RC Plane Bomb Drop

You forgot the dive part of a dive bomber. They dove nearly straight down to line up the target, dropped the bomb, and pulled out of the dive.

Great Video! Can I make a few pointers?
1) What you did was a Bombing Run. Not a Dive-Bomb. Dive-Bombers attack from 30 - 90 degrees from the ground. You need to dive from a higher altitude so you have a chance to pull up out of the dive. Your low altitude made you (rightfully) scared to actually dive.
--- Go from a higher altitude, and a higher angle. Make sure to pull up before you add to the ground's perfect KD.
2) You released the bombs after pulling up. That caused the bombs to overshoot. Of course, this is still possible if you didn't pull up, but because you were aiming directly at the target, if you were using the correct technique, it would have actually undershot.
--- Release the bombs before you decide to climb. Make sure you don't slam your plane into the bombs as you climb.
3) Your targeting was wrong. You aimed directly at the target at the beginning. This doesn't work because bombs typically do not have propulsion. This is why Bombers require specific crew members to launch the bombs when over the target. You didn't have that, so that was an issue. This doesn't really matter if you're in a dive bomber, because you are diving straight at an enemy, and so your bomb won't change its trajectory as much. However, as I stated before, your attack was too shallow to be a dive bomb.
--- Increasing the angle you attacked at will help with this, then just dial it in from there.
4) You had the wrong kind of aircraft. The Corsair was a VERY good aircraft, with its ability to be a fighter and some sort of a bomber. However, it was actually mainly a fighter aircraft, and while its bombing capabilities were limited, its dive-bombing was even worse. Unlike most dive-bombers, it had a maximum dive-bombing angle of 60 degrees. Not bad, but no where near the levels of purpose built dive bombers. Also, maybe using an RC plane with an airbrake might be a good idea.
--- Might want to buy a RC Stuka, or another RC purpose built dive-bomber. Also, when landing, I would say to try and keep the darned thing level, before gently touching the rear wheel down, though by the looks of the ground there, it might be impossible. Also, make sure the weight distribution is comfortable. You need to have control at all times in order to survive the dive. Maybe take a look at RC planes with airbrakes.
And that all my advice! Good luck with your next project!

You were flying like you had guided missles haha. You gotta dive at nearly 90° to the horizon. Awesome video.

Btw, that was no dive bombing. To dive bomb, stall the plane and literally dive to the target. After dropping, pull up ASAP.

My step father flew the Corsair (UK Fleet Air Arm) and said that practising dive bombing during training was the most terrifying aspect. They had to dive at a steep angle carrying a heavy bomb, of course. His fear was regarding the release mechanism that could malfunction, delaying release or even not releasing at all. You have to understand that the plane is actually heading towards the ground "over weight" and is physically incapable of pulling out of the dive if the bomb doesn't release! He definitely didn't have the mindset of a kamikaze pilot and genuinely felt that he may dive directly into the ground and be killed each time he had to do it.

The coolest part of this video was the wash from the plane wings making a swirl in the dust on the final run. Great stuff!

Project air brightens my British spring day even more.

for practice try playing war thunder sim battles and learning how to drop bombs from a fighter. It is quite difficult. here is a quick tip if you dont want to do that. come in from a steep angle, line up the gun sight with the target, and release right as you pull out of the dive. Also for some constructive criticism, try to keep your distance from the bombs. if this was irl the plane would have been destroyed by the close proximity to the bombs, but well done on hitting the target. This is exactly the kind of content we want.

Aircraft specifically designed for dive bombing eg JU87 Stuka had angle indicators so the pilot could fly the correct dive angle. These could be as simple as lines marked on the side of the canopy that, when lined up with the horizon, would tell you the dive angle.
These aircraft also had speed breaks to significantly reduce airspeed in the dive giving the pilot far more time to line up the target and dive angles correctly.
You’re probably going to need a form of both of these to be successful

Interesting fact about scaling things down is that as you scale down the size, in order to get the physics right you also have to slow down the time in order for it to approximate a real world annalog, so the fact you were able to hit the target at all is a true mark of how good your flying skill is. Had you been in a real plane, you would have had more time to react and therefore likely been more accurate. Well done sir!

Ironically, it would have probably been easier to line up, but more stressful to actually dive straight down on the target, like they did it back in the day.

What makes dive bombing effective is the accuracy and that accuracy is gotten from the technique of diving at a steep angle( about 60 to 90 degrees). Maybe you should try that next time

I like that its a corsair and that ive been thinking that a video like this would awesome for the longest time.
Btw your barely dive bombing thats more like scaring them instead of detroying you keep a decent altitude so that you could dive basically pointing your nose straight down over your target then drop your bombs when your sure you got 'em and pull up immediately after that so you dont crash into the ground.
Your bombing like a traditional bomber, one with its own sight but it doesn't have one.

Just a few notes about how we used the real F-4U-B in Korea (There were a few minor differences between the bird cage Corsairs and the bubble top Corsairs). We had two diving modes: either flat, which we used for skipping napalm into caves which the North Koreans had whittled out of the mountains so that they could drive a tank into it, then pop it out of any one of a number of places to take pot shots at our ships, after which they'd drive back in, and eventually pop out somewhere else. The ships' guns could never get a firing resolution before the tank when back in. They'd call for us to skip napalm into the cave system. We were flying off of the USS Coral Sea. When we'd get over the site, it was easy to see where the tanks were driving in, but not where they were popping out to fire on the ships in Wonson Harbour, so we decided just to skip a couple of napalm pods into the entrance. We came in maybe 50 ft above the ground, flew straight at the mountain, dropped the napalm pods and at the same time pulled up, and turned out to the right so that we wouldn't fly into the mountain, and all of a sudden there were flames exploding from everywhere. We managed to swat that fly, and there were no more pot shots taken at our ships in Wonson harbour ever again.
The other mode of bombing which the Corsair used for bombing was a steep dive bomb. Dive bombers, of course, use a very steep, nearly vertical dive to line up on their target, dive in, and release their eggs, then pulling up to avoid crashing into the ground, or being hit by their own blast or shrapnel. Dive-bombers needed dive brakes to keep from speeding up to the point that it ripped off the wings and other important structures. Though the Chance-Vought Corsair didn't have dive brakes per se, the manufacturer had build in a way to break the dive without the use of dive brakes such as aircraft such as the Douglass Dauntless had. In the F4U Corsair, if you pulled the dive brakes lever, it would drop the inboard flaps fully, and would also lower the front landing gear without twisting them around like they do when deploying for landing. The panel which covered the upper most part of the gear formed part of the dive brakes, and the drag caused by the un-turned wheels worked as further dive breaks. Often times the bombs were on the wings, but if we had to carry the big 500 lb bombs, we either carried them as a pair under the belly directly under the pilot, or we carried just one on the belly just under the cockpit. Loading two 500 lb bombs was really rare, and was saved mostly for bunker busting operations. If we were bombing something like a tank out in the open (rare during the Korean war) or a factory or some light emplacement, or maybe a bridge, we'd have smaller bombs loaded on the wings. Sometimes we even had rockets as our load-out. Those were under the wing. we could fire them singly, or in rapid succession.
So, smaller bombs, climb as high as your bird can go without losing control of it, then point it straight down at the same time as you deploy your dive breaks, then make minor adjustments as you proceed in the dive, then when you are about two thirds down from your starting altitude, and when you feel you are lined up, deploy your bomb, and at the same time pull out of the dive. If your plane is anything like the real thing, it will want to literally jump back up now that it's free of the weight of the bomb.
During World War II dive bombing was used mostly against Japanese shipping. The North Koreans didn't have much in the way of ships, and what few they had, our combined navies quickly converted into submarines with un-closable hatches in the sides an below the water line. For some reason that didn't work out real well for them. Every now and then they'd send a junk or a sampan out, but they didn't usually make it very far before there was nothing other than bamboo wood and splinters on the water, some of which was on fire.
I might have one of my old F4U operator's manuals around somewhere, and if you think you might continue this project, and if you think you might find it useful, I dig around in some of my old duffle bags and lockers and see what I might be able to find for you. I'd need to know a place where I could send it to, and I don't know how we'd go about exchanging mailing addresses without getting our names snapped up by every broker on the dark web. Maybe you'll have some ideas about that. I'm pretty old, and I feel I'm doing pretty well just navigating RUclips. This is miles away from any of the aircraft I ever flew.

That's exactly what my brain thinks when seeing rc plane
Hats off

Love the wake vortex left behind the plane showing in the bomb dust at 19:53. Awesome video as always, I've always wanted to build a ketchup rc bomber as a kid haha

"Dive" bombing without the dive part.
Even the most cursory research would have told you that dive bombing trajectories were around 80 degrees - nearly completely vertical.

Gotta dive when dive bombing. Also if you intend to have multiple bombs, consider making them smaller and mounting them further out like the actual F4Us. Otherwise keep it clean with one large one in the center.

What's next?? Torpedo run on your aircraft carrier!
Top content as always, thanks for your time and effort, both of you!

James, I love this channel and what you do, but this episode truly hit home as I’m a huge WWII aviation fan, especially aircraft that are powered by the Pratt & Whitney R-2800 Double Wasp engine, like the Vought F4U Corsair; the P-61 Black Widow and the F7F Tigercat being my favourites… what an engine! An absolute beast! Anyway, slightly away from what you’ve achieved here, however the sentiment is still there. Loved this, mate. Thanks. Well done.👊🏻😎

19:00 Another tip from a pilot to an RC pilot: try setting up the FPV system on a trainer style aircraft and mastering takeoff and landing that way first. Using the FPV camera for taxi, takeoff, and the whole landing, just like the actual pilots did. That way you don't have as much risk of a stall-spin on landing.
Also not being able to see where you're going over the engine cowl is a design "feature" of those planes. You taxi them by swerving in an S pattern by using the rudder to steer.
Also for taxiing a tail dragger remember to keep full nose up on the vertical stabilizer and always keep the windward aileron control away from the wind. It'll help a LOT with not flipping over!
Also, maybe consider making a rig with a joystick, throttle, and rudder pedals. Having the greater precision available from longer control travel will probably help out a TON with the précision flying feats you're trying. Plus you'll be seated and more stable.

Great job on the release mechanisms and bombs! The Eflite Corsair isn't happy unless it flips on take-off and generally if it doesn't, it will try again on landing!

Brilliant work, James! Nicely done!!! 😃
Stay safe there with your family! 🖖😊

This looks super fun to do. I never considered how limited some of those pilots were... I always assumed they had some kind of bomb sight on the bottom of the plane.
I think it would be amazing to use one of the FPVs that can do head tracking. That coupled with a gyro to stabilize it in the wind could give a more 'realistic' experience.

Great job hitting the Tiger I, but the Corsair did dive bombing where you pretty much dive straight into the ground to bomb the taget. I also believe that the Corsair has dive bombing sights. Also when you hit the tiger I so low to the ground, you would have blown you wings off and filled your plane with shrapnel.

That little plane is the MVP of this channel.

I had an idea of making an in flight rocket launch, meaning that you launch a rocket from a plane midflight. I think it could be a fun challenge to try out! Love the videos!!! ❤❤❤

Definitely more Emma needed. :)

I own one of the E-Flite Corsairs myself, and compared to some of my other RC planes, it’s definitely a challenge to take off and land. The RC club field I fly at has a grass runway that is maintained to a standard that would make a golf course maintainer blush 😋, but the grass doesn’t have to be very long to trip the Corsair up. 😱
I usually roll the plane back & forth a bit to flatten the grass for a few feet before starting the takeoff roll. Before I open the throttle. I automatically hold in some right rudder, then (using the takeoff flap setting) VERY GRADUALLY bring the throttle up, preparing to reduce it quickly if I see the plane starting to nose over. Once I see the tail come up and the plane seems to be rolling quickly enough, I open the throttle fully & she’s off the ground quickly.
I noticed that your aileron response seems “twitchy”; I would increase the aileron exponential setting.
A BIG reservation I had in buying the Corsair was losing orientation on it if was far away due to the color scheme (but my late father was a mechanic on the real ones with the USMC in the Pacific during WWII, so wanted one for that reason!); so although I’ve flown RC since the 1990’s, I set up the “SAFE” function. This saved the aircraft on an occasion when I lost orientation when turning from downwind to base preparing to land. I hit the SAFE switch to ensure I was wings- level, then nailed the throttle and pulled up to do a go- around and landed safely. I also use the takeoff flap setting for both landing and takeoff. Using SAFE might be a good idea for when you’re trying to get your FPV goggles on.
Interesting project that I’m considering trying myself! 😉

Time to build an rc airplane which will survive a crash. Well, at least bounce off when you make a crash like in the second half of this video. Maybe surround it by strong thin cage. Or that the plane easily falls apart in pieces (wing, rudder, etc...), but easily snap back into place with magnets. Edf would be less vunarable that a prop. Would be more fun to fly for beginners. Anyway, good luck with the next project 👍

Great work, James and Emma!
Congratulations : )

You always make what's left of my inner child very happy. Thank you.

17:31 A proper 2-axis gimbal and taking off gogs down is definitely the way to go, and moments like this are precisely why I fly FPV from roll-out to engine stop. I don't take off line-of-sight and then go FPV and I don't switch from FPV to LOS mid-flight unless I have a video failure mid-flight.

What a fun project! Love it!

You two did great!

Very cool! I bet you have a better understanding for how difficult it is to land bombs! However, I hate to tell ya, your plane would've been toast, as well! The height you dropped those bombs at would've shredded your plane in the explosion.
Really makes you appreciate bomber pilots that much more, when you know what all they have to deal with

Interesting! Knowing the speed of the aircraft, it's altitude, and the gravitational acceleration (along with the weight of the bomb), you should be able to approximate the glide distance of the bomb once released. Then, set up a small camera looking down and forward and then set the forward angle according the the glide distance of the bomb. When you see the target in the center (you could use a cross hair reticle), bombs away:) Too bad they don't make a WWII bomb targeting calculator on a chip! A simpler approach might be to go vertical above the target, stall, and release the bombs. Great project!

production quality is stellar on this :) nice job!

First off - this is awesome and also a dream I had from a kid. Of course, I was a kid in the 70's into the 80's and tech wasn't what it is now. Your design of the bombs was ingenious. Loved it!
Now for the critiques/suggestions: The F4U Corsair was NOT a dive bomber. It was designed to be a fighter and was darn good at it. It did see some air-to-ground action, but that was not its primary role. The SDB-3 and SBD-4 Dauntless aircraft were the Navy's dedicated dive bomber. Without these aircraft and their pilots of absolute nerve and commitment, the war in the Pacific might have been much different. Try to get your hands on one of those you can fly and ensure the air brakes work. Reduce the size of your bombs by around 50%. Instead of low altitude strafe bombing, you will actually be able to dive bomb. You will have to figure out your lowest point in the dive where you can still recover, but that's what practice if for. I'll impatiently wait to see if you try this. If you do, use a mock up of a WW2 enemy carrier as the target just to increase the immersion factor :^)

20:10 8 Attempts is really good for even the standard kind of torpedo bombing run you're doing. I think the normal accuracy was about 18% for the military pilots of WWII. Of course, you weren't being shot at so that helps a lot, but still, for training getting success in 8 tries with no airspeed indication, altimeter, climb rate indicator power indicator, directional gyro, turn coordinator, or bomb sights is pretty good.
If you do build a "cockpit rig" to fly from maybe also consider adding an Arduino and a gyroscope, g-meter, pitot-tube, static-tube, and compass so you can have some gauges to use too! It would be a very cool project!

19:48 Nice vortex from the wings!

Your videos are BLOODY LOVELY

Idk why your comments are so negative, I didn’t think your dive bomb was a real dive bomb, but I didn’t expect the comments on it to be so numerous
and some of them are straight up mean
For what it’s worth I think it’s a great video, maybe deserves a second attempt, but really well done
GOD Bless, mate🙏💙
stay safe and keep it up 👍

Gotta give Emma 7 tries and see who is closest. Great video.

Bombers actually dove down at its target more than they did fly bye. So higher angle of attack would be better. More straight down. Great video.

2:00 I love how you immediately hit the exact same take off challenge that every WWII pilot had: the engines created so much torque on the flight surfaces when the plane was at full power it became unstable and flipped over on takeoff. I Think it was like 20% of pilots wrecked that way before they adopted the T-6 Texan as their transition trainer because the WWII warbirds were so over-powered relative to their flight control effectiveness. On rough fields they'd often have to take off at lower than full power (Climb Power) or 125% power (War Emergency Power), so 75% to 85% was takeoff power, and then 100% was climb power. So lighter on the throttle now that you've got that rough slip stream under the wings from the bombs.

Landing tip: war birds like that usually don’t like to go slow, so keeping a good amount of throttle, and cutting it as you land. Also if you have a cross wind, you dont use the flaps. Hope this helps!

You need a steeper dive angle for better accuracy... maybe build a dive bomber model with deployable dive brakes? Would be an interesting video!

Dang, strong little plane. Thanks for sharing!

I have been watching your channel for a long time and every video is like a new pleasant discovery. Thank you very much!☯🐯🧀

Great fun job guys.👍

just came across ur channel, And now i hooked. Ive never personally had a rc plane but this seems like a great job!

Awesome video! Would love to see a Ju-87 Stuka version with the mandatory Horns of Jericho!

Being honest, from every single clip of training footage, video, video game, and even video game simulation (not as accurate, I'm aware), a general rule of thumb always seems to be that you should drop a bit earlier than when you think is a good spot. I always try to guesstimate the rough trajectory the bomb is going to take when I'm flying any plane with bombs in any simulator or video game, and it personally helps a LOT.

For this type of bombing run I think you should make a bunch of smaller bombs that drop in sequence so its like a strafing run. I have seen war movies where they drop tons of bombs at once. Maybe not with this plane though.
I think you should have a collab with another RC channel or just get some friends together and have some mini war game competitions.
Fun video. :D

Beautiful build and flight
The ants are gonna thank you :D

Next time maybe not use an F4U as a dive bomber and instead a proper dive bomber? Great video tho 🎉

Dude you rock again.

I had the same idea about the bombs but couldn't get to do it. Glad someone had the same idea and concept. Also, I think you should make an airstrip, perhaps a portable airstrip if it's possible

Having read lots over the years I believe the way it was done was a fairly steep dive followed by a pull up and when the target went under the nose and couldn't be seen the bombs were released. Just a thought, epic effort.

What happened to Magnus part 2?

Well done on hitting the target, but had this been real, the plane wouldve been blown up by the bombs too. Or the bombs wouldnt explode as they hadnt fallen far enough to arm.
Not wanting to be negative though, one of the best videos yet!

WAITING FOR THIS FOR SOO LONG THANK YOU!!!!

I love this miniature war concept and I especially love the f4u Corsair that has got to be my absolute most favorite world war II warplane

👀 ad was smooth af didn’t feel like an ad really loved it

The F4U Corsair is my all-time favorite World combat II aircraft, and I adore this tiny combat concept in particular.

Fun how the aircraft ends as damaged as the real ones but without any enemies :D

please do a video where you get two first person tanks that actually shoot. or actually hit the tank

Awesome video! Might could try a different version with an R/C B17 doing a carpet bombing style run, definitely want to see the tank get decimated lol. Love what you do and can't for each video to air keep up thd awesome work!

My Father would have loved this, unfortunately he died 24yrs ago. He really enjoyed rc but more importantly he flew an F4U in combat during WW2 including lots of troop support in the pacific and PNG so dropping bombs and strafing runs several things I remember was he said the aircraft flew allot better coming home because the bombs were carried externally like you did so severely affecting flying surfaces also weight. The other thing he said was the change in airspeed when firing the 6 x 0.5 brownings.

Seems like youve got a redemption video to make! Still really enjoyed this one and i love these projects you do.

Dude I swear you still have like 20 projects we still haven't had a part 2 of. Stop starting new projects and finish the old one's 😂.

The solution for precision is a GNSS guided gliding-bomb. As far as the payload is concerned, sugar or flour can not be considered as military material.

I’m only at the start of the video, but I would suggest putting a little hole in the back so when they drop their release like whatever you’re going to put in it like flowers or something

I had a friend like that once Emma, I had to watch him play with his toys all day. Didn't get to try any of them.

Suggestions -- as mentioned by others, use a steeper angle of attack [+70 degrees], start with higher altitude so the sight picture is stable over a longer time, and slow the speed of the aircraft [WWII dive bombers had huge flaps].

The F4-U was a DIVE bomber
You go into a dive high above the target then drop the bombs.
Only later in Korea with minimal air resistance and being very outdated did the corsair level bomb with napalm.
Also the nose on a corsair should taper and be longer, which helps with visibility.
Lastly that's a pz6 or Tiger 1,one of the most over rated tanks of ww2 beloved of wheeraboos, but a miss like that last one wouldn't have done more than track it. The max bomb load I've ever read of was 4000lb, with one centerline 2000lb and 1000lb under each wing. Now that makes a big boom and could absolutely shatter poor quality German steel particularly later in the war, but I don't think 2x1000lb would destroy a pz6 without a direct hit, note that means within metres for practicable purposes in WW2

You got to drop the bombs before you get over the target 🎯 cause the enursha it's a timing thing but great job flying that corsair 😊

Awesome job you two.😊

I love seeing another ProjectAir film "drop"...DROP! right!? ...see what I did th... nevermind. Question: Have you settled on a name for the second channel yet? Im torn between "Flight Vlog" & "Stop... Hanger Time". When can we expect you to make you decision Emma? Oh and be sure to pass on our thanks to James for his contribution, tell him I'd recommend the Einhell GC-GR 57. 😘 Nothing but love

You guys are amazing, really cool achievement. But Ema never gets to fly, I would love to see her do that to

Some of the WWII aircraft used as dive bombers also had a periscope optic as an alternate to the regular gun-sight. There would be some kind of long tube or hump that would go to a window on the engine cowling. That would give a better sight angle over the long nose on the plane. So if there's trouble with the aiming line from the "pilot seat" location, you may need to compensate in the way the real aircraft did.

Great video, nice shot!!

21:03 Yep! And ya picked possibly the most difficult to land, difficult to fly, and aerodynamically temperamental plane to do it in. Seriously, my grandad was one of the few navy guys to test on the Corsair for carrier operations and he had over 500 carrier landings by then and even on the good weather day it was a beast for him.

Great stuff !! Wunner if a gyro on the ailerons might've further helped aiming accuracy on the bomb run.

Awesome bro 😎 thanks for sharing

I reckon that a future video will be of the dam busters. I’d love to see that done in FPV on an RC Lancaster

This is one of your best videos yet, love it

That is awesome! Way better than playing Xbox or Playstation lol! Not a couch potato!!!!

They also had a second person for the drop during that time so pilots can focus on flying 😮

I really enjoy watching your videos. These projects look like so much fun 😀

Great video and amazing Corsair !! Maybe a torpedo run next on your battleship ?

That was more of a bombing run than a dive bomb, you need to stall at the target and pull up near the ground to call it a dive bomb

Never throw any bombs on a good Tiger tank!!!! ☝️☝️☝️☝️☝️

Good luck! WW 2 pilots had a system where they knew, what angle,what speed,when to drop, and when to pull so they don't explode too

20:36 "We're going to do a victory roll!"
For God's sake, Jamie, give your brain a chance.
-
Lots of fun, this vid. Certainly shows why the fast slippery Corsair was used in low-level shallow and glide bomb attacks, while a true dive-bomb attack needed the special features of planes like the Dauntless, with lower speed and dive brakes being chief among them. Of course, a good steep dive in the 60-80 degree range kind of means a bomb trapeze is wanted too - so you'd only have the single bomb to carry.
Dive-bombing; what a challenge, eh?

Love from India ❤ bro
I like your videos ❤😊

I'm not entirely sure what it's called in English but you need a different 'input level graph'.
Like, right now it's a straight diagonal line with how much input you're giving to how it is setting the servos but if you set it to an exponential line you'll get more fine control at a larger stick movement range when flying FP.
But you still get the maximum range when you need it. Basically you dampen your inputs up to a certain point.

You were attempting glide bombing. I suggest you try high(er)-altitude dive bombing at a steep angle (70% or so)....

Try smaller bombs and place 4 under the wing and drop 2 at a time. The Corsair was a dive bomber so do a more direct angle like 80 degrees.