast - straight and level all the way!

 

I believe the wing gunners had a tube to get through to get into the fuselage. Would have been kind of cruel to leave 'em out there for the duration of the mission!

 

An interesting aircraft for buffs, with an interesting history (Soviet paras used to jump from it by climbing out and sliding down the back of the wings!).

Edited June 8, 2014 by Juiceter

[Zesphr 4,978]

It was better than the XF5F. that thing is over tired, has made up armament and still buggy

[Boz1995 1,681]

i remember the first AB match i saw one in. i took it down with an M.C. 200 in about 40 seconds. i was practically unscathed. he lost a wing.

[Juiceter 2,284]

Yeah, they seem to have done something to the TB3 that makes it very vulnerable to Buffalos etc...

[darkbud 1,223]

My TB-3 is broken because I cannot launch I-15s or I-16s from it.

[Juiceter 2,284]

... or slide paratroopers down its wings!